Cable industry told to come up with an
equitable pricing mechanism for FTA basic tier

Information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj set the ball rolling again today on the conditional access issue following her trip to Cannes.

Swaraj convened a meeting in the morning chaired by Rakesh Mohan, joint secretary I&B, which had a representation from broadcasters as well as the cable industry.

According to a senior government official, The government has instructed the cable industry to come up with an equitable pricing formula for the basic tier of free to air channels within a week.

One significant feature of the meeting was the heavy representation of the Star India team at the proceedings. CEO Peter Mukerjea, COO Sameer Nair, distribution head Tony D‘Silva and CFO Shankar Narayanan were in attendance.

Industry sources say that the Star team later went into a separate meeting with Mohan. There was no independent confirmation of this though.