INCablenet stays put on ESPN hike

Our eFE Bureau in Mumbai

Hinduja-promoted INCablenet will not be moving the court against ESPN Star Sports for getting back the service of the two sporting channels, which was discontinued from January 5 over the dispute on the recent subscription rate hike.

“We are not moving court. Let them black us out. They do not have India played cricket for the next few months. We will resist against the price hike,” said IndusInd Media & Communications executive vice chairman Ram Hingorani.

The contract for providing the service of ESPN and Star Sports expired on December 31. As INCablenet did not want to sign up for the revised rate of Rs 24 a month per subscriber (up from Rs 16), ESPN Star Sports switched off service.

INCablenet claimed to have made an advance payment of Rs 24 lakh for the month of January, 2002. But, “as there is no contract between ESPN Software and INCablenet for the period commencing January 1, 2002, the question of an advance payment as falsely alleged by INCablenet does not and cannot arise,” said Sricharan Iyengar, vice president, affiliate sales of ESPN Software.

With the Star bouqet price hike and Zee Network combined with the Turner channels planning one, the fight between the broadcasters and the multi system operators may have just begun.