Conditional access in Metros makes cable TV costlier

In other words, viewers will have to shell out more for watching pay channels like Star, Zee, Sony, Discovery, National Geographic, as it will be illegal to receive these channels without a CAS. So, subscription bills are expected to rise to around Rs 500 per month. Currently, a cable viewer pays anything between Rs 100 and Rs 300.

The Information and Broadcasting ministry is hoping to put in place a system that will be fair to the subscriber/viewer, cable operator, the multi-system operator and broadcaster by making the cable business more transparent.

The real viewership figures, so central to the business of running channels, will become evident once the system is in place, ministry officials said.

As of now, cable operators collect roughly Rs 5,000 crores as subscription fee, of which broadcasters claim only Rs 500 crores is passed on to them. With the CAS in place, broadcasters will hope to gross at least Rs 2,500 crores, to begin with.

‘‘We are hoping to see more of the bill that the subscriber passes on to his cable operator,’’ said STAR chief operating officer Samir Nair. Under CAS, if the consumer wants to junk the set-top box, he can remain content with the basic set of channels.