Parliament passes CAS Bill

NEW DELHI: Parliament on Tuesday paved the way for introduction of conditional access regime in the country when the Upper House okayed the amendments to the Cable TV Regulation Act, 1995. The Lok Sabha had given the thumbs up to the legislation in the monsoon session earlier this year.

With this, a consumer will now have to pay for only those channels that s/he wishes to see. The amendment makes it mandatory for cable TV viewers to access pay channels only through a set-top box at the subscriber''s end. Price of pay channels would be market determined.

The government would, however, decide the maximum price for the basic tier of service that would comprise of free-to-air channels.

Subscribers are likely to pick up the tab for the set-top box that would be priced in the range of Rs 2,500 to Rs 5,000.

The government move to control television channels follows arbitrary and frequent hike in the cable TV subscription rates in the last two year.

The average monthly cable TV bill for a subscriber in a metro has in the last one year gone up from Rs 150 to around Rs 250. The government proposes to introduce CAS in the country in a phased and gradual manner through a timeframe of 12 to 24 months.

Broadcasters, who were earlier opposed to CAS on the ground that it would disrupt their revenue and viewership, in a statement through Indian Broadcasting Foundation have welcomed the move to introduce CAS in the country.

"We will work closely with the government in implementing CAS in the country to everybody''s advantage," said Bhuvan Lal, executive director, IBF.

According to cable operators, who welcomed the coming of CAS, the 60-odd free-to-air cable channels are likely to priced at around Rs 150 per subscriber home. The question however remains to be answered whether pay channels would be able to take advertising on their channels.

Interestingly, STAR TV on Monday had announced a 25 per cent drop in its rate card to Rs 30 per subscriber home. However, other networks like Sony Entertainment Network and ESPN-STAR Sports have recently jacked up subscription rates to Rs 55 and Rs 32 per subscriber home, respectively.

The Zee-Turner bouquet is also slated to up its rates from Rs 40 to around Rs 55 per subscriber. With Sony airing the forthcoming ICC World Cup from South Africa in February-March 2003 and ESPN-STAR bringing the live action from India-New Zealand series, cable operators are likely to pass on a sizeable portion of the hike to cricket-crazy subscribers.

Industry observers believe that this move to introduce CAS in the country is likely to bring to an end arbitrary hike in cable TV subscription rates.