The Hindu : Cable operators told to declare 'status' of channels by June 15

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 06, 2003

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Cable operators told to declare 'status' of channels by June 15

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 5. In yet another bid to make the Conditional Access System (CAS) consumer-friendly, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry today decided to issue a notification stipulating that cable operators declare `pay' and `free-to-air' channels by June 15 — a month ahead of the scheduled rollout of the new regime in cable television in the four metropolises.

Announcing this here at a press conference, the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said ``if cable operators are not in a position to declare whether a channel is `pay' or `free-to-air' and the price of any pay channel because of failure on the part of the broadcaster to provide the necessary information by July 14, he (cable operator) shall not transmit such a channel through its network after July 14''. Also, every cable operator will have to publicise — either through advertisements in the print and electronic media or through other means — the subscription rates of every pay channel and the periodic intervals at which they are payable. Similarly, cable operators will have to publicise discounts — if offered — on subscribing to a minimum number of channels or more.

To ensure the consumer has ``real choice'' in what he/she pays to watch, the notification mandates that discounts for subscribing to a minimum number of channels or more shall not be such that it dilutes/nullifies the choice of subscribing to individual channels.

The notification also states that ``the subscriber shall not be forced to buy more than the channel(s) of his choice through the mechanism of discounted pricing and by grouping of channels in such a way as to render the choice of individual pay channels offered an illusory one.

Though the decision on whether a channel remains `pay' or `free-to-air' has to be taken by the broadcaster, the onus of making the broadcaster reveal its cards has been placed on cable operators on the premise that it is they who interface with the consumers.

As for the fate of those channels, which make up their mind between June 15 and July 14, the Ministry was ambiguous.

On the one hand, while the notification sets June 15 as the deadline for declaration of `pay'/`free-to-air' channels, the subsequent clause — billed by insiders as the `arm-twisting' provision — states that cable operators can block those channels which do not make their position clear by July 14.

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