Ahmedabad : More than 12 lakh cable television subscribers in the city were unable to watch tv today due a ‘black-out’ by operators in protest against the introduction of ‘Star Package’ by a private broadcaster.
More than 1,000 cable operators stopped the telecast of all the channels today; the black-out will continue tomorrow too, said Dalsukh Patel, president of Ahmedabad Cable Operators Welfare and Charitable Trust, a apex body of cable operators in the city, which collectively cater to over 12 lakh subscribers.
“We are protesting against the introduction of Star Package, which will compel our customers to pay more for the channels offered by the Star Network,” said Patel.
The protest was necessary “to wake up” the Multi Service Operators (MSO) and the broadcaster (Star), he said.
“The MSO and broadcaster are trying to put extra burden on customers with this package….If it is implemented, customers will have to shell out around Rs 200 more to watch channels offered by Star as they would come as a part of package, not an individual channel,” he said.
He said cable operators in Surendranagar too had agreed to join the protest and enforce a two-day black-out.
Market sources confirm that the new package from Star is expected to favour the channel in realizing better revenues, but the cable operators are facing tough time convincing the subscribers on the sudden increase of channel subscription rates as they use to pay a fixed consolidated monthly charges, whereby making things difficult for the cable operators.
