MUMBAI: Despite indications to the contrary, India's broadcast and cable regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), looks to be making a move on.

The Trai report on broadcasting and cable TV in India, including CAS, cable TV pricing and the distribution of programming, will likely be released around 15 September. The release will be accompanied by a survey, undertaken by Hong Kong-based Media Partners Asia, of how these issues have been dealt with in global media markets.

As expected, the report is likely to go slam-bang against any mandatory deployment of CAS. Recommendations may favour the acceleration of set top box rollout by maintaining current price restrictions, followed by a lift in these restrictions only in a CAS environment.

The report's recommendations are likely to include an emphasis on the fair distribution and availability of programming across all television platforms (cable, DTH, broadband). Restrictions on advertising airtime are unlikely to be recommended but cable TV rate restrictions may be maintained at least for the remainder of 2004.

New initiatives by Trai, focusing on how the government should try and boost digitization in India, are already underway with experts on global regulatory trends and technology requirements, likely to be brought in.