The Hindu : CAS rollout to be deferred to Sept.1?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 05, 2003

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CAS rollout to be deferred to Sept.1?

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 4. The July 15 deadline for implementation of the Conditional Access System (CAS) no longer appears sacrosanct with the Government today deciding to consider a proposal of broadcasters and cable operators to defer its introduction till September 1.

Should the Information and Broadcasting Ministry accept this proposal, the strategy will be to go in for a staggered introduction in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata where the CAS was slated to roll out on July 15. And, while CAS rolls out in phases, the zones where it is not implemented will have to pay Rs. 72 plus taxes as monthly subscription for the existing package of free and pay channels.

Details of this fresh proposal were announced by the Union Minister of State for I&B, Ravi Shankar Prasad, this evening after a marathon meeting between broadcasters and Multi-System Operators/cable operators in the Prime Minister's Office. An agreement between the two warring sides was brokered by the OSD to the Prime Minister and Media Adviser to the I&B Ministry, Sudheendra Kulkarni, after which Mr. Prasad was called to the PMO to make a statement. Later, Mr. Prasad and Mr. Kulkarni met the Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, to apprise him about the proposal.

Dodging questions on the July 15 deadline, Mr. Prasad said this proposal had been drawn up keeping in mind the Prime Minister's directive to make the CAS consumer-friendly.

As per the proposal, the four metros would be divided into four zones and the CAS would roll out in one zone of each metropolis on September 1.

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