Only in Mumbai: For 2 days now, no movies on TV

The only bright spot for cable TV viewers on Tuesday appeared late in the night when, after 48 hours, TV screens came back to life after cable operators called off their protest against police action on the movie channels that have been blocked apparently for broadcasting adult content.

“We have decided to cooperate with the government and consumers and resume cable services, except the nine movie channels,” said Ganesh Naidu, president, Cable Operators and Distributors Association (CODA), Mumbai after a long meeting with Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil.

“We have explained to the minister that we are only service providers and have no monitoring systems to keep a check on the broadcasters. We will wait for the decision of the Bombay High Court and welcome whatever is decided,” he said.

On Wednesday, the high court was likely to hear an intervention petition filed by cable operators asking why broadcasters and Direct-to-Home (DTH) operators were not being taken to task by the authorities.

During the 48-hour blackout, a small number of people with DTH connections was lucky to get to watch TV, including the banned channels.

The high court will also hear on Wednesday from the police what action it had taken regarding the court’s order of December 2005 in which it had said that no adult film, including U/A films, as certified by the Censor Board be shown on TV.

The court had on August 16 come down heavily on Director General of Police P S Pasricha for not acting on that order.

So on Sunday night police started raiding cable operators, and ordered the blocking of the movie channels.Æ

“We have taken action in a totally legal manner. We had asked the multi-service operators to block only those nine channels, which were found to air movies or programmes that did not have the necessary certiication for unrestricted viewing,” said Mumbai Police Commissioner A N Roy.