Pay channels not blacked out in Delhi

NEW DELHI: The government did not relax the deadline for rollout of the conditional access system (CAS), but service providers have, in some ways. The cable industry has decided not to black out the leading Hindi entertainment pay channels in several CAS-notified areas of Delhi perhaps for a week or 10 days.

So, many of those who found all the pay channels blacked out from December 31 without a set-top box, were relieved that the popular entertainment channels were back soon. Mostly, the pay channels that are still being shown without set-top boxes are Star Plus, Zee TV and Sony Entertainment Television (SET). 

"It's an industry decision to beam a few entertainment channels, which are otherwise pay channels, for some more days to enable a smooth transition to CAS," a cable TV industry representative said.

It may be recalled that some popular pay channels turned free-to-air in Chennai some three years ago when CAS was implemented only in that city. In Chennai, for instance, Star Vijay (a Tamil channel) is a free-to-air channel, while it is a pay channel in other parts of the country.

CAS enables a TV viewer to watch channels of his choice through a set-top box and pay for only those. For accessing free-to-air channels (for Rs 77 plus taxes), set top boxes are not required. But, set-top boxes are a must for watching pay channels.

Although no figures were available yet, rough estimates suggested that less than 10 per cent of the cable TV households in the CAS-notified areas of Delhi had got set-top boxes by January 1.