Few Channels Go Off Air Across 12 Cities

Large cable operators Hathway and Gujarat Telelink have stopped airing a bouquet of channels, including Colors and MTV, across 10-12 cities of Gujarat, Maharasthra, Rajasthan, Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, affecting nearly 75 lakh TV viewers.

The 35 channels are owned by IndiaCast, a global distribution company of Viacom18, which is not willing to pay a higher share of carriage fees to the multi-system operators. Not willing to yield either, the cable operators have stopped airing the channels from April 1.

Hathway, which boasts of a 15-lakh subscriber base, has also stopped telecasting Comedy Central, Sonic and History in Mumbai. Chief executive officer of IndiaCast Anuj Gandhi said, "All we are asking for is our fair share and a report of the number of subscribers. We have written to TRAI, which has written to Gujarat Telelink to heed to our letter.”

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/digitization-news/item/2082-few-channels-go-off-air-across-12-cities.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/digitization-news/item/2082-few-channels-go-off-air-across-12-cities.html