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Colors, MTV among channels that go off air across 12 cities over fee dispute

Nandini Raghavendra, ET Bureau Apr 5, 2013, 10.12AM IST
(Carriage fees, which channel…)

MUMBAI: 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 for 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. While all three parties confirmed that it is an issue of carriage fees, no one is willing to bend first.

Carriage fees, which channel owners pay to cable operator to be on their network, are negotiated between the aggregator and broadcaster, and can range between 2% and 10% of the broadcasters' cost. It is a major source of revenue for the multiple system operator (MSOs).

"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," said Anuj Gandhi, chief executive officer of IndiaCast. Gujarat is a critical market for GEC channels as it has a large viewership for fiction.