MUMBAI: Broadcaster-MSO payment disputes are coming out in the open in Mumbai after what has been many months of relative calm. Premium sports channels ESPN and Star Sports (ESS) have been on the blink on Hinduja Group cable arm INCableNet, the city's biggest MSO, since yesterday.

The reason: payment outstandings that ESS says has been piling since January.
 

Ever since the sports broadcaster began running an on screen display (OSD) that appeared periodically "informing" viewers that the network (INCableNet) had large outstandings and was therefore liable for disconnection, the ESS channels have gone off air.

ESS officials however, stress that it is not they who have switched off INCableNet but the MSO that has pulled the plug on the sports broadcaster.

According to the ESS officials, outstandings in Mumbai alone have crossed Rs 20 million. Adding up the uncleared payments from Ahmedabad, Baroda, Nagpur, Indore and Nasik it crosses Rs 30 million, the ESS officials claim.

Repeated attempts by indiantelevision.com to contact INCableNet officials for their version of the events proved unsuccessful.