Cable operators continued to black out pay channels in South Delhi on Tuesday, making it clear that consumers will have to either go in for set top boxes to watch these channels or be content with the free-to-air ones.

The only exception appeared to be the India-Australia cricket match, which was shown by almost all cable operators without routing it through the STB.

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Meanwhile, leading multi-system operators like Siti, Hathway and Cable Operators' Association are holding operational meetings to ensure that the roll out of conditional access system is smooth, while claiming more and more consumers are asking for the set top boxes.

On Monday, MSOs and cable operators had claimed that while 5,000 STBs had been sold prior to CAS implementation, orders of another 5,000 were placed with Siti Cable and Hathway.

Meanwhile, the government said it was monitoring the rollout of CAS in South Delhi and will assess, over the next few days, the cable operators' preparedness in terms of technology, subscriber management and making the entire process consumer friendly.