At a meeting of cable operators held here, the president of the MCS, Ramkrishna Keni, said that his organisation would ask cable operators to boycott pay channels as they were earning crores of rupees from India and siphoning the money to the US. He alleged that 50 per cent of the money earned was being paid to officials by the channels.

Keni further said that while some satellite channels were telecasting programmes in Malayalam, Telugu and Bengali languages, none of them had bothered to show Marathi programmes.

He said that the situation was getting worse with more and more satellite TV channels, including Zee and Sony were being turned into pay channels and the time had come for cableoperators to unite and fight.

He informed the cable operators that Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray had taken the issue of video piracy seriously and said that cable operators should not screen any new film at least for three months after its release. He specifically mentioned films like Hu Tu Tu, International Khiladi and Hum Apke Dil Main Rahate Hein, which were not to be shown on cable.

Keni further said that the Central Government had failed in controlloing satellite TV channels and appealed for unity among cable operators to agitate on the issue.