The Prime Minister’s Office is really getting a grip on the Conditional Access System (CAS). The latest salvo from the PMO to the I&B Ministry: Get a grip on pay channels.Voicing its concern over broadcasters earning substantial revenue from advertising and not so substantially from subscription, the PMO has asked the I&B Ministry to set the price for pay channels, so that viewers in the four metros of Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi are not inconvenienced when CAS comes into force.The move comes in the wake of an earlier proposal by the ministry to streamline advertisements on pay channels. As is the practice in the West where premium channels available for a hefty price do not air commercials, the ministry is trying to strike a balance. While the Western model can’t be comparable to the Indian model, ministry officials are trying to find a way out. Advertisements on TV bring nearly Rs 2,700 crore annual revenue, while broadcasters claim they get only 1/10th of the subscription from the 40 million cable subscribers.It is in this context that the ministry has also asked pay channels to state their individual price of their channels and has fixed June 15 as the date for declarations. If they don’t, the ministry reserves the option of blocking them out.Pay channels Zee, Star and Sony have not yet declared the price of individual channels on their platform. Neither have the broadcasters communicated to the ministry whether they want to stay free or pay. The stakeholders are likely to deliberate on this issue tomorrow at a meeting called by the ministry. On the issue of the channels on offer for Rs 96 (the sum includes the entertainment tax which varies from state to state), some MSOs including SitiCable furnished their list to the Government today.I&B Secretary Pavan Chopra refused to comment on the PMO missive but said the Government is committed to making CAS consumer-friendly. ‘‘The free-to-air channels’ price is unlikely to be more than Rs 96 for the consumer and the price of the set-top box is refundable. If as one MSO says the price is Rs 1,000, the monthly outgo for the box will be around Rs 35,’’ Chopra clarified, adding it is for those who opt for the rent-a-box scheme.
