Cable industry may move court over CAS 'delay'

The Centre has announced a committee to evaluate the success of CAS.

The cable industry is gearing up to take the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) to court over what it says is a "deliberate" delay in the further rollout of conditional access system (CAS) in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

The move is significant as the ministry has announced its intention to set up another committee to evaluate the success of CAS in areas where it has been implemented. The committee is likely to submit its report by December.

"Why set up another committee on CAS when two such reports are already with the ministry? If this is a delay tactic, we may go to the Delhi High Court again," said a senior executive from the cable industry.

CAS came into effect in parts of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata from January 1 after the Multi-System Operators (MSOs) Alliance approached the Delhi High Court, which gave a ruling in its favour. The alliance is an association of cable distribution companies like Hathway, InCable and WWIL.

Under CAS, consumers get the choice of watching digital-quality channels via a set-top box and pay for only the channels they subscribe to. It was implemented in south Delhi, south Mumbai and south Kolkata from January 1 and was to be expanded to the rest of the areas by the end of the year.

So far, two positive reports on CAS, one by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and the second by engineering consulting firm BECIL, have been submitted to the ministry, sources say. However, the report of a survey by a consumer organisation, VOICE, recently said CAS was a failure in south Delhi and its expansion should be stopped till corrective measures were undertaken.

"We cannot ignore reports that some consumers are unhappy with CAS. The proposed committee will study the impact of CAS and make recommendations," said a senior I&B official.

However, the cable industry and MSOs see the step as a tactic to stop the expansion of CAS in the three metros and its subsequent rollout in another 55 cities.

"Even the I&B minister, quoting Trai's report, conceded in Parliament that CAS has been a mixed success. Another committee means CAS may or may not be rolled out, which will adversely impact our business and investments," said a senior executive of the MSA alliance.