His dissenting voice comes even as members of the IBF - who run pay TV subscription channels and whose advertising revenue could plunge following the reduction in the number of viewing homes courtesy CAS - have been demanding that conditional access should be rolled out in a phased manner, first in one city and then gradually to the remaining three, as mandated by the government.

Sarma's stand on the FTA issue has also come as a setback for free to air broadcasters such as Sahara TV and Sabe TV which have expressed the view that there should be no limit on the number of free channels in the basic tier. Their fear is that cable TV operators may arm twist them into paying fees for carriage.