The sector regulator also pointed out to the MSOs that quality of service (QoS) would boil down to the last mile operator.

Amidst top officials at the information and broadcasting meeting today saying that Cas has been slow on the offtake, and payment as per subscriber management system (SMS) is a major issue between MSOs and broadcasters, Trai took from the MSO evidence of the payments they claimed to have made so far to the broadcasters.

Sources attending the meeting said that it was a very detailed exercise and that for the next month or so, the sole focus of Trai, and hence of the MSOs, would be full implementation of QoS.

The meeting, broken up for a while when a fire broke out, lasted for more than three hours, during which first all the MSOs along with Trai officials had an open-house discussion, and later each MSO was asked to make their individual presentations on QoS.

The MSOs had been asked to come with several sets of data, including the number of boxes seeded, the number of CRF forms filled, the payments made so far and whether they were made as per the CRFs, and evidence of the payments made.

While all the MSOs could not be contacted after the closed door meeting, two major MSOs said that they have already switched off those subscribers who had failed to fill up the CRF forms.

Trai has also said today that invoices should be strictly raised as per SMS with details of channels watched by each subscriber and payments made accordingly.

One MSO said that they have cleared their dues from their SMS data till April.

Trai had held a meeting on this issue last in May, and MSO sources said that most of them have made their payments till April.

The MSOs do not want an issue on this score with the broadcasters any more, because it is in their interest to ensure Cas succeeds, a senior MSO source told indiantelevision.com.

Trai also had asked MSOs for detailed statement on payments received and made so far. This was made available to Trai individually, sources said.