MUMBAI: Cricket fans in many pockets of Maharashtra and Tamil Naidu will not be able to watch India play West Indies in the DLF Tri-Series on Thursday. Zee Sports is yet to restore signals to the cable operators who have not signed agreements with the sports channel.

Zee Sports, however, is back on SCV, the dominant multi-system operator (MSO) in Tamil Naidu. Though the MSO had approached TDSAT, the matter got sorted out after today's hearing. Zee Sports and SCV reached a commercial agreement today.

Says Zee Sports VP marketing Gaurav Seth, "We have closed the deal with SCV. We had switched off signals to many cable networks in Tamil Naidu and Maharashtra with whom we had no commercial agreements. We are in negotiations with them and hope to arrive at a settlement soon."

In Mumbai, the channel has been off-air on two major networks Hathway Cable & Datacom and Incablenet. Even in Pune, a major chunk of viewers will be deprived of watching the live telecast of the India-West Indies match as the sports channel is not available on Intermedia Cable Communication, a leading MSO in the city.

Meanwhile, the Pune District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, which heard the injunction filed separately by two individuals, today directed Zee Sports to restore the signals till further hearings on 21 September.

"The court order will be respected and the signals will be restored (or may have been restored as it does not take too long). But we will challenge this order in a higher court," says Seth.

Zee Sports has priced the channel at Rs 10 per subscriber.