Now I&B ‘guides’ viewers towards CAS convenience

Information and Broadcasting Ministry officials after hardselling the CAS mantra for over a week shut their doors today to any further quest...

Information and Broadcasting Ministry officials after hardselling the CAS mantra for over a week shut their doors today to any further questions on the subject.

With I&B Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad away in Bangkok attending a convention of Information ministers, it was left to the officials to bring out, rather belatedly, a Do You Know guide on CAS.

The officials also refrained from commenting on the said deadline of July 15 — the time when CAS is being sought to be implemented in the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

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This comes after a flurry of advertisements released, courtesy the Directorate of Audio Visual Publicity wing of the I&B Ministry to newspapers to dispel fears about CAS.

The guide also comes in the wake of Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani’s insistence on a consumer-friendly implementation of CAS, and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit’s word of caution to the Government.

The 14-point Do You Know talks about the importance of CAS to the consumer. The guide, under which consumers would be required to purchase a set-top box (STBs) to access pay channels, says the amendment to the cable law is aimed at ‘‘protecting consumers from arbitrary and frequent increase in subscription rates.’’

Addressing concerns about the cost of STBs, it says it has been estimated that the analogue ones would cost around Rs 3,000 and digital between Rs 3,500 and Rs 5,000.

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The STBs will be imported initially but it is expected that with increasing demand and indigenous production, the prices will fall. As of now multi system operators (MSO) like Hathway and Siti Cable say they are in a position to offer boxes, mostly of the digital type for a little less than Rs 6000.

‘‘We are trying to give added features like electronic guides to subscribers of digital boxes. This will enable them to programme their day,’’ says Hathway’s S.N. Sharma.

‘‘CAS would enable the consumer to receive only those channels which he wishes to view and also pay only for those and not for entire package,’’ the guide says. Consumer groups, however, have questioned the rationale behind this.

Pointing out that the exercise seeks to bring transparency on viewer ratings, the guide says broadcasters blame cable operators for under-reporting the number of subscribers resulting in loss of revenue to broadcasters and evasion of entertainment tax, service tax and even income tax.