Chennai, Oct 26: Centre is to consult Chief Ministers of states concerned before implementing the Conditional Access System (CAS) in their states, Union Information Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said here today. Centre had also accepted a West Bengal government suggestion that there should be a state-level CAS implementation committee, consisting of representatives of multi-system operators, cable operators and officials, he told reporters at Chennai airport.
It was the duty of the state governments to implement the CAS, he said. Congratulating Chennai TV viewers and Tamil Nadu government for accepting the CAS, he said it had now become quite clear that CAS was consumer-friendly and had given the consumers a chance to view channels of their choice.
Asked about the implementation of CAS in New Delhi, he said “political hostility and one-upmanship” by some had delayed its implementation in the capital.
He refused to comment on the Shiv Sena's objection to CAS implementation at Mumbai. He said the intention of the CAS was to provide free-to-air channels to the people at an affordable cost and set top boxes to enable viewers to have their choice of channels.
He said pay channels had increased their rate by 1400 times in the last one year.
Prasad said DD would launch direct-to-home (DTH) services very soon, adding once DTH was introduced, viewers would have a combination of DTH, satellite and terrestrial channels. Bureau Report