dipak
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MUMBAI: Rs 20,000 crore is what it is investing in sports in India, is an announcement which the Star network put out last week. With so much money riding on Star Sports and its bouquet of channels, it is imperative that the Murdoch owned network gets oodles of distribution and subscription revenues rolling in. Hence, it has been in an aggressive mood recently; earlier this week it put Siti Cable on notice that if it does not clear its dues, its signals are quite likely to be switched off in 21 days. Now it is the turn of GTPL Hathway to face a fierce delivery from Star Sports. The latter says it has filed as many as eight FIRs against the MSO in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand for illegal transmission of its channels during the recently concluded India West Indies test series.
Anti-piracy agencies - appointed by Star Sports - conducted raids across the four states and have accordingly filed the FIRs. Of the eight, five have been filed in Gujarat while one each has been filed in Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand.
Star Sports India COO Vijay Rajput – in a press release - says he has been forced to take this step. “Piracy is just not acceptable. It is a serious offence as per the IPR act. We will pursue it strongly to bring the guilty to book,” he points out. “GTPL has consistently failed to pay us the monthly subscription fees even though they have been collecting money from the subscribers. They have a huge outstanding which just cannot be ignored.
“Over the past few months, we have tried all possible options to resolve the outstanding issues. Despite repeated reminders and requests for payment of our outstanding dues, GTPL did not pay heed. We were constrained to issue a disconnection notice to GTPL as well as a public notice in accordance with the TRAI Regulations on 19 October 2013. Even thereafter, GTPL refused to budge. We were forced to switch off their signals. After the switch off instead of seeking our signals lawfully, by resolving all outstanding issues with us, GTPL indulged in blatant piracy of our signals forcing us to initiate criminal action against them,” adds Rajput in the release.
Indiantelevision.com called GTPL officials for their version of the story, but could not get a response at the time of filing this report. We await their response. Please stay tuned in for further updates.
Indian Television Dot Com > News Headline > Star Sports files FIRs against GTPL Hathway
Anti-piracy agencies - appointed by Star Sports - conducted raids across the four states and have accordingly filed the FIRs. Of the eight, five have been filed in Gujarat while one each has been filed in Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand.
Star Sports India COO Vijay Rajput – in a press release - says he has been forced to take this step. “Piracy is just not acceptable. It is a serious offence as per the IPR act. We will pursue it strongly to bring the guilty to book,” he points out. “GTPL has consistently failed to pay us the monthly subscription fees even though they have been collecting money from the subscribers. They have a huge outstanding which just cannot be ignored.
“Over the past few months, we have tried all possible options to resolve the outstanding issues. Despite repeated reminders and requests for payment of our outstanding dues, GTPL did not pay heed. We were constrained to issue a disconnection notice to GTPL as well as a public notice in accordance with the TRAI Regulations on 19 October 2013. Even thereafter, GTPL refused to budge. We were forced to switch off their signals. After the switch off instead of seeking our signals lawfully, by resolving all outstanding issues with us, GTPL indulged in blatant piracy of our signals forcing us to initiate criminal action against them,” adds Rajput in the release.
Indiantelevision.com called GTPL officials for their version of the story, but could not get a response at the time of filing this report. We await their response. Please stay tuned in for further updates.
Indian Television Dot Com > News Headline > Star Sports files FIRs against GTPL Hathway
