MUMBAI: Cable TV operators blacked out the broadcasting of entertainment channels on their digital networks since Saturday evening as a mark of respect to Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray who died the same afternoon.

The news channels, covering in detail the death of Thackeray and the Sunday?s funeral procession, were shown on digital cable networks. Mumbai is one of the three metros to have gone digital since 1 November.

The Mumbai Cable Operators? Association (MCOA) is led by Shiv Sena leader and Member of Legislative Council Anil Parab.

Even the sports channels were blocked in many parts of Mumbai.

The entertainment and sports channels, however, started beaming once the funeral rites were over.

The cinema theatres in Mumbai were also shut.

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has quashed all hopes for cash-strapped Deccan Chronicles Holdings Limited (DCHL) by setting aside the status quo order passed by the arbitrator granting relief to its IPL team Deccan Chargers.

In a double whammy, the court had also refused to grant any interim relief to DCHL against termination of its franchise agreement by the BCCI. The Court said that the legality of the termination would be decided by the arbitrator.

With this order, Deccan Chargers termination from IPL stands as was the case on 12 October when the franchise had failed to furnish Rs 1 billion bank guarantee following which it was ousted from the season 6 of IPL.

Justice RD Dhanuka quashed the status quo order passed by the arbitrator after hearing a petition filed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). While passing the order, Justice Dhanuka said that the arbitrator is not "superior" to the high court and cannot pass an order which overrides the high court?s direction.

"Arbitrator had no jurisdiction to grant status quo. On the same day (12 October), the high court had denied extension of time to DCHL to furnish Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) bank guarantee as directed by the court on October 1," Justice Dhanuka said.

He also said that once the Court has rejected relief, the plea made before the arbitrator is not maintainable.

Justice Dhanuka also noted that the order passed by Justice SJ Kathwala on 1 October directing DCHL to furnish bank guarantee was "self operative and protective of the interests of both DCHL and BCCI".

He refused to grant any relief to DCHL since it has still not been able to furnish bank guarantee. "DCHL has still not furnished bank guarantee. Hence there is no change in circumstances to grant relief to DCHL. No case is made out for interim relief for granting stay on termination. The application seeking stay is a gross abuse of law," Justice Dhanuka said.

The DCHL had on Wednesday requested the court to grant relief contending that the termination of Deccan Chargers was not anybody?s interest whether it is owners, players or lenders. It also pointed out that DCHL has till now invested Rs 6 billion in the franchise.

Retired Supreme Court Judge C K Thakkar, who was last month appointed as the arbitrator, had passed an order last week directing BCCI not to go ahead with its termination of Deccan Chargers following which the BCCI challenged the order in High Court and secured a stay.

Backed by its lenders, DCHL had said that it was ready to furnish bank guarantee by 9 October as directed by the court on 1 October. However, it could not furnish bank guarantee by the designated time following which the court granted it three more days to furnish the amount.

Despite extension of deadline, DCHL was unable to furnish irrevocable and unconditional bank guarantee of Rs 1 billion by 12 October which led to its termination from the IPL after the court refused to grant more time to DCHL to furnish bank guarantee.

The Court had said in its 1 October order that the BCCI?s termination notice would stand if DCHL fails to furnish bank guarantee. The interim relief provided by the arbitrator also proved short lived as the court stayed the status quo order passed by the arbitrator extending deadline for submitting bank guarantee.

With termination notice standing, the DCHL?s attempt to sell the franchise to Mumbai-based real estate firm Kamla Landmarc proved a non-starter. Kamla Landmarc is believed to have committed Rs 12.5 billion for acquiring the franchise.

The DCHL plea comes on a day when IPL Governing Council is meeting in Mumbai to discuss the termination of Deccan Chargers and the fate of the players since 31 October is the deadline for resigning players.

Earlier, the BCCI had floated tenders for a new franchise after terminating Deccan Chargers.The tender notice for a fresh franchise invites bids in respect of 12 cities including Ahmedabad, Cuttack, Dharamsala, Indore, Kanpur, Kochi, Nagpur, Noida, Rajkot, Ranchi, Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.

Mumbai: Broadcasters on Wednesday night will begin the phased genre-wise pullout of analogue television channels from the four metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai three weeks ahead of the complete shift to digitised delivery from 1 November.

The switching off of analogue signals of all English movie channels will start from 11 pm. They will serve a big jolt on 12 October by shutting analogue signals of Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) for two hours between from 2 pm on Friday, 12 October, before going ahead with the switching off of analogue signals of more genres.

In a letter to multi-system operators (MSOs), Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) president and Multi Screen Media CEO Man Jit Singh said analogue signals of Hindi movie channels will be switched off in the four metros from 11 pm on 15 October, followed by English, Hindi and business news channels from 11 pm on 18 October and Hindi GECs from 11 pm on 22 October. A copy of that letter is with Indiantelevision.com.

The decision to switch off analogue channels in the four metro as part of the final push for digitisation was taken during discussions held under the aegis of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Will there not be a consumer reaction? "For subscribers who will demand these channels, we are ready to install free digital set-top boxes till 31 October. They can then watch these channels. They will need to pay for the digital services only after 31 October. Since this is a short window, there shouldn‘t be a problem," a senior executive of a leading MSO said on condition of anonymity.

MSOs who have not agreed to the switch off will, however, continue to get these channels. The major MSOs like Hathway Cable & Datacom, Den, Siticable and Digicable have, however, agreed for a genre-wise switch off ahead of digitisation.

The government on Wednesday said an average of 77 per cent of cable TV homes in the four metros have installed set-top boxes required for receiving digital television signals, led by Mumbai with 99 per cent of homes digitised. Kolkata follows with 73 per cent homes digitised, Delhi 66 per cent and Chennai 59 per cent.

As agreed during meetings at the I&B Ministry, MSOs will be giving separate letters to the broadcasters as per a draft prepared by the IBF requesting them to switch off analogue signals. MSOs are required to give complete details of the analogue signals they receive along with the letter. Such request letters were sought from MSOs as otherwise switching off analogue signals would not have been legally tenable, particularly after a recent order by the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (Tdsat) on a petition by ESPN Star Sports barring MSOs from switching off analogue signals of its sports channels before 1 November.

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