New Delhi: Going gentle on broadcasters, government on June 10 agreed to be a "little flexible" on the June 15 deadline for declaration of rates of their pay channels, even as they ruled out turning any pay channel free-to-air in the Conditional Access System (CAS) regime.

At a two-hour meeting with leading broadcasters, including representatives from Star, Zee and Sony, government was assured of co-operation in making it a "viable service".

The broadcasters hope to come out with the rates by June 16 or 17, after working together with multi- system operators (MSOs) to discuss the rates and margins.

"They need some time to talk to the MSOs to discuss the rate structure. We felt it was fair enough and expect them to get back soon," Pawan Chopra, secretary, Information and Broadcasting, told reporters later.

He said it was a difficult decision and government had not set any deadline for them to get back to it.

Asked if the June 15 deadline set by last week's notification would be met, he said, "Some of them have asked for a little flexibility. We reminded them of the June 15 deadline and said that if they did not publicise their rates by July 15, the cable operators will not carry the channel."

He said the broadcasters are also discussing among themselves to offer the "most attractive tier", a package of a genre of channels of different broadcasters.

"The aim of the meeting was to reduce the grief of the consumer. Its positive outcome was that we all are going to work together," Sameer Nair of Star said.

PTI