MUMBAI: As a result of unresolved conflict between Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd (Hathway) and IndiaCast Media Distribution Pvt Ltd (IndiaCast), all IndiaCast channels have been pulled off from the cable platform. Despite several meetings, Hathway could not fulfill the growth aspiration of IndiaCast in terms of the carriage and subscription fees, according to a source. The subscription and carriage agreements between Hathway and IndiaCast expired on 31 March 2018.
On 1 April 2018, IndiaCast issued a 21-day public notice to Hathway to meet regulatory requirements. Earlier, reports stated that the notice was issued due to non-payment of dues, non-submission of monthly subscriber reports, under-declaration of subscribers, failure to allow an audit of systems and unauthorised retransmission of channels.
IndiaCast did not respond to queries when Indiantelevision.com reached out to the company.
Across the cable industry, multi-system operators (MSOs) are now doing fixed-fee deals. While all the players are waiting for the new tariff order, due to the delay in the roll out, cable operators are relying on fixed-fee deals only. To move forward with these fixed-fee deals, the parties negotiate on the last fee structure and agree on certain percentage growth.
The disagreement between IndiaCast and Hathway came about with the renewal of these deals. As IndiaCast acquired Turner channels recently, the distribution company wanted to get more subscription money than ZEE.
According to a source familiar to the development, Hathway, being convinced of the logic, offered a certain level of growth going beyond their means. However, IndiaCast was not happy with the offering and asked for a percentage increase more than 100 per cent. Ultimately, the parties could not reach any solution leaving the deal unresolved.
Though IndiaCast was due to switch off its channels on 21 April, it eventually pulled off from Hathway on 25 April. Other than the disagreement on the hike in fees, IndiaCast also asked Hathway for a two-year commitment and was not satisfied with the format of the subscription report.
This is not a new development in Indian cable history. Though broadcasters, MSOs and DTH operators speak about putting viewers’ interest first, the recent examples don’t speak in favour of that. Agreements being left to market forces lead to such stand-offs from time to time. As a result, consumers are often at the risk of missing out on watching their favourite channels.
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