The Hindu Business Line : CAS may be delayed due to litigations: Zee

According to Zee Telefilms, CAS may be delayed due to litigations. The company's CEO, Mr Rajiv Garg, says the decision to put everything under an MRP has come as a surprise.

Mr Garg further adds that the cap of Rs 5 is unfair to the broadcasters. He thinks the cap should have been based on costs for individual channels.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Mr Rajeev Garg:

Were you expecting a little more than Rs 5?

Putting everything under a single MRP is a surprising decision. We had some idea from press reports in the last few days but the overall number of Rs 5 and that everyone has to fit within a Rs 5 budget, completely disregards the reality of broadcast operations.

For example, if a sports channel would want to hike its rates during a large tournament, this will not allow it do so?

I don't know what accommodation can be made. Sports programming is so expensive. Even if one looks at general entertainment and cinema channels, the cost of programming varies widely for what one chooses and what one pays for and on what sort of attraction one wants to build into the channel. So for everything to fit within Rs 5, completely disregards that reality.

Do you plan to appeal this; what are your options?

Unfortunately, the way it looks, this would certainly delay the implementation of CAS because no deal would be possible with cable operators working within an umbrella of 5 years and then splitting it in the manner in which TRAI had announced.

So you feel it could be litigation now that could delay the rollout of CAS?

Well, it could be that. Also, there could be no impetus on the part of the broadcasters and even the Multi System Operators and cable operators to go through with this and work out commercial arrangements between them. The deadline according to the High Court order was a well-intentioned one, but it has to be supported with positive action by a lot of players.

What, in your opinion, would be fair?

I don't think this would be the right time to speculate. It's not that the aspirations of the broadcasters are not known to the TRAI; the discussion that preceded this order gave a fair idea of how this issue must be approached.

So while the High Court pressure could cause things to accelerate, I think it could inadvertently lead us to a situation in which the final implementation of this order would be delayed.

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