Is the inability of non-pay viewers to enjoy cricket matches telecast by a pay channel, after the introduction of the conditional access system (CAS), the most important issue faced by the people of Chennai?

Well that is what one would believe at the volley of questions fielded by reporters at the union minister of state for information and broadcasting, Ravi Shankar Prasad, at the press conference organised by the Press Information Bureau (PIB). Present on the dais was K S Sarma, Chief Executive Officer, Prasar Bharati.

The tenor of questions was that Chennai viewers were being treated as guinea pigs while rest of India's viewers were better off without CAS. Curiously such questions were asked by the reporters of pay-view satellite channels.

At one point Prasad himself got tired of Chennai's upwardly mobile middle class-centric CAS questions.

Much has been written about the arbitrary hike in charges by the pay channels and the arrogant attitude of multi system operators (MSO) and cable operators. A cable operator had arrogantly asked a housewife to fall at his feet to get her cable connection.

A majority of Chennai's residents are content with the Tamil channels. Realising the trend, pay channels like Raj, KTV, Star Vijay turned free. "Earlier consumers were paying Rs.250 per month. Now their monthly cable bill has come down to Rs.100. CAS is really customer friendly," argued Prasad. According to him, representations are being received to extend CAS to other parts of Tamil Nadu.

With the government not holding the economic editors conference - the only opportunity for journalists outside New Delhi to interact with the policy makers - should not the media in other cities take advantage of press conferences addressed by central ministers to elicit information about policy and performance issues apart from raising questions about issues affecting citizens at large?

For instance, ministers breezily attribute the poor financial performance of Doordarshan to the non commercial/public service programmes without substantiating statements like the ratio of commercial : public service programmes or the steps being taken to make the so called commercial programmes appealing.

Focussing entirely on CAS, favoured by the Chennai's residents, is nothing but trivialisation of the minister's press conference.