Putting at rest the speculation about the fate of the conditional access system, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday said there would be no roll back and CAS would be implemented keeping 'consumer interest' in mind.
"Yes, CAS is on. But I am only ensuring its roll over is smooth," he told NDTV in an interview.
Prasad said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whom he met on Saturday, had asked him to keep consumer interest in mind and he was doing that.
The Minister will also be meeting BJP President Venkaiah Naidu and Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani to discuss CAS, under which television viewers would be required to buy set-top boxes to access pay channels.
Prasad said viewers had the right to decide if they wanted only free-to-air channels or pay channels as well.
Asked about the possibility of CAS, scheduled to roll out on July 14 in the four metros, getting stalled by a court order if anyone approaches it, Prasad said anyone was free to go to court but a law had been passed and a task force set up to look into modalities of the system.
The government had already notified Rs 72 as the maximum rate for the free-to-air channels and it was now up to the pay channels to chalk out their strategy on whether they wanted to go free-to-air or remain pay, he said.
He said set-top-boxes should be affordable and multi-system operators and cable operators should ensure their availability on rental or lease basis.
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