Parliament today cleared the amendment to the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act, 1995, paving the way for the implementation of the conditional access system (CAS)-based cable TV distribution in the country.
The Rajya Sabha today approved the Bill, while Lok Sabha had cleared the Bill earlier this year.
The information and broadcasting ministry has also called the meeting of cable operators and large multi systems operators (MSO) tomorrow to discuss issues relating to the implementation of CAS.
However, the passage of the bill opens another question of who would fund the change over to the CAS systems from the present systems prevailing in the country.
Implementation of CAS system would require investments to the tune of atleast Rs 5 lakh to Rs 15 lakh at the cable head end and the customers would need to buy a set top box costing Rs 5000.
Cable operators, who have been one of the strong supporters of the bill however cautioned that the implementation and roll out of the systems is the key issue.
"The implementation will take at least 6 months and the roll out in the initial phase is happening only in four metros. Satellite television channels should not increase the pay channel prices in the interim," said Vikky Chaudhry, president, National Cable and Telecommunication Association, said.
With this bill, the government is meeting a long standing demand of the broadcasters and multi system operators asking government to take steps to prevent under declaration by the cable operators.
The CAS system would allow the customers to subscribe to channels using a set top box and pay only for the channels he watches.
In the present system the subscriber does not have choice to select the channels he wants to watch and pays for the entire bouquet even if he does not watch them.
The broadcasters, who have offlate changed their stand to support the bill, also welcomed the move.
Manu Sawhney, managing director, ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd, the company which operates the ESPN and Star Sports channels, said:
