Cable TV bills set to go up in CAS-II

Consumers in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai may have to shell out up to 50 per cent higher monthly cable bills in the second phase of the roll out of the conditional access system (CAS), which may come into effect within this year.

Cable operators have demanded a revision in the pricing of free-to-air channels from the current Rs 100 (Rs 77 plus taxes) to Rs 135-150 in their submissions to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for the second phase of CAS.

According to the Trai order for the current areas that have CAS, consumers have to pay a minimum of Rs 100 for watching free-to-air channels while all pay channels are priced at Rs 5. If Trai revises the pricing, consumers will end up paying more for the 80-odd free-to-air channels, increasing their monthly cable bills.

"Trai is likely to retain the Rs 5 cap on pay channels, while it may increase the pricing of the basic free-to-air channel bouquet for the second phase roll out," an industry source said.

In 2003, Trai had set a price of Rs 73 for the package of free-to-air channels, which was later revised to Rs 77, keeping inflation in mind.

According to cable operators, the Rs 77 for a free-to-air bouquet of channels was based on the network that existed in 2003.

"We have worked out an amount of Rs 180 per subscriber as cost of operating a cable network. Cost of operating a last mile cable network as Rs 77 per subscriber is being wrongly perceived as the cost of the free-to-air package. Trai should look at reviewing the pricing of free-to-air channels in a more realistic manner," said Roop Sharma, president, Cable Operators' Federation of India.

Cable operators also expect Trai to include carriage fees in the revenue sharing agreement between the multi system operators and the local cable operators in the second phase of CAS.

For the first phase, Trai has allowed the multi system operators to pocket the carriage fees.

Carriage fee refers to an informal mode of payment made by broadcasters to multi system operators for carrying their channels in a specific city or area.