Star‘s bouquet of channels, which had been off air in the Delhi region for MSO Siticable‘s subscribers since 24 January, began beaming again on Thursday in what may well be a temporary truce in an increasingly high stakes turf war.

Since pending dues have been paid up by most Siti JVs (joint venture partners) and suboperators, the feed will be switched back on all across Delhi, Star‘s corporate communications head Yash Khanna said. There are only a few suboperators who are still to pay up, Khanna added.

Speaking for the other side, an industry source close to Siti said Star came around not over any dues issue but because the blackout of Star‘s feed was hurting their channels‘ TRP ratings in the Delhi and Ludhiana (Punjab) areas which in turn was leading to increasing pressures from their advertisers.

The differing statements indicate that the problem is a larger one of how big MSOs and channels conduct business. The present dispute had its roots in the issue of paid connectivity which is a recurring one (recall the recent spat between Sony Entertainment Television and Hathway Cable in which Star has a 26 per cent stake) as well as who the various JVs ally with. Siti has a 35 per cent cable home share in Delhi because of the 77 JVs who are allied to it. At the height of the dispute there was media reports that JVs were defecting to the Star camp, a claim Siti vehemently denied.

Its a war of attrition that is going on and it may well lead to the government stepping in to regulate the whole business.

Cable operators and control room owners in the western state of Maharashtra are up in arms over what they term heavy handed treatment from the authorities on the issue of entertainment tax arrears.

They are now demanding the complete scrapping of the tax saying it is impossible to implement in a rational manner and have instead suggested that the government charge a one time tax on the purchase of new television sets.

Matters came to a head after a recent directive from the government to get tough on defaulting operators following which certain operators were arrested and control rooms seized.

The issue has been hanging fire for over six months following the doubling of entertainment tax per connection per month from Rs 15 to Rs 30 in municipal areas and from Rs 10 to Rs 20 in other parts of the state. It may be recalled that operators went on strike over the issue in August 2000 after which a committee representing operators, the government and consumers was set up to resolve the issue.

Mumbai-based Live Satellite Media promoter Atul Saraf, who is on the committee representing cable operators accused the government of putting forth unreasonable demands.

Saraf said a number of options were being considered which included blacking out all news channels or even a total shutdown similar to what was witnessed in August. If the government still refused to come around they would move the courts, he said.

Despite meetings with revenue minister Ashok Chavan and one with finance minister Jayant Patil last month, there appeared no solution in sight, Saraf said.

Saraf cited the situation prevailing in the eastern state of West Bengal to buttress his argument, where he said a one-time tax was paid on the purchase of new television sets. "West bengal charges no entertainment tax so why should there be one here?" he asks.

A satellite television channel with a difference was launched on Thursday. The difference is the channel was launched by an Indian cable TV consortium led by Mumbai-based Live Satellite Media promoter Atul Saraf. Branded SN (Shopping Network) TV, it is positioned as a shopping and comedy channel and is in beta testing stage off a transponder on Thaicom-3.

For starters, it will have a four hour block of programming repeated through the day. This will go up to eight hours of original content over time and the ultimate aim is to become a 24-hour free-to-air channel.

Says Saraf: "We will have home shopping programming shorts but we will also offer advertisers the facilities of going beyond just a TV commercial, we will air infomercials. For instance, Phillips can explain clearly what a Flat Square Tube is in its commercial, instead of just airing attractive ads."

Saraf expects the channel to do well. "Live Satellite is a company that gets advertising to the tune of Rs 100,000 for almost 1,200 cable TV operators all over India," he says. "These cable TV operators will support us and we are not really interested in going in for funding at this stage."

The channel is targeted at the eastern, western and northern Indian markets.