Star blackout: Manthan subscribers set to miss India-Pakistan match

KOLKATA: More than 200,000 cable TV viewers in Kolkata — subscribers of MSO Manthan — are set to miss the India-Pakistan Asia Cup encounter on Wednesday. The arch-rivals are set to cross swords after a 15-month gap. With Star TV having withdrawn its channels from Manthan’s platform on August 23 due to a payment default, a sizeable section of cricket-lovers will miss the thrilling contest.



Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 1 HD channels are beaming the Asia Cup live. These are among the 38 channels of the network that have been blocked on Manthan. The blackout came after a cheque of Rs 3.5 crore issued by Manthan allegedly bounced. It is the second major channel blackout on Manthan since June when Sony TV had withdrawn its channels from the platform for a week while the FIFA World Cup was on.

Manthan subscribers, naturally, are peeved. While many are planning a switch to DTH, others have been pleading with local operators to pirate the Star Sports channel. “This is set to be an engrossing duel between India’s batting line-up and Pakistan’s celebrated bowling attack. We have already been missing some entertainment channels. The US Open — beamed on Star Sports — was missed. This is the first big cricket event since the blackout. I won’t be able to catch the contest despite paying for all the channels,” said a Manthan subscriber in New Alipore.

Several Manthan cable operators said they were under pressure to pirate Star Sports. Some across south Kolkata have already pirated signals from other MSOs to beam the more popular Star channels. A New Alipore operator has been pirating Star Plus, Star Jalsha and Star Sports since August 25. “ Our subscribers will be extremely unhappy if we can’t show the Indo-Pak match. In fact, there could be lawand-order issues. So, we have pirated it,” said a cable operator in New Alipore.

While minister Firhad Hakim had taken an initiative to resolve the deadlock when Sony had blanked its channels on Manthan during the FIFA World Cup, no such move has been made this time. “The MSO does not have the resources to pay off its dues which effectively rules out the possibility of a revival,” said a city MSO director.

Manthan and Star India could not be reached for comments.