New Delhi, June 18: How much is a month of DD News or Zee Cafe worth? For the sake of the conditional access system, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is now grappling with issues like this.

The information and broadcasting ministry has asked the telecom and broadcast regulator to help fix monthly cable television rates for CAS.

Delhi High Court had directed the Centre to implement CAS in Delhi, Calcutta and Mumbai, but the tariffs issue is holding up the kick-off.

Despite the ministry’s efforts, broadcasters refused to say how much they would charge for individual channels as they would rather have a household buy the entire bunch.

CAS brings channels through a set-top box and viewers are required to pay the cable operator only for the channels they wish to see. If broadcasters charge too much for each channel, many people will not opt for the new system.

Earlier this week, Trai sent out a consultation paper on tariff options to those who have a stake in CAS. The regulator wants their suggestions before it comes up with its own recommendations.

Keeping all options open, the paper raises several questions. For example, it asks if fixing a maximum retail price for channels was not “an unnecessary intervention in the market” and whether it would not discourage quality programmes being made. Or would fixed maximum prices encourage consumers to adopt CAS and give them a more “genuine choice”?

But more important, how do you fix tariffs? Should the price people pay in Chennai ? where CAS is already in operation ? be taken as a benchmark, it asks.

Trai also wants an opinion on whether it should go by “historical prices” ? the tariffs paid in the past ? and if rates should be fixed for genres ? like news, reality shows or entertainment. But then again, the question of variations in quality, popularity and reach of different channels in the same genre has to be resolved.