The Rajya Sabha today
unanimously passed the Cable Television Networks (Regulation)
Amendment Bill. The Lok Sabha had earlier passed the Bill in May
this year. Piloting the bill, the Minister of Information and
Broadcasting, Smt. Sushma Swaraj said that the bill provides protection
to the consumers and they would be required to pay for only those
channels that they would like to view and not for the arbitrarily
prepared bouquet by the broadcasters. This would also resolve
the controversy of actual subscribers, which had all along been
a contention between the broadcasters and cable operators. She
said the Government will fix the number of channels in the basic
tier and not the specific channels. The rate for each pay channel
would be decided by the broadcasters and the rate lists would
have to be displayed by the cable operators. Smt. Swaraj hoped
the cost of Set Top Boxes (STBs) would come down once these are
produced at a mass scale. The STBs would be allowed both in analog
and digital forms, she said.
The Bill seeks to
provide for:
- Empowering the Government to mandate
through notification, in a phased manner, installation of addressable
systems for viewing pay channels;
- ‘Free-to-air’ channels in the
areas thus notified , to continue to be received by the subscribers
in the existing receiver sets without having to go through the
addressable systems;
- A provision that the subscriber
would not be required to change the receiving set irrespective
of the channels that he wishes to receive and to provide that
he would be free to view the channels from amongst those offered
by the cable service providers;
- The flexibility for adoption of
technological advancements and upgradation in the addressable
systems and to provide that the technical standards and performance
parameters of the systems would be laid down by the Bureau of
Indian Standards, from time to time;
- The Government to prescribe, from
time to time, the maximum amount to be paid by the subscriber
to the cable service provider for the ‘basic service tier’ consisting
of the bouquet of notified ‘free-to-air’ channels and to determine
the number of channels to be included in this ‘tier’ and the
maximum cost for the same in different States/cities/areas of
the country, from time to time; and
- Effective enforcement of the amendments,
violations of which would constitute a cognizable offence.
The Government has
been monitoring the implementation of the Act and taking corrective
measures as and when considered necessary. Amendments were made
in the Act in the year, 2000, vide, the Cable Television Networks
(Regulation) Amendment Act, 2000. In recent months, there has
been a great public outcry against frequent and arbitrary hike
in the cable subscription charges. The subscription rates are
being fixed arbitrarily by broadcasters and cable service providers
in almost area specific monopolistic distribution system and the
subscribers no choice to ask and pay for the channels he wishes
to view. At present, there is no legal or administrative instrument
by which the Government could intervene and regulate the subscription
charges or ask the cable service providers to transmit/retransmit
television signals through any addressable system which would
enable record of actual viewership leading to under-reporting
of the number of subscribers by the cable service providers, Multi
Service Operators (MSOs) and broadcasters, which, in turn, is
also affecting revenues due to the Government. The public demand
for Government intervention is such that it needs to be addressed
on a priority basis. Besides mandating the viewing of pay channels
through an addressable system, the Government would notify from
time to time and place to place, the subscription of the basic
tier of free-to-air channels, since the primary objective is ensure
that every subscriber receives at least a minimum number of free-to-air
channels at reasonable cost.
