In the end, it was too good to last. Yesterday, Hinduja Group MSO INCableNet‘s subscribers who were tuned in to the quarter final match-up between new tournament favourites Brazil and England found themselves suddenly switched out.

The reason: raids that were conducted across the city at INCableNet headends by teams organised by Modi Entertainment Network (MEN), the Dubai-based sports broadcaster Ten Sports‘ distributor in India, for stealing unauthorised signals. Ten Sports has exclusive telecast rights in India and other South Asian countries for the World Cup.

Something of this sort has been on the cards following an order passed by the Delhi High Court on Thursday. As reported by the Economic Times, the path-breaking order empowers a Court Commissioner to enter the premises of any cable operator transmitting the signals without a licence, collect necessary evidence and initiate civil proceedings that could attract a hefty fine of Rs 2 million.

According to MEN, 19 headends across the city were raided. And as a further evidence gathering exercise, two subscribers per headend were also checked to check whether they were getting the signal.

A major raid was also organised at the Regent Hotel in the western suburb of Bandra, which is also serviced by INCableNet, MEN says.

The whole affair becomes more curious considering the fact that the Rajan Raheja-promoted MSO Hathway and INCableNet jointly announced on 7 June that they had thrashed out an agreement with Ten Sports to carry its signals. Hathway has been carrying Ten Sports since then. Not so INCableNet.

It was more than a week after the initial announcement that Ten Sports finally start airing on INCableNet. The reasons, according to INCableNet executives, being that were some internal issues that still needed sorting out.

Judging by the latest standoff, it appears clear that internal issues will continue to impede on a resolution to this issue.

Any thoughts that Ozzie-American media baron Rupert Murdoch might be ready to ease the pedal on the breakneck pace of life that he leads could well be a tad premature if one goes by the interview, which he gave during the airing of a documentary aired on BBC2 over the weekend.
Speculation that Murdoch might be thinking ahead to the day when he would "hang up his boots" increased after he suggested in a recent interview to London‘s "Financial Times" that his two sons, Lachlan and James, could share the future leadership of News Corporation.

Rupert Murdoch: "Excuse me? Somebody said I‘m retiring?"

In the BBC2 interview, the septuagenarian dismissed rumours that he was to go easy on the pedal and even seemed to suggest there was no way he would hand over the wheel of the News Corp juggernaut to his kids for at least the next 30 years.

During the course of the documentary he said that his heart is perfect, there is no sign of cholesterol in his system. He said that he would live to score his century.

"I don‘t like the idea of retirement. Retirement is something that was not on my radar screen and still isn‘t," Murdoch was quoted as saying, adding that his second wife Anna and he split on account of her demands on him to go easy in his professional career.

The Australian documentary shows Murdoch working out and even getting into a boxing session with a sparring partner. Hotel officials in India (wherever he has stayed on his India visits) have revealed to indiantelevision.com how the media baron normally makes a dash for the gym whenever he comes visiting. "For a 70-year-old he is extremely fit," says an executive in one of the hotels where he has stayed.

Fat chance of that happening if one goes by his determination to go past 100.