CAS stands for confusion, anarchy, stupidity. That is the way media expert and former Star India ad sales head Raj Nayak described the CAS conundrum in comments made during one of the key sessions of India's first National CAS Media Summit held this evening at Mumbai's Hyatt Regency Hotel

In a day that saw major developments on the CAS front in Delhi, the summit organised by indiantelevision.com saw a full house with 275 attendees that included media planners, ad sales, marketing and distribution teams from the different channels. In all 28 distinguished panelists made presentations on the broad theme "Advertising Meltdown: A CASe of Conflict."

The attendance was a clear indication of just how much interest the subject holds despite all the uncertainty that still surrounds CAS. While no clear-cut answers could be drawn, the Summit served its objective of providing a platform for the various constituents of the cable and satellite television industry - broadcasters, cable TV operators, media professionals, advertisers, analysts - to discuss and understand the impact of the rollout of conditional access systems on television advertising spends.

The Summit had a mix of presentations, panel discussion and set top box demonstrations by Multi system operators, advertisers, media professionals, television professionals. A cross-section of industry including Sab TV's Kanta Advani, DD's Mumbai director Mukesh Sharma, Zee Cinema's Yogesh Radhakrishnan, TV Today's G Krishnan, Broadband Pacenet India CEO S Ravindran, OTS Update's Hemant Diwete, TAM Media's LV Krishnan, amongst others participated in the forum as speakers and panelists.

Among the topics that were covered at the Summit: Pay TV Channels: Will advertisers flee, FTA Channels: will they rake in the moolah, Cable TV Channels: A Hidden Opportunity, Innovation: The Name of the Game in a CAS environment.

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