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THE CONDITIONAL ACCESS System for viewing `pay' television channels, announced with great fanfare, has started with a whimper. Such indeed has been the opposition from forces of status quo that the implementation has been possible only in one of the four metros: Chennai. The weak start has much to do with the inadequate communication to consumers on all operational aspects by the parties involved. A day into the launch of the new system, some channels have still not announced their rates. Even if consumers had been ready to switch to CAS by installing set-top boxes, there is no way they could have made a cost-effective choice of the channels that they want to view. Nor have they been explained properly the pros and cons of the analogue and digital set-top boxes — the two alternative devices available to them with differing costs and benefits. Effectively, the choice of the type of set-top box has been taken out of the hands of the consumers, most of whom may not have use for value-added services at a later date. Clearly, the Centre, which had been pushing the CAS concept so vigorously, has failed to protect consumer interests.

The absence of a regulatory structure to foster healthy competition among MSOs (multi-system operators), and enable viewers to have genuine choice in various aspects of switching to CAS, can work against the interests of consumers over a period. For all the advantages that CAS offers consumers, the possibility of broadband and DTH services serving as a superior alternative also needs to be highlighted to potential users. This assumes importance, as viewers have to make sizeable investment to join the CAS bandwagon. As with so many other initiatives, politics has reared its ugly head. There is clear evidence that nation-wide implementation of CAS is now a long way off. This is unfortunate as broadcasters who were counting on improved compliance by cable operators in declaring the true size of their subscriber base to realise larger revenues are put to a disadvantage. In the absence of larger subscription revenues for broadcasters, it may be difficult for them to offer quality programming at reasonable rates and without frequently raising them.

The Centre clearly finds itself in a situation where it would prefer to do nothing better than to wash its hands off the whole affair. The proposal to offload the implementation to the State governments that is doing the rounds should be seen in this context. Till all the ground-level issues, including the footprint and time-frame for implementation, are sorted out and there is a high degree of transparency on the market structure with choice genuinely in the hands of consumers, placing CAS on waiting mode may be better than going ahead with its implementation in a haphazard manner.

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