The ongoing tussle between ESPN Software and the Hinduja Group‘s cable arm InCable Network took a serious turn today after two affiliated cable operators, Jagdish Shah and Bimal Navsaria, of Sri Sai Vision Santa Cruz East, were arrested in the early hours of this morning for allegedly stealing ESPN and Star Sports signals.
"It had come to our notice that some cable networks affiliated to InCable were stealing the ESPN and STAR Sports signals. This is a criminal offence under the Copyrights Act and the Indian Penal Code. We greatly appreciate the action initiated by the Mumbai Police in curbing the piracy of our signals," an ESPN spokesperson said.

When contacted, Ashok Mansukhani, executive V-P, corporate services, Hinduja Group offered no comments, saying the matter was sub judice.

Earlier in the week, an InCable employee Shirish Khare, senior manager, IndusInd Media & Communication Ltd. of MIDC, Andheri East, Mumbai, was arrested by the Nasik Police after an offence was registered against him under section 51 and 63 of the Copyrights Act 1957 the for stealing of Star Sports signals, the spokesperson said. Even in Indore, the Court has issued bailable warrant against Capt. RS Ginwala, manager, InCable Network, when the prima facie evidence was found under Section 379 of IPC for theft of sports channels signals, and has directed the police to investigate further, he added.

Confirming the report on indiantelevision.com last month (24 December 2001 to be exact), the Ramoji Rao owned Eenadu Television Network announced today that it was all systems go for the launch of its six new regional language channels on Sunday, 27 January.
The four major Hindi-speaking states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan will each have a separate channel along with two channels servicing Orissa in the east and Gujarat in the west. The launch of the six channels will see ETV emerge as the "largest television network in the country cutting across linguistic boundaries," an official release states. With the launch of the six channels, ETV Network will have a total of 11 regional channels including Telugu, Kannada, Bangla, Marathi and Urdu.

Programmingwise, the ETV Network‘s is claiming a unique feature - Annadata, a programme wholly devoted to the farming community. Annadata will provide exclusive fare for each state it caters to and will function as a daily guide for farmers in the respective regions it covers.

All the channels are digital, free-to-air and transmitted from the earth station located at Ramoji Film City in in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh and beaming off the Insat 2E satellite.

Other regional players include the six Zee Alpha channels, the Tara bouquet of four channels, RITV?s two channels and ETC?s Punjabi channel. There is of course the Sahara Group‘s plans to launch a national news channel and 37 independent city-based regional news stations covering Uttar Pradesh & Uttranchal, Madhya Pradesh & Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Bihar & Jharkhand, National Capital Region (NCR) and Mumbai. But these are not entertainment channels but news and current affairs-based.