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Consumer body opposes CAS

Opposing the conditional access system (CAS) for pay channels, the Consumer Guidance Society of India on Monday said it would offer no protection against "monopolistic" cable operators and that consumers will have to spend more for pay channels.

"It appears that the choice of free-to-air channels, which could be part of the basic service, will now rest with the Government while the choice of pay channels offered will rest with the cable operators," Anand Patwardhan, Chairman of the Society, said in a statement.

He said the consumers will have to pay a much higher fee for receiving pay channels and its choice will be restricted to only those channels made available by the cable network.

The consumer will also not have the choice of watching the free-to-air channel of his choice, he said.

The bill also proposes to "legalise" consumers being charged differently in different areas to receive the basic service which may contain different channels as may be determined by the government.

"This is a totally unfair and discriminatory decision taken most certainly not with the interest of the consumers at heart," he said adding that the maximum amount payable to cable operators for receiving free-to-air channels was also likely to increase.

The CGSI recommended that the CAS be introduced after careful examination of the ground realities.

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