[icernet] Deadlock on CAS

[Arul Selvan]

The other issue that has been thrown up squarely is price. Although the
Centre's formal position is that broadcasters are free to fix the prices of
pay channels, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (which has even
talked of a monthly cable bill of around Rs. 200) has an undeclared interest
in ensuring that the CAS regime is consumer friendly and voter friendly. It
was perhaps inevitable that the contradiction between professing laissez
faire and practising regulation would emerge sooner or later. And in the
face of some broadcasters electing to charge high rates for their pay
channels, the Government is in a spot over an issue that it has no
adjudicatory role in. It is obvious that the Centre suspects that some
broadcasters have ganged up to have CAS deferred, if not scuttled, and views
the high prices fixed for pay channels and the failure to reach an agreement
with MSOs as calculated steps towards such an aim. Those broadcasters who
fear CAS are concerned about the loss of revenue that could incur in the
event of consumers failing to subscribe to the new regime; more important,
the establishment of CAS would make it more difficult for them to penetrate
their market with Direct-To-Home (DTH) services as planned.

Source:
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/06/20/stories/2003062000221000.htm