Stung by broadcasters’ refusal to lend a helping hand to the Government-sponsored honeymoon of confining the monthly cable bill outgo to Rs 72 for four months, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry is readying an ordinance to reign them in. The ordinance will be to amend the Cable Regulation Act and is likely to be taken up by the Union Cabinet.The ordinance comes in the wake of a series of meetings that were held in the I&B Ministry today involving all stakeholders of CAS — namely broadcasters, multi-service operators and cable operators.The move to amend the Cable Act apparently stemmed from the Government’s unhappiness over the broadcasters speaking in differently after entering into an agreement on CAS last week.Under the existing Cable Act, only cable operators can be punished for violations and not broadcasters.The Government has been toying with the idea of a regulatory framework for broadcasters for quite some time now.
