NEW DELHI: A protest demonstration called by the Consumer Action Network (CAN) highlighting the "consumer's point of view" on the issue of conditional access systems (CAS) in central Delhi today saw anti- broadcaster slogans being raised

The demonstrators also expressed their ire at the government for dragging its feet on clearing the amendments to the Cable TV (Networks) Regulation Act that will facilitate implementation of CAS. The Rajya Sabha (Upper House) has still to clear the Cable TV (Networks) Amendment Bill 2002. Lacking a majority in the Upper House, the government needs to to evolve a consensus around the bill if it has to get it passed.

Meanwhile, the press conference called today by the Delhi-based National Cable and Telecom Association (NCTA) to highlight the inadequacy of the government in enacting the CAS legislation turned out to be a tame affair with all the speakers re-iterating that the technology sought to be implemented is good and cannot be so easily tampered with as has been alleged.

A certain section of the broadcast industry has alleged that the analog set top box, central to the CAS rollout, can easily be tampered with and hence the issue of piracy of signals cannot be addressed through the present CAS system the government seeks to implement.

Click here for more headlines