Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has promised a minimum of 70 to 80 free-to-air channels for Rs 72 a month under the new conditional access system regime.

This is based on written promises made to him by multi-system operators.

This bouquet would consist of about 25 entertainment and music channels and a minimum of 10 news channels besides current affairs and film channels. It would also include Doordarshan and regional channels.

On the June 15 deadline for pay channels to disclose their rates, the minister said he had agreed to the request made by the channels to give them a few more days to finalise the prices, but no new deadline had been finalised.

The minister said he expected the pay channels to announce their prices by the next week. "Conditional access system is on course to be implemented on July 14 as of now," the minister said.

The rental for the set top box is expected to be around Rs 30 a month, he said adding that the consumer would be able to get the total package including the set top box rental within Rs 200 a month.

The interests of the consumer would be kept in the forefront and the cable operators' concerns would also be looked after, he said. For this, the minister has decided to involve Shekhar Joshi of Cable Vision in the taskforce for the conditional access regime.

He said Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray had asked him to keep the consumers' interest above all, but not to forget the cable operators who had done a lot for the industry.