With the Conditional Access System mired in controversy, the government said on Tuesday that it will hold another round of discussion with all stakeholders to clear any apprehensions about the system.
"A lot of things are being said about CAS without the system being understood. What we need to do is call another meeting of all stakeholders of CAS -- cable operators, broadcasters, consumer groups and clarify matters," Information and Broadcasting secretary Pawan Chopra told PTI in New Delhi.
Asked whether the rollout of CAS will be on schedule on July 14, Chopra declined to comment. He also did not specify if CAS would be implemented in a single metro to begin with.
Chopra said consumers stand to gain from CAS, since they will get far greater number of free-to-air channels under the CAS regime than are being received at present.
"With CAS, consumers will be in effect paying Rs 72 for a whole host of channels. I believe a number of pay channels will go FTA. Major part of a channel's revenue is from advertising and not from subscription. Consumers have nothing to fear," the I&B secretary said.
He said the mass media market was becoming oligopolistic with some very large corporations controlling the market. "How far should this trend go? We need to examine this issue."
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