The Hindu : Regulatory authority for broadcasters planned

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 08, 2003

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Regulatory authority for broadcasters planned

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 7. With the fresh schedule for the rollout of the Conditional Access System (CAS) being contested by broadcasters, the Information & Broadcasting Ministry is once again contemplating a Broadcasting Regulatory Authority to rein them in.

Though a regulatory mechanism for broadcasters is under active consideration, Ministry officials sought to de-link it from the CAS controversy; stating that it was being contemplated as the Convergence Bill — which has a provision for regulating content in the electronic media — was getting delayed.

In fact, the Ministry had drafted a Broadcasting Regulatory Authority Bill when Sushma Swaraj was in charge. However, her successor, Ravi Shankar Prasad, had decided to keep it on the backburner. Now, the draft has been resurrected but officials were unsure whether it could be finalised in time for the monsoon session of Parliament.

Even as the Ministry today began work on issuing a fresh notification for implementing CAS as per the new schedule, Mr. Prasad met the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and apprised him of the latest developments. The Ministry is expected to come up with a notification by the end of this week demarcating the zones which will be CAS-enabled in the first phase; beginning September 1.

While it is yet to be decided which zone of Chennai and Kolkata will be CAS-enabled in the first phase, indications are that South Delhi and South Mumbai will lead the way in Delhi and Mumbai.

Of the 2.4 lakh cable homes in South Delhi, an estimated 40,000 are expected to move to CAS while the demand for Set-Top Boxes — needed to view pay channels under the new regime — in South Mumbai has been pegged at a quarter of the 4.1 lakh cable homes in that zone.

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