Chief Minister Jayalalithaa writes to PM on DAS licence

Chennai: Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to issue the Digital Addressable System (DAS) license to the Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Ltd (TACTV) to enable the state government to provide inexpensive and quality cable TV services to its people.

Despite applying for the DAS license for the Chennai metro area in July 2012 and for the rest of the state in November, the Union government had delayed for the past two years.

“Even as TACTV’s applications for licenses were kept pending by the previous UPA government, the ministry of information and broadcasting issued licenses to nine other multi system operators in Tamil Nadu, including those who applied after TACTV,” Jayalalithaa said in her missive to the Prime Minister.

As per the provisions of the Cable TV Network (Regulations) Act, 1995, a person or association of individuals or a company registered under the Companies Act is entitled to obtain a DAS license. “TACTV is fully qualified under the Act to be issued such a license. I strongly suspect that the non-issuance of the DAS license to TACTV by the previous UPA government was only to facilitate particular private business interests as other licenses were issued at the same time,” the Chief Minister stated.

TACTV is presently transmitting signals based on the Conditional Addressable System (CAS) license issued by the government of India in April 2008. Following the amendment of the Cable Television Networks Act 1996, the CAS license was modified to DAS and cable TV networks had to apply for a fresh license.

TACTV has been providing cable TV services in 31 of the 32 districts of the state since September 2011. It provides a package of 100 channels to subscribers at a cost of Rs 70 a month, the lowest rate anywhere in the country.