The Hindu : Free to air broadcasters unhappy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 16, 2003

National

National

Free to air broadcasters unhappy

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI JULY 15. Free to air (FTA) broadcasters — Aaj Tak, Eenadu, Sahara, Sun TV and Sab TV, today urged the Government to enforce the implementation of the conditional access system (CAS) by the deadline stipulated earlier and reconsider the postponement of CAS in the interest of viewers and the cable industry.

In a jointly-signed communication, the FTA channels called for immediate implementation of CAS deadline of July 15, across the four metros. In the eventuality of that not being possible, the FTA channels said that "it should be strictly implemented" by September 1.

The channels sought Government intervention to ensure that only Rs. 72 is charged as subscription fee in the intervening period. The petition asked the Ministry to ensure that pay broadcasters do not delay the announcement of their channel's pricing as this would further delay the implementation of CAS and delay distribution and setting up of the Set-Top Boxes (STBs).

"The DTH should not be allowed to flourish within the country at the cost of the cable business," the statement said.

Highlighting their concern over the implementation of CAS in a phased rollout over a period of four months, the FTA channels said the delay was caused by the denial of foreign pay channels to honour the Government's notification on declaration of pricing by June 15.

"The deferment of CAS is being viewed as the Government's submission to the arm-twisting tactics of the foreign pay channel and will render a serious blow to the growth of the Indian cable industry," the channels said, dismissing the reason for the delay cited by broadcasters — unavailability of STBs — as baseless, since there were "sufficient STBs in the market to meet the current demand".

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National