MUMBAI: Zee Turner Limited, the distribution arm of Zee Telefilms Ltd and Turner International (I) Pvt. Ltd, has finally switched off its bouquets of 26 channels on OCN Network in Mangalore due to non payment of its huge outstanding to Zee Turner and non signing of fresh agreement after expiry of earlier one.

Zee Turner has been in negotiations with OCN for past eight months to clear its outstanding and to sign a fresh subscription agreement declaring its accurate subscriber base as the old agreement. It was found that OCN had been serving many more subscribers and households as compared to the number of subscriber households declared to Zee Turner.

The decision to switch off the operator came in wake of fall out of negotiations and the operator’s constant abstinence from clearing its outstanding and signing the requisite agreement.

While rest of Mangalore on CCC and ICN’s network continues to enjoy the channels of Zee Turner, close to 50,000 subscribers of OCN Network are deprived of channels like CNN, Zee Cinema, Zee TV, HBO, Cartoon Network, Pogo due to default on OCN’s part.

Zee Turner Ltd. CEO Arun Poddar said, "We are concerned about our viewers and still trying to negotiate with OCN and have kept all our channels of communication open. We have shared an extremely healthy relationship with OCN in past and are positive of resolving the issue in an amicable manner."

It is to be noted that as per the regulation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), if a cable operator drops a channel or bouquet of channels from his network, he is required to reduce the price of such channel/bouquet to be charged from his customers/households. The viewers are, therefore, entitled and may ask for reduction in price from their monthly cable bill if these channels are missing due to such switch off.