National

Bill to regulate cable operators

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 14. The Government today introduced in the Lok Sabha a Bill to amend the Cable Networks Regulation Act, 1995, that seeks to regulate cable operations and empower the Centre with the right to mandate installation of an addressable system for accessing pay channels.

Introducing the Bill, the Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Sushma Swaraj, said the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2002, ought to be discussed in the House and not referred to the Standing Committee as it involved consumer interests.

According to the statement of objects and reasons for the Bill, the amendment seeks to "regulate the operation of cable television networks in the country so as to bring uniformity in their operations, and to avoid undesirable programmes from being made available to the viewers...''.

While the amendment empowers the Central Government to issue a notification making it obligatory for every cable operator to show any pay channel through an addressable system from a stipulated date, the provision is for staggered introduction of such a conditional access system. The addressable system is mandatory only for those subscribing to pay channels, and not for viewers opting for free-to-air channels.

Through the amendment, the Central Government also acquires for itself the power to fix the maximum amount which a cable operator may charge a subscriber for receiving free-to-air channels included in the basic service tier. This could vary from State to State and city to city.

Also, the Central Government can fix the number of free-to-air channels to be included in the package of channels forming the basic service tier as also specify one or more free-to-air channels to be included in this section. While this provision, according to the Ministry, has been included to ensure a berth for the main Doordarshan channels in the main bouquet of channels, there is also a proviso for stipulating a programme mix of entertainment, information and education.

The amendment also makes it mandatory for every cable operator to submit to the Central Government information on the number of total subscribers, subscription rates, and number of subscribers receiving programmes transmitted in the basic service tier or particular programme/set of programmes transmitted on the pay channel.

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