Television viewers in parts of south Delhi woke up on Monday (December 15) morning to find all or most of the pay channels off their television screens as the much-debated conditional access system was put to force by cable operators. Some pockets did have some respite though. Ignoring the December 15 deadline for the roll out of CAS, some cable operators kept STAR Sports (though a pay channel) on so that viewers can enjoy India's trouncing of Australia at the Adelaide Oval.

However, reports suggest this is just a short-term respite. It seems inspection teams from the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting would be sent out to cable headends starting Tuesday to check out the quality/service standards related to the addressability system and CAS-readiness of operators, among other things.

For the record, the total number of cable TV homes in Delhi is around 12 lakh, and those in south Delhi is over 3 lakh. Some in the cable fraternity put the number of C&S homes in south Delhi at 5 lakh. There are around 45 million C&S homes in the country.

Significantly, sources say the rollout of CAS in the subsequent zones of Delhi and other metros would depend entirely on the success of the rollout in the first zone. The government reserves the right to not go ahead with the rollout in the second zone, if CAS doesn't take off well in the first, sources added.