CASe in focus, but public in the dark

MUMBAI: The rollout of conditional access system (CAS) in Indian metros is imminent. In fact, going by the orders of the Delhi High Court the rollout should have already begun. But at the ground level, there’s very little clarity among the very people for whom CAS would matter the most — the consumers.

According to a survey of 458 respondents conducted by Starcom MediaVest, barely 17% of all respondents in the leading metros knew the exact date of launch of CAS. The overall awareness of CAS in Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata — which will see the next round of rollouts — has dipped to 51%, from a level of 81% when the last survey was conducted in ’03.

Moreover, CAS compares unfavourably to Direct-to-Home (DTH), which 71% of respondents seemed to know about. Says Nikhil Rangnekar, media director, Starcom: “The decrease of awareness in CAS from 2003 is probably because the issue was pushed to the backburner in the last three years and lesser hype this time around.”

Awareness of the features of the set-top boxes (STBs) — a necessity for CAS — is also rather low. Nearly a third of all people believed that it’s a personal digital video recorder, while 38% took it for a DVD player, whereas in reality it’s neither.

The survey also highlights, on an average, consumers are willing to spend Rs 2,500 to buy STBs outright, while they were willing to pay only Rs 1,900 three years ago. Three-quarters of people aware of CAS were looking for outright purchase of the STBs. However, people perceive that CAS would, on an average, reduce their monthly outgo on satellite television by Rs 40 from Rs 202 to Rs 162 per month.

The confusion surrounding the rollout of CAS has also made television viewers wary. Barely 9% of respondents said they would go in for CAS in the first month of the rollout. More than a quarter wanted to adopt it after six months of its launch. In Mumbai, 44% said they would embrace CAS between 1-3 months of its introduction.