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Black out issue -- Star refutes Siti charges; denies foul play
Our eFE Bureau
New Delhi : Following Star channels being blacked out on the Siticable on Tuesday, Star officials are holding hectic parleys with cable operators to sort out the matter. While Siti is stating that Star is the culprit in the blackout drama, Star maintains its innocence. Sandwiched between broadcasters and cablewallahs are viewers all over the country who are missing out on TV programmes. Reacting to the issue of blacking out of Star channels, the Star spokesperson says: ``We haven't stopped any feed to any cable operator. Siticable on its own has blacked out channels depriving viewers of Star Plus and other Star channels.'' Earlier, Siticable had alleged that Star had stopped giving its feed to Siticable. According to Star, there has been no hike in rates since the annual revision in March-April 2000. The increase that Siti is referring to is due to the addition of a channel-StarGold-in the Star bouquet, says the Star spokesperson. ``StarGold is priced at Rs 5.50 per home per month. But cable operators have achoice to take it or not to take it,'' the official says.Without StarGold, the Star bouquet is priced at Rs 19.25 per home per month. But, it's not a one-time problem, say cable operators. Rather it's a continuous process of war between broadcasters and cable operators. Says Mr K D Khanna, president, Cable Network Association, it was the subscription issue which led to the blacking out of Star. ``Star is asking for a certain number of subscribers, which Siti is refusing to declare,'' Mr Khanna says. And he adds that what has happened to Star today may happen to other channels if the subscription issue is not resolved. And the subscription issue can be resolved only by introducing the conditional access system, for which cable operators are pressing hard, says another prominent cable operator, Mr Rakesh Dutta. ``In this case also, the dispute is over the number of subscribers,'' he says. If the conditional access system is introduced, the problem will be resolved on its own, he adds. Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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