In a record number of notifications that have been issued by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to implement the Conditional Access System (CAS), the Government today has come out with yet another notification — this time to denotify the previous one. For viewers of south Delhi, south Mumbai, Chennai and south Kolkata who may or may not have demanded their set-top boxes (STB) yet, the Government has now mandated that they cannot watch pay channels without one from September 1.As for the Government-sponsored honeymoon where all channels will be made available for Rs 72 plus taxes, south Delhi along with the four other metros will enjoy the facility for a month beginning August 1.In a notification issued today, it will be mandatory to implement CAS within six months of March 1 this year, following the new roadmap finalised earlier this month. A new notification has been issued for this purpose ‘‘in public interest’’, superseding the notification issued on January 14 this year, under Section 4a(1) read with Section 9 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995.The new notification specifies the areas under CAS in south Delhi, south Kolkata, Chennai and south Mumbai. The four metros have been divided into four zones for the rollout of CAS from September 1. In Chennai as most of the driver channels are free-to-air, the market for STBs, according to sources, is negligible.The roadmap for CAS was agreed upon last week in a meeting between all stakeholders — broadcasters, multi-service operators and cable operators. However, some broadcasters have since expressed reservations about the roadmap, leading to the notification today, specially on the Government-sponsored honeymoon for four months.Meanwhile, BJP’s Delhi unit president Madan Lal Khurana who has been opposing CAS in Delhi in the present form is expected to seek another appointment with Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee to discuss the issue. Khurana has been seeking postponement of CAS implementation till ‘‘misgivings’’ regarding it were cleared.
