Television leading ladies get into the CAF act -sakshi mentioned

MUMBAI: In an attempt to speed
up the filling of consumer
application forms (CAFs), the
Indian Broadcasting Foundation
(IBF), along with major
broadcasters, has relaunched its
on-air promo campaign urging
cable TV subscribers to fill them
at the earliest as mandated by
Telecom Regulatory Authority of
India (TRAI).
The campaign features
television's leading ladies like
Sakshi Tanwar, Toral Rasputra,
Rubina Dilaik and Nia Sharma. It
urges consumers to fill their
details and hand over the CAFs to
their cable TV operators, failing
which they will have their cable
TV connection snipped off. The
deadline for the submission for
the forms was 15 December
which again wasn't met and
extended to 31 December.
Says an IBF official, "From the
time the campaign was launched
first, we have been playing it
across channels. And for a few
weeks that it was taken off the
screens, a scroll/ticker ran,
reminding subscribers about the
imperative to fill up CAFs. We
have started airing it again so
that concerned parties take a
note of it and help us achieve the
goal."
However, he isn't optimistic
about the procedure winding up
by the end of the year as well.
"And if MSOc and LCOs don't do it,
they will get in trouble, this time,"
he says firmly.
The channels have been told to
show the campaign as many
times as possible throughout the
day.
In the earlier phase of the
campaign in 2012, actresses
(Shweta Tiwari, Pooja Gaur,
Ragini Khanna) educated and
sensitised DAS subscribers about
the issue. As per the Digital
Addressable Cable TV Systems
Regulations, 2012, the MSOs can
transmit digital signals and
activate the set top boxes only
after receiving the CAF from the
consumer with his/her
preference. If there is no form,
the MSOs were obliged under law
not to transmit the signals and
deactivate the cable connection.
However, no such switch off took
place in the first phase of
digitisation. On the contrary, the
deadlines of various phases have
been extended time and again.
So what is the reason for this
delay? The official feels that the
delay in the process is either
from the consumers' side or the
local cable operators who have
not taken the form collection
seriously. "We still can't figure
out what is the reason for this
blockage?," he says.
The agenda is that by end-2014,
India's 100 million-odd cable TV
homes will phase out the analog
version, and switch on digital TV.

Tfs