According to indications available on day one of the strike, cable operators in other regions will join the strike in a day or two. In fact, satellite towns of Delhi such as Noida and Gurgaon are already part of the striking community. The next to join in are Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. In all likelihood, these states will begin their agitation on Wednesday. Cable operators in Mumbai are also showing signs of going on a strike from Thursday.

It is significant to note that for the first time cable operators, notwithstanding their different alignments, have joined hands under a common forum, to protect the industry of cable operators. And now after Delhi's show of solidarity, other states have been inspired to join in as well.

After the conference, one of the cable operators who was also a speaker at the meet, Mr Suzail Waris, said: "We called the press conference to reiterate our demand that the onus should not be on cable operators for programmes and advertisements shown on various channels." Policing and code of conduct should be applicable to the channels more than cable operators, he said.

Said Mr Waris that when a group of cable operators had met the information and broadcasting minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, on Saturday with their demands, the minister was not willing to listen to them. ``Now Mr Jaitley should call us and try to understand our demands,'' he said.

Elaborating on the action plan of the cable operators, Mr Waris said step one is to involve all associations of cable operators, which has already happened. The next step is to involve the allied industry such as channels and broadcasters who are connected with the cable TV service, he added. As a last resort, perhaps the help of politicians could be sought to put an end to the cable operators' difficulties.