India Broadband Forum

MyWay

I have never ever heard about this thing.. Can any one tell me that what is this CAS?

Dragon

I am not sure which is your CAS but the CAS which i know stands for conditional access system, which is a digital mode of transmitting TV channels trough a set-top box (STB). The transmission signals are encrypted and viewers need to buy a set-top box to receive and decrypt the signal. The STB is required to watch only pay channels, not free-to-air channels, like Doordarshan.

xwhyz

In CAS, you only pay for the channels you watch. It is just like cable television, but with a twist. Here there will be a bouquet of channels available for you to choose and you will be paying per channel instead of as a whole. Each channels will start from Rs. 5 each and so on. It is implemented only chennai right now. And found very poor response!

Broadband

So you mean to say that CAS is basically a TV service provider just like our Cable service privders but the only difference is that cable service does not need a STB and CAS need a STB.

just4kix

CAS is not a cable provider. It is a system implemented in Mumbai and Delhi (probably in Chennai and Kolkatta too).

In a typical cable TV system in India, we are forced to watch all the channels that are provided by the cable company and for the full price. CAS will allow people to subscribe to selected bouquet of channels - and thus reducing the monthly fee.

It is very much similar to TataSky and DishTV packages such Family Pack, Family Super Saver (both TataSky), Dish Welcome, Dish Maxi (both Dish TV).

To implement this system, a STB and a viewing card is required. The STB/VC determines the subscribed package and allows the channel access accordingly. Very similar to DTH - the only difference is that instead of TV signals from dish, you get signals from cable provider.

The government (TRAI) has mandated that CAS must be implemented everywhere in India. The timelines and dates get postponed all the time.

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