The Hindu Business Line : Cable industry demands resignation of I&B Minister

EVEN as there is uncertainty surrounding the implementation of the Conditional Access System (CAS), the cable industry on Monday demanded the resignation of the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad.

The cable industry led by Hathway, SitiCable and some independent cable operators, while threatening to take legal action, if CAS was deferred, also said that the monthly cable rates would go up to about Rs 500.

"The implementation of CAS was done under a High Court order and if the Government plans to bring an Ordinance to scrap it, we will go to court and appeal against this," said Mr Rakesh Datta, an independent Delhi-based cable operator. They also said that a regulator should be appointed to sort out the problems between the cable operators and the broadcasters.

Cable operators also said that the Government has done nothing to reign in the broadcasters. Ms Roop Sharma, President of the Cable Operators' Federation of India, said that while the broadcasters have been left free, the cable operators are pinned down. "The Government has not done anything about the bouquet structure that cable operators have been promoting. The Government has done nothing about the predatory pricing that broadcasters are indulging in, whereby the price of independent channels are much higher than the price of a bouquet," said Mr Vikki Choudhury, an independent cable operator.

Meanwhile, the cable operators have also asked the consumers not to buy set-top boxes, which would force pay channels to go free-to-air.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry, on its part, has started work on the interim regulator. The Government sources indicated that an Ordinance per se may not be needed to defer CAS in the Capital. They said that this could also be done through a notification, but the Government would have to come out with good reasons for doing so. The Law Ministry would be consulted before a decision is taken, they added.