The Hinduja-run MSO Incablenet has run
into a spot of bother. Its former promoters and directors
Jagjit Singh Kohli, Yogesh Shah and Yogesh Radhakrishnan,
who broke away from the company to set up Encore, have
signed an independent deal with Incablenet franchises
under which they will be paying MEN - ESPN's India distributor
- for a disclosed subscriber base of 1.1 million.
In the past, MEN had been paid for a
disclosed subscriber base of 125,000 by InCablenet. The
agreement for that subscriber count terminated on 30 April
and MEN then inked another one with Encore for a sub base
of 1.1 million which it committed it would recover from
InCablenet's 15 headends in Mumbai. MEN sources say it
has signed individual contracts with each of InCablenet
15 headends which has led to the higher sub count. ESPN
charges Rs 7 per sub from each cable operator.
InCablenet in turn filed a petition in
the Mumbai high court against Encore and MEN alleging
that the two have no right to sign a deal for headends
affiliated to it. The court turned down the petition according
to MEN sources. Encore claims to have support from the
cable operators who run the headends. InCablenet said
that the court ruled in its favour and told MEN not to
switch off the ESPN decoders located in its headends.
The imbroglio indicates the delicate
state-of-affairs that InCablenet is in. Kohli, Radhakrishnan,
Shah and the late Ram Punjabi had helped the Hindujas
to set up InCablenet by bringing together cable operators
in Mumbai and other parts of India in its fold. The Hindujas,
however, fell out with them after Punjabi was killed by
rivals and the trio decided to take over the floundering
music channel ATN. The non-resident Indian family also
brought in outside managers whittling the trio's powers
within the company.
The three then left InCablenet in a huff,
resurrected an old firm Encore which revived ATN. ATN,
owes the Modi Entertainment Group (MEG) Rs 50 million
for close to two years now and the revival of the channel
included a clause by which MEG would be repaid the amount
owed to it. As would ATN promoter Siddharth Shrivastava.
Sources indicate that ATN is in danger
of folding up as it - under Encore management - has not
been meeting its repayment schedules. Observers indicate
that the deal between Encore and MEN for ESPN for the
higher subscriber count from InCablenet is Encore's method
of getting back at InCablenet and also to recover dues
owed to MEG.
The saving grace for InCablenet is that
the agreement between Encore and MEN has been signed only
for the duration of the telecast of the World Cup.
