MUMBAI: The government today issued a notification modifying the manner in which conditional access would be rolled out across the four metros. It outlines how zone-wise rollout will take place, altering the original "no set top box, no pay channel" cut-off of 14 July.
As per the notification, CAS would take effect in the Zone A demarcated areas of south Mumbai, south Delhi and south Kolkata. However, Chennai will not have a zone-wise rollout. The whole of the southern Indian metropolis is supposed to become CAS illuminated from 1 September.
South Delhi covers areas stretching from the Delhi-Jaipur National Highway to almost Maharani Bagh and in between having South Extension, Ashram, Vasant Kunj, Dhaula Kuan, RK Puram, Saket, while south Mumbai includes areas lying between Colaba and Mahim Creek with the Central railway track being the dividing line. In Kolkata it includes Alipore to Baruipur, covering all of south Kolkata to extreme south 24 Parganas.
The notification has also pushed forward the date from which the CAS timer started ticking, from the original 14 January to 1 March. Therefore, as per the new CAS rollout timeline, 1 March is the date "within six months from which it shall be obligatory for every cable operator to transmit/retransmit programmes of every pay channel through an addressable system in the areas specified."