take up most of the broadcasting space in South India. In 1994, industrialist N. P. V. Ramasamy Udayar launched a Tamil channel called GEC (Golden Eagle Communication), which was later acquired by Vijay Mallya and renamed as Vijay TV. In Telugu, Telugu daily newspaper Eenadu started its own channel called ETV in 1995 later diversified into other Indian languages. The same year, another Telugu channel called Gemini TV was launched which was later acquired by the Sun Group in 1998. Throughout the 1990s, along with a multitude of Hindi-language channels, several regional and English language channels flourished all over India. By 2001, international channels HBO and History Channel started providing service. In 1999–2003, other international channels such as Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, VH1, Disney and Toon Disney entered the market. Starting in 2003, there has been an explosion of news channels in various languages; the most notable among them are NDTV, CNN IBN and Aaj Tak. The most recent channels/networks in the Indian broadcasting industry include UTV Movies, UTV Bindass, Zoom, Colors, 9X and 9XM. There are several more new channels in the pipeline, including Leader TV. Currently the major four cable general entertainment channels (GECs) that dominate the TRP rivalry are StarPlus, Sony Entertainment Television, Sab TV, Colors TV and Zee TV. Conditional access system CAS or conditional access system, is a digital mode of transmitting TV channels through a set-top box (STB). The transmission signals are encrypted and viewers need to buy a set-top box to receive and decrypt the signal. The STB is required to watch only pay channels. The idea of CAS was mooted in 2001, due to a furore over charge hikes by channels and subsequently by cable operators. Poor reception of certain channels; arbitrary pricing and increase in prices; bundling of channels; poor service delivery by Cable Television Operators (CTOs); monopolies in each area; lack of regulatory framework and redress avenues were some of the issues that were to be addressed by implementation of CAS It was decided by the government that CAS would be first introduced in the four metros. It has been in place in Chennai since September 2003, where until very recently it had managed to attract very few subscribers. It has been rolled out recently in the other three metros of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. only 25 per cent of the people have subscribed the new technology. The rest watch only