Sources said the survey would indicate the price at which consumers across metros would be willing to buy TV channels post-CAS. Also, it would be a good way to find out who’s pro-CAS and who’s anti-CAS, they added. It is still in the planning stage and the agency for conducting the survey has not been identified yet, a senior I & B official said. Already, a series of surveys has been conducted on CAS by corporates, NGOs, media portals and consulting firms.

That’s not all. A day after broadcasters dashed the hopes of the Government of a consumer-friendly CAS rollout, I and B Secretary Pawan Chopra met senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office to deliberate on the matter. Almost two months ago, Prime Minister Vajpayee had directed I & B Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to implement CAS in a consumer-friendly manner, in view of the forthcoming elections. Ever since then, the Government has been on the job to make CAS viewer-friendly, mainly by trying to arrest the monthly cable bill at Rs. 200 and slashing the import duty on set-top boxes. However, broadcasters came out with an indicative price list recently which was not acceptable to the Government.

After the meeting with broadcasters, I & B officials indicated "coercive action" against broadcasters if they did not comply with government norms. But, there was no official statement from the Minister on what those actions could be. Sources said "a political decision has to be taken". But, it was felt that the ruling party is in a dilemma on whether tough action should be taken against market forces before elections.

Meanwhile, the Government has sent out a letter to the cable biggies and smaller operators, asking them to comply with CAS notification on pricing of channels.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Government was studying various options under the law to rein broadcasters in to ensure a smooth rollover to the conditional access system on July 15.

The Government is also examining the option of barring pay channels from airing advertisements. Prasad has asked the Ministry officials to look into the matter in the light of practice across the world. As per the rates being worked out, the prices of all the pay channels and the free-to-air channels will be within
Rs. 200 and will include the margin of cable operators.

According to one of the recent notifications by the Government, it is the responsibility of the cable operator to notify the rates of all the pay channels. The rival broadcasters of Zee, such as Star and Sony, are likely to reject the prices. Cable operators asked the Government to take stern steps against channels which did not disclose their rates. Channels which do not disclose their policy or pricing will not be carried by cable networks after July 14 when CAS rolls out in the four metros.

Prasad declined to elaborate on the possibilities the Government could explore. He said an option was provided for in the June 6 notification saying pay channels which did not declare their rates would not be beamed after July 15. "The rates given by broadcasters were not in the spirit of the notification," he said. "The Prime Minister’s message to make CAS consumer-friendly is on my mind. That is my priority," he said.

The course of action by the Government on the rollout of CAS will now be taken after consultations with Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani.