INCABLE GOES FOR
FORMER DIRECTORS' JUGULAR

The battle between the Hinduja-run IN Cablenet and the breakaway Win Cable took a dramatic turn last week. Allegations of bullying and browbeating, retraction of the allegations, the signing on of a deep-pocketed cable TV partner and the loss of a court case by the latter were all part of the histrionics that were played out.

The biggest blow dealt to the trio - Jagjit Singh Kohli, Yogesh Radhakrishnan and Yogesh Shah - who quit IN Cable in a huff a few months ago was when the high court told them that they could not use ETN or ATN as the ID for their music channel. Music channel ATN promoter Siddharth Shrivastava who had earlier partnered them but later backed out had approached the court to restrain them from using the ETN logo. Shrivastava after splitting from the three has gone over to the Hindujas who are supporting him to relaunch ATN and prevent the trio from operating ETN.

Following the court's order, the three filed an appeal, which was vacated by the court. The trio then announced that they would change the logo to ETC (Entertainment Television Channel). But apparently even this ID was also not totally in the clear. Shrivastava has maintained that according to the non-competing clause that he had signed when he was partnering the trio, they are not allowed to launch a music channel for at least two years in the event of the breakup of their partnership. Radhakrishnan had earlier said that since Shrivastava had not kept part of his deal, they had no obligation to keep their's. Apparently, Shrivastava is likely to approach the courts again to prevent them from continuing with a music channel.

The trio's aim to set up an alternative cable TV network in Mumbai has got a shot in the arm. Last week they announced that they had forged an alliance with the deep-pocketed Hathway Cable & Datacom to cable up central and northern suburbs of Mumbai afresh where Hathway has no presence. Additionally, a group of IN Cable franchisee cable operators said that they were breaking away from the Hinduja-run network and joining hands with Win Cable. They said they were doing this because IN Cable was roughing them up and forcing them to sign unilateral and monopolistic partnership agreements. Win Cable had claimed more than 42 operators were coming on board giving the fledgling network access to more than 40,000 subscribers. IN Cable had pooh-poohed the Win Cable claim saying that they did not number more than 1,500. Today, however, the group reversed its stand, retracted its statement and said they were continuing with IN Cable.

While rumour was that DTH wannabe and US West Coast-based non-resident Indian billionaire C. Sivasankaran was also no longer interested in supporting Win Cable because of the cable TV wars taking place currently, Shah denied it. "Sivasankaran is with us for value added services like Cable TV Internet access. He has not backed out," Shah stressed.

Meanwhile, in a bid to prevent carriage of ETN (now ETC) on its network, the IN Cable management has instructed its franchisee cable operators to carry the now-on Vatsa Music on the prime band. ETC, for its part, has hired producer Fahad Samar, who has worked on successful music shows such as Superhit Muqabla, The Poppadum Show and BPL Oye as a consulting programming director.