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CAS: People Friendly Avataar

The Conditional Access System (CAS) is to be turned 'people friendly'. What this might mean.

By Shailesh Dobhal

Wanted: A clear picture

It's hard to understand the recent imbroglio over the introduction of set-top boxes as part of the Conditional Access System (CAS) that's to be ushered in as a means to bring some discipline to the country's chaotic 40-million-household strong, Rs 6,000-crore cable & satellite (C&S) industry.

The rollout of CAS is supposed to start with the four metros--Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai--on July 14, 2003. But the way some people are bleating at this prospect, you'd think some vital part of their bodies has been put on the chopping block.

The strange part is that there is very little evidence that the Indian Government has been insensitive to C&S households. Yes, set-top boxes require TV owners to incur an additional cost, but customs duty on set-top boxes has been slashed generously -- from a high 50 per cent to 5 per cent. This could mean a box for as little as Rs 2,500.

Not just that, the Information & Broadcasting Ministry - which is regulating this otherwise unregulated industry - has been making loud noises in favour of TV watchers. It is about time the critics of CAS paid attention. The original proposal --- to let people declare what channels they want and have them pay only for this limited set - still holds good, as the ministry has clarified over and over again. For a basic basket of free-to-air channels (some 30 at least are promised), the household will have to pay no more than Rs 75 by way of monthly service charge. There will be some households that insist on watching pay channels, and even for these, the bill need not go above Rs 200 if the channels are judiciously chosen. There will be less clutter, smaller bills and happier broadcasters (who were being cheated by cable operators under-reporting their subscription numbers).

India's 35,000-odd cable operators and multi-service-operators (MSOs) had complained that the government-set fee of Rs 75 per month is inadequate to cover their costs, but since many of these enjoy monopolies in their respective localities, they are likely to fall in line and stop complaining. Most of them are sitting pretty on long depreciated dishes and equipment, and have been fleecing both customers and broadcasters (according to one estimate, even the most powerful broadcasters in either Star, Sony and Zee get paid for only around 7-million subscribers, one-sixth of the C&S base). Now that the I&B Ministry had called the party off, they have no option but to give up some of their supernormal profits.

Broadcasters are also among those who have been grunting and groaning. Will CAS really create a directly addressable market? Is CAS foolproof? Some broadcasters have their doubts, given how hard it will still be to monitor the integrity of the subscriber management system (SMS), by which cable operators will report their subscription base details to broadcasters (and, of course, the government). Actual inspections are logistically unfeasible. There are more than 7,000 known 'head-ends' (dish-points from where cables radiate towards homes) in the country to monitor.

The government's promise, remember, is to make the system "people-friendly", not broadcaster-friendly. And through CAS, broadcasters will also get pressured to get equivalently people-friendly. The wild days of unregimented growth are over.

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