Going a little soft on the broadcasters, the government on Tuesday agreed to be a "little flexible" on the June 15 deadline for the declaration of rates of their pay channels even as they ruled out turning any pay channel to free-to-air in the conditional access system regime.
At a two-hour meeting with leading broadcasters, including representatives from Star, Zee and Sony, the government was assured of cooperation in making it a "viable service".
The broadcasters hope to come out with the rates by June 16 or 17 after working together with multi-system operators to discuss the rates and margins.
"They need some time to talk to the MSOs to discuss the rate structure. We felt it was fair enough and expect them to get back soon," Pawan Chopra, secretary, information and broadcasting, told reporters later.
He said it was a difficult decision and the government had not set any deadline for them.
Asked if the June 15 deadline set by last week's notification would be met, he said, "Some of them have asked for a little flexibility. We reminded them of the June 15 deadline and said that if they did not publicise their rates by July 15 the cable operators will not carry the channel."
He said the broadcasters are also discussing among themselves to offer the "most attractive tier", a package of a genre of channels of different broadcasters.
Among those present at Tuesday's meeting with Chopra and other ministry officials were Nair, Mannu Sahni (ESPN), Harish Chawla (CNBC), Shantanu Aditya (Sony), Jawahar Goel (Zee) and S Y Quraishi (Doordarshan).
FTV announces rates for pay channel
The controversial Fashion TV on Tuesday announced rates for its pay channel Fashion X TV, which will focus on "fashion, cabaret shows, lingerie and events like the Rio Carnival."
In a letter to the information and broadcasting ministry, Michel Adam, president of FTV, said while Fashion TV will be a free-to-air channel, Fashion X TV will be a pay channel costing Rs 30.