(21 March 2008 2:30 pm)

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) has convened a meeting on 4 April with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), representatives of broadcasters, multi-system operators (MSO) and local cable operators (LCO) to give final touches to the extension of Cas (conditional access system) in the three metros as well as 55 other cities, sources told indiantelevision.com.

The meeting will be much in the pattern of a similar meeting held in April last year, and is being expected to usher in the second phase of Cas. Of late, both MIB secretary Asha Swarup and Trai Advisor (B&C) RN Choubey stated the extension has to take place.

While the MSOs are expecting some regulatory initiatives to be passed on to them for the first time, they have been asked also to lay down a road map, and told to state how they would deal with piracy as well as billing issues.

MSOs, however, could not say precisely what such regulatory initiatives would be.

The meeting is being seen as critically important since this is the first complete industry meeting after the 1 January 2007 Cas rollout in segments of three metros. While the broadcasters have been unhappy with Cas, MSOs and LCOs have been insisting on extension.