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Not more than Rs. 200 for cable TV: Minister

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 3. Under pressure from various quarters — particularly his own political stable — to make the Conditional Access System (CAS) consumer-friendly, the Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Ravi Shankar Prasad, today said efforts were being made to ensure that subscribers would not have to pay more than Rs. 200 a month for cable television in the new regime, scheduled to roll out on July 15.

In a brief interaction with mediapersons after meeting the BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu, at the party headquarters and Multi-System Operators (MSOs) later in his office, Mr. Prasad said: "We will make CAS people-friendly and successful." Equating CAS to mobile telephones, he asserted that market forces would see that all stake-holders keep consumer interests in mind as profit in India came from volumes and not high pricing. As for the availability of set-top boxes (STBs) and their pricing — a major cause for concern — Mr. Prasad said 2.5 million boxes had been organised till date. Though today's meeting between the MSOs and the Minister was billed as a "courtesy call" and their interaction with senior I&B officials dismissed as a routine exercise, the MSOs are said to have urged the Ministry to ensure that the broadcasters announce their pay channel rates well ahead of the deadline as "CAS was being held hostage by the broadcasters' refusal to reveal their cards".

`No bundling'

UNI reports:

In a press meet at his office, Mr. Prasad said the free-to-air (FTA) channels would have to be a mix of all genres apart from the three must-show Doordarshan channels. The number of FTA channels was likely to go up to 70 by July 14.

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