The Hindu Business Line : CAS IS BACK

The Delhi High Court has delivered a strong blow for consumers and for freedom of choice by directing the Centre to implement within four weeks the conditional access system (CAS) for cable television in New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. This plan ought to have got off the ground in July 2003 in these metros and Chennai, but was stalled by the Government in February 2004 following political protests. It sailed through only in Chennai, and helped halve the bills for more than 90 per cent of viewers. Today, that city pays out Rs 12 crore a month in television bills instead of Rs 25 crore.

The conditional access system is all about letting viewers choose the channels they want to pay for. If Chennai's case is any indication, viewers settle for just the free-to-air channels that are piped in for about Rs100 a month, with only a fraction opting for the premium pay-channels. The choice for Chennai viewers was easy because the popular Tamil channels are free-to-air. Not so for New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata viewers, as many of the popular Hindi channels are pay. Yet, the crux of the matter is they now have the choice. Thus far all the channels, whether free or pay, came lumped together for a fixed monthly charge in an all-or-nothing deal. The value proposition of pay channels was hardly tested. Now it will be.

For broadcasters, obviously, this is a moment of reckoning because the huge viewership numbers they have enjoyed so long may well get decimated, and with that, their subscription and advertising revenues. That will call for new strategies: There may be attempts by the weaker pay channels to bundle themselves with the stronger ones to win customer choice, and there may be some pay channels, recognising they cannot sustain their value proposition, turning free-to-air, keeping their viewership intact and living off just the advertising revenues. With direct-to-home broadcasts likely to gather pace, one expects viewers to be able to choose even the medium that will deliver their television programming.

If there was one failing of the 2003 Government move to introduce CAS, it was the mandatory nature. Technology, however friendly, must not be thrust down the throats of consumers. Its adoption must be by choice, where individual consumers are provided the full range of options and prices, and then allowed to pick those they see value in. The task of the regulator is to ensure that choice remains unabridged. Of course, the task will become much easier once DTH broadcasts begin to offer a credible alternative to cable and there are multiple platforms offering the service. If only the monopolies that in many places control the last mile in cable television can be broken, viewer empowerment will be complete.

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