MUMBAI: Three weeks from now, viewers with cable connection of IndusInd Media and Communications (IMCL) might not be able to view a number of channels.
IndiaCast has issued a public notice against the MSO regarding various channels of TV18, Eenadu Television and UTV Entertainment Television, for whom it acts as an agent. The notice reads that consumers in DAS notified areas of Delhi, Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat, Rajkot, Nasik, Nagpur, Pune, Bengaluru, Mysore, Hyderabad, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Pimpri Chinchwad and Agra that all or some of the channels from the Indiacast group are likely to be disconnected. The notice was published in leading dailies across cities on 19 August.
The reasons for the disconnection are that the MSO has failed to execute the reference interconnection offer, not paid dues to the broadcaster, demanding illegal and high carriage fees and have failed to furnish subscriber reports.
According to a source, the agreement between IMCL and IndiaCast had expired on 31 March, post which the MSO did not execute a fresh agreement. It also stopped giving subscription revenues and subscriber report from April onwards.
IMCL currently enjoys about 2 million digital subscribers in DAS I and DAS II areas. However, the source adds that the subscriber base is not in its best operational health and is yet demanding excessive carriage fees. While the earlier deal between the two had been on carriage fees, the source adds that it is revisiting its proposition now.
The channels that will be disconnected include all of Network 18’s channels such as Colors, CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz, CNN-IBN, IBN7, CNBC Bajaar, CNBC TV18 Prime HD, History TV19, History TV 18 HD, IBN Lokmat, MTV, MTV Indies, Rishtey, Nick, Vh1, Sonic, Comedy Central, Nick Junior, Colors HD, ETV Gujarati, ETV Marathi, ETV Bangla, ETV Kannada, ETV Oriya, ETV Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand, ETV MP Chattishgarh, ETV Rajasthan, ETV Urdu, ETV News Kannada, ETV Bihar Jharkhand, ETV, ETV Andhra Pradesh, UTV Movies, UTV Stars, UTV World Movies, Disney Channel and Disney XD.
Earlier this month, the MSO had put a scroll on its home page regarding disconnection of NDTV channels. Even then, a senior NDTV official had said that the MSO was demanding high carriage fees for a small subscriber base.
