The battle between Mumbai‘s cable operators and ESPN-Star Sports is entering another phase. Cable operators are believed to have met the information & broadcasting minister Arun Jaitley yesterday presenting to him their grouses against the sports services and how the contracts drawn up by them are totally one-sided. Jaitley is believed to have heard them out. One will have to wait and watch how Jaitley will react.

ESPN-Star Sports meanwhile has received support from the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, a representative body of television channels, programmers, producers, advertisers and marketers, and the Cable Operators Federation of India (COFI), a representative body of cable operators. The two have condemned the initiative by cable operators to black out the two sports services following a hike in subscription rates by Star Sports.

IBF president and Prasar Bharati CEO Rajiv Ratna Shah says: "Pay TV is going to be the norm for the future. Television programming being a very expensive proposition, the channels need more than one revenue stream besides advertising, subscription fees too may be necessary. That‘s how the television industry has evolved around the world and India is no exception."

He added, "Just as newspapers, the television channels cannot survive on advertising revenues alone. Newspaper prices average about 50-120 rupees per month today whereas the channels charge only about 3 - 8 rupees per month. The pay TV charges in India are among the lowest in the world. The subscriber fee set by each channel is a business decision it has to make, and must take into account the market conditions. We therefore do not favour pressure tactics adopted by some persons, including black-out of some channels by a few cable operators from Mumbai."

COFI has on its part also condemned the mixing of politics with business. "Often the modus operandi used by politicians or their relatives is to divide the cable operators on political ground and present to the government that certain issues be resolved which may give them personal benefits and avoiding the main issues that have adversely affecting the industry since last 10 years." COFI has also frowned upon the practice of politicians who have been forcibly taking over networks from small operators using the cover of friends and relatives.

ESPN Software India managing director Manu Sawhney‘s has also warned cable operators that they are legally bound to show ESPN and Star Sports on their networks as they have signed contracts to that effect. to the cable operators Says Sawhney, "The television viewers are being deprived by the cable operators of watching the exciting cricket series on ESPN and STAR Sports. This is in complete violation of the agreements that they have signed with us under which they are contractually and legally bound to provide the ESPN and STAR Sports services to the consumers of the cable network for reception by their subscribers".

Meanwhile cable operators do not seem to be affected by the furore they have created by imposing the ban. There were no signs of ESPN and Star Sports making a come back on to TV screens in Mumbai as the ban entered its second week. Viewers in Mumbai have tuned into Sony Max which has been airing the youth World Cup tournament from Colombo. And hence they have not been raising a stink. This apart the Indian cricket team has been putting up a good enough show to make viewers believe that they are missing out on a good thing.

The battle between ESPN-Star Sports has entered another phase. On 24 January cable TV operators in cable TV capital Mumbai extended their agitation against basic subscription channels ESPN and Star Sports.That too at a time when India is expected to play a crucial match against Pakistan as part of the one-day series in Australia on 25 January. Cable operators have been protesting the RS 1.51 hike per subscriber to RS 6.50 that ESPN Software management imposed on them to continue to redistribute sports channels Star Sports to subscribers from last week. They had decided to black out the two channels for three days last week. When the three day period expired last week they took a decision to extend the ban indefinitely.

"They are treating us shoddily and at gun point," says Atul Saraf one of the agitating cable operators. "The contract they have made us sign to renew telecasting the service is pretty tough and one-sided. Hence we have decided to fight."

This time they have got the support of a BJP politician Kirit Somaiya who has a vested interest in the agitation as people close to him have been switched off by ESPN Software on account of non-payment for the basic subscription channel. Somaiya is taking the fractious cable TV operators as part of a delegation to the information and broadcasting minister Arun Jaitley in Delhi to air their grievances.

The cable ops are also giving the entire issue a foreign invasion slant by saying that the price hikes are being resorted to mainly by multinational channels who are out to make pots of unwarranted money out of lay Indian consumers just because they have rights to cricket which Indian viewers simply cannot do without.

Star Sports says that the price hike was part of the contract that the cable TV ops had signed with the channel. It says it will not bow down to the arm twisting methods of the cable operators. And they will wait it out.

Cable operators say that it sure is going to be a long wait. "We have taken away the ESPN and Star Sports decoders from cable operators who we believe will give in to the bad tactics of ESPN-Star early," says Saraf. "We are going to fight till the end." Cable operators involved in the battle in Mumbai include Shri Bhawani, InCablenet, Siticable, Seven Star, Channel III, Five Star, Hathway, accounting for almost all of the city‘s cable and satellite homes.

Who will blink first? Cable ops or the two channels? Whoever does will end up benefiting the TV viewer.