Armed with the day-old Delhi High Court order quashing the Centre’s decision to postpone implementation of Conditional Access System (CAS) in South Delhi, cable operators today declared their intention to switch off transmission to homes that do not opt for CAS by December 15 — leaving them with a clutch of free-to-air channels available for Rs 72.
The Government cautiously responded by referring the order to the Law Ministry for thorough scrutiny. ‘‘The Law Ministry will examine the long judgement and give its opinion before the Information and Broadcasting Ministry declares its next move,’’ Ministry officials said.
As of now, Ministry officials, say their hands are tied by the court order. ‘‘A question of appealing against the order will depend on whether there are loopholes in the order,’’ officials said.
Multi-service operators Hathway and Siticable said they were ready with their boxes and will be looking at placing them in South Delhi households soon. ‘‘We have two lakh boxes in place and another 50,000 are in transit,’’ said S.N.Sharma, whose views were echoed by rivals Siticable which said there are plenty of boxes to go around. ‘‘If people don’t want to opt for it, they can always go for the FTA for Rs 72,’’ said a Siticable operator.
At a meeting with officials from the I&B Ministry today, operators, independent and franchisees, said they were going ahead with their plans to implement CAS in South Delhi — notified as part of four metros where CAS was sought to be introduced before Delhi was struck off the list on no grounds in particular.
Incidentally, in Chennai, where CAS was implemented on September 1 — households preferred to watch free-to-air channels, with the demand for boxes barely touching the 10,000-mark, forcing some pay channels to go free-to-air.
If the Government is hoping for Delhi to respond in a similar fashion, they are not saying it openly. Broadcasters too, were cautious. In the midst of this action, Sena MP Sanjay Nirupam called on ministry officials and conveyed his point of view. ‘‘Go ahead by all means in Delhi. In Mumbai, CAS is a non-starter because it is neither going to benefit the consumer nor the cable operator.’’ A quick recap of the CAS saga. The Centre has on January 14 issued a notification asking cable operators in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai to make arrangements for implementing CAS. On May 7, the Centre notified the rates of 30 free-to-air channels. But the Centre through a notification on August 29, struck off Delhi – subsequently challenged by the cable operators of Delhi.