'Amicable settlement' ends blackout of STAR TV channels

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, OCT. 2. After almost a fortnight, cable TV viewers in most parts of Bangalore started getting STAR TV channels on their small screens again, from Monday night.

However, many viewers are yet to receive all channels in the STAR TV package, such as Star News, Star World, and Star Movies.

STAR TV sources said their company had reached an amicable settlement with the Karnataka State Cable TV Operators' Association, and that most of the points of dispute were being resolved. An association spokesperson said STAR officials were quite considerate when they explained their problems with frequent increase in tariff which could not always be passed on to the cable TV subscribers.

The STAR TV blackout dispute has its background in the rivalry between the main Multi-System Operators (MSOs) in the City. The northern parts of the City, including most of the Cantonment and Civil Station neighbourhoods, are served by cable operators affiliated to Hathaway Cable and Datacom Pvt. Ltd., belonging to the Rajan Raheja Group which has a number of business interests including an English news weekly.

STAR has a 25 per cent stake in Hathaway and, understandably, the MSO and its affiliated cable operators continued to air the channel's package. Most of the Southern and Eastern parts of Bangalore are served by cable operators affiliated to InCable which strongly resisted the increase in tariff by STAR. SitiCable, Zee TV, and a consortium of cable operators are the other main MSOs in the City.

A Hathaway spokesperson said that InCabe went to court over the tariff hike by STAR, and the court verdict went in favour of STAR. From August end, there had been talks between the representatives of InCable and the Cable TV Operators' Association and STAR. But these and the negotiations held after the channel was blacked out from September 12 ended in a stalemate, and the dispute ended only on Monday.

There are complaints from cable TV subscribers that many of the operators were forming cartels and arbitrarily determining which channels to air and the amount of monthly charges for viewers. There are instances of certain cable operators not showing some ``pay channels'' for days together because they did not pay the charges to the MSOs. There cannot be any territorial monopoly because anyone can use the optic fibre cable facilities now available throughout the City, viewers feel.

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Section  : Southern States
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