Be prepared to be assaulted by festive discounts — all in the name of CAS and the consumer. After the Information and Broadcasting Ministry announced a customs duty cut from 51 per cent to five per cent to enable the deluge of set-top boxes necessary to access pay channels, and multi-system operators announced early-bird schemes, broadcasters are readying themselves to come out with an ‘‘invitation’’ offer.If all this amounts to blackmailing the consumer and forcing him to make a choice, by a given date, so be it. Taking a leaf out of newspaper business, the invitation price offer to be announced by broadcasters will have a time factor rider to it. While the Government offer is valid only till July 31, broadcasters, it is learnt, have not set time frame yet, but will be closing the offer in a matter of a few months. This means, you rent the box courtesy your local cable operator by July 31 and automatically get entitled to discounts on your favourite channels.At a meeting of the broadcasters, both pay and free to air — Star represented by its COO Sameer Nair, Zee’s Jawahar Goel, Sony’s Kunal Dasgupta and K.S. Sarma of the Prasar Bharati Corporation — discussed CAS and pledged to ensure its implementation. The broadcasters’ declaration of prices is crucial as it will determine profit margins of the MSOs and last mile operators. The broadcasters, on their part, said they will ensure that the pricing will be reasonable. While officials are asking broadcasters to set a target of Rs 150-Rs 200 for all channels — broadcasters have sought a little time to mull over the matter.
