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Journalism of Courage
JAMMU, DEC 22: Thousands of television viewers in Jammu have been sulking around prime time for the past few nights. Every evening, when Amitabh Bachhan is set to take on the contestants of Kaun Banega Crorepati — now famous as KBC on Star Plus — the channel has simply been going off the air.
Sometimes, the “breakdown” lasts for more than 48 hours. The exucuses offered to the viewers by the local cable operators range from non-payment of bills by the channel in question to simple satellite link failure.
“They are doing it deliberately, and even after 48 hours, the link has not been restored,” said an angry Gandhi Nagar viewer. The viewers attribute the “blackout” to the ongoing cable war between the Star TV and the Zee TV where Jammu’s Siticable has apparently sided with the latter.
Siticable officials, on their part, accept that they are involved in a legal tangle with Star. “Whatever be the problems between them, viewers feel that Siticable filed a case in a subordinate court only to avoid legal challange from the consumers. Now they have a technical loophole to escape if consumers move the court against them,” said the secretary, Consumer Welfare Forum, A. Vashisht.
Vashisht has urged the viewers not to pay any dues to cable operators as part of a non-violent protest. “This is not the first time that Star programmes have gone off the air,” he informed, “it has happened on four earlier occasions.”
For the past two days, no one has been picking up the phone at the Siticable office. A few lucky who did hear from Siticable were told that the link had been down because of satellite failure.
“But if the link is really down, how come Star TV programmes are being aired in Pathakote, Chandigarh and adjoining Udhammpur areas?” asks Ajay Sharma, a resident of Sanjay Nagar.
Many like Sharma feel that the sudden breakdown of the Star channel is a local distributor’s ploy to affect the viewership of the Star TV which has been apparently doing much better than its rival channel. “They are forcing us to watch programmes on Zee. We don’t have much option left,” says Shanta, a housewife in Trikuta Nagar area.
“If payment for other channels can reach in time, how come every time the payment of Star gets stalled?” asks a journalist working for the media in Jammu.
In defence, Siticable officials claim that Star TV has informed them of a survey result putting the number of connections in Jammu at 16,000, while Siticable claimed lower connectivity. A week after receiving a payment of Rs 1.55 lakh from Siticable, Star asked for additional payment on the basis of this survey report, fixing a four-day deadline.
“They never conducted any survey. They want to mint money by blackmailing us. So they have switched off. Tell us what is our fault,” asks O.P. Dogra, managing director of Siticable. Dogra informed that they have already approached the court and got a stay order against switching off the channel.
