IN-fighting among cable operators

MUMBAI, AUG 25: In Cablenet and its franchisees are at daggers drawn, with the latter accusing the Hinduja-owned network of arrogance, ar...

MUMBAI, AUG 25: In Cablenet and its franchisees are at daggers drawn, with the latter accusing the Hinduja-owned network of arrogance, arm-twisting and worse. The slugfest between the partners-turned-rivals is hotting up, with press statements flying across faster than any satellite beam.

Representatives of the Cable Operators8217; Association which operates in Bandra, Khar and Santacruz say 55 members who beam to nearly 25,000 households have blacked out IN Network8217;s channels from 5 pm on Wednesday. In a press release, the cable operators announced their decision to join WIN Cable, a company formed by IN Cablenet8217;s ex-directors including Jagjit Singh Kohli and Bharat Harwani, following IN8217;s demand that they sign a monopolistic agreement with the company that would prevent them from beaming signals for any other cable company. Of the 23 lakh cable TV subscribers in Mumbai, In Cablenet claims to have its footprint over 10 lakh.

The association claimed that its decision was prompted by 8220;strong-arm tactics andthreats in the name of the underworld to sign a monopolistic agreement with In Cablenet through their distributors Ashok Singh and Kumar Gurnani at the instance of Mr Ram T Hingorani, CEO of Incablenet8221; and two other high-ranking officials.

Said Bobby Shah, president of the association, 8220;They have become so arrogant, they are trying to get all cable operators to sign their new one-sided agreement to stop us from taking up franchiseeship of any other cable company. At the same time, they are not prepared to compensate us for losses we might incur by doing so. All this happened because their ex-directors have joined hands with the Raheja group to form WIN Cable and they don8217;t want us to beam this network8217;s services.8221;

The association also registered a complaint with the Bandra, Khar and Santacruz police stations against Gurnani, accusing him of threatening one of its members, Kamlesh Basantani, with dire consequences if he and his fellow members did not sign the agreement.

In its own press release, INNetwork denied any attempts at coercion, and claimed that it has asked the concerned police stations for help to safeguard its own cable connections. In a statement issued on Wednesday evening, the company said the cable operators have threatened to discontinue transmission only to avoid making payment of their dues. 8220;This is a blatantly illegal act and violative of existing agreements8230; For these operators, to threaten to switch over to another network is nothing but a betrayal of the trust reposed in them by the subscribers of IN Network,8221; reads the statement.

Counters Shah, 8220;We offered to have a meeting on August 23 to settle past dues, but their representative failed to turn up. The problem is that WIN Cable, which was launched a few weeks ago, has given birth to competition in the area and IN Cablenet is trying to use the operators to take on the rival company on their behalf.8221; Already, three other cable networks operate in the region 8211; Citi Cable, Channel 3 and 7-Star 8211; but the cable operatorsclaim they have made their peace with these companies.

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IN Network8217;s Corporate Communications head Hima Mehta lashed out against the vested interests8217; who were trying to malign the company8217;s reputation. 8220;They have been defaulting on payments for very long. You cannot call one random meeting and claim to settle the issue. We are trying to get all our contracts in place and put everything down in black and white. Moreover, there are just two persons who are disgruntled who have joined forces with other vested interest,8221; she stated. Another press release said 8220;The indefinite shutdown of cable transmission8230; has proved to be a non-starter, according to a survey conducted by IN Network officials. Transmission signals of satellite/cable channels continued uninterrupted in these areas8230;8221;.

Contempt notice against cable operators

Justice JB Goel of the Delhi High Court has issued contempt notices against Siti Cable Network Ltd and cable operators in the Siti Cable Network, Matunga Communications,Mumbai for violating a court order of July 7, 1999. The court has ordered the personal presence of managing directors of both these concerns. The order was passed on August 20 in a petition filed by Chander M Lall, counsel for the nine leading Hollywood studios including Columbia Pictures, Disney, MGM, Paramount, Warner, 20th Century Fox, Universal and Lucasfilm.

In the petition, the studios alleged that despite an HC order, Siti Cable through its distributor Matunga Communications screened the film Matrix on its network without authorisation from Warner Bros. On a complaint made on behalf of the Motion Picture Association, a raid was conducted when a pirated VCD of the film was seized.

In its July 7 order, Justice JB Goel restrained Siti Cable and its distributors from exhibiting any film of the studios without written authorisation. Siti Cable countered that it was only an investor in cable distribution companies and was not responsible for cable operators making unauthorised exhibitions of thefilm.