We have already cleared it. We are going to send it to the Cabinet. HITS is important because we have problems in our country when it comes to cable networks -- even the guidelines are dated back to 1995. After that there has been an exponential growth in the industry. We have 417 channels and more than 200 channels have been categorized as news and current affairs channels. When you have such an explosion and growth taking place and also the convergence of technologies, then policy decisions have to be made. We have to see whether cable operators are carrying the mandatory channels, whether they are generating their own news. Civil societies has its own concerns particularly by what the cable operators put out themselves. So there are many issues.

Another area is CAS (Conditional Access System). One question raised is why CAS is only in designated areas in the four metropolis. Out of 25 lakhs who were meant to be covered merely 7 lakh got covered. And the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority want it taken to 55 cities but there is resistance because people would not like to pay for a set top box. Also, the multi-system operators and DTH operators, they give a bouquet – is that consumer-friendly or not? For the pay channels in particular, there are the encryption devices which are there with the cable operators and cable operators are tens of thousands in number. They don't need a license. They just go to a post office and get themselves registered. The pay channels, the broadcasters do not get their fee because there is no way to check how many subscribers are viewing what are meant to be the pay channels. If we go for digitalization, for one-way digitalization, just for down link it would cost Rs 15,000 crores, for two-way it is Rs 40,000 crores. Now HITS will bring about a quick change. The quality of picture will be good and it is a major step towards digitalization and also in keeping the necessary checks particularly on the cable operators for violations of piracy, etc.

... contd.