& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Cable TV viewers are still missing pay channels

Ershad Kamol
As the tug of war between two local distributors of pay channels is still going on, the cableTV viewers in most parts of the city have been missing the popular pay channels for the last two months. But the operators have not reduced the monthly line rent.
The agents-MGH Group and Nationwide Communications Limited - locked in the dispute in early October following arrest of several cable TV operators in connection witli a case filed with Tejgaon Police Station.
The subscribers and the Cable Operators Association of Bangladesh (Coab) want an immediate solution to the dispute but the two agents stick to their stances and seem to have no headache about thesubscrib-ers' demand.
The viewers are deprived of the channels including Star Plus, Star Movies, Star News, Star World, National Geography, Ilie History Channel and Sky News
distributed by MGH Group and Sony, Zee TV Zee Cinema, Alpha Bangla, Discovery, AXN, Star Sports, Ten Sports and ESPN distributed by Nationwide Communications Limited.
The subscribers have to pay the full line rent for cable TV connection although die operators have refrained from providing the popular channels.
"We are missing many channels for the last few weeks. We cannot watch our favourite programmes on these channels. Still, the operators are not decreasing the line rent," said Pavel Rahman, a subscribers of Paltan area.
The officials of Star TV Network andTotal Sports (ESPN) visited Dhaka recently but they failed to resolve the crisis.
An operator in Paltan area on condition of anonymity said: "We are in deep trouble. The problem began on October 3, when police arrested a few cable operators. We and die viewers are the victims of the dispute which is still u nrcsol vcd."
M Nazrul Islam, a director of Dhaka East CableVision (DECV), said, “Botli the groups (MGH and Nationwide) are forcing us to take a side and subscribe the pay channel package diey offer. But we choose die package consider-ing the subscribers' demand."
"In my locality sports channels have a great demand. That is why we are operating the pay channels distributed by the Nationwide Communications. And being forced by the distributor, we are not operating any channels of StarTVNetwork," he added.
Asked why they are not reducing the line rent, Nazrul said, "As soon as die problem is solved, we will operate all the pay channels. I agree that die viewers are the losers, but we arc also. We cannot do a business with loss."
SM Anwar Parvez, president of Coab said, “If the problem continues, we will give an announcement of reducing line rent. But still wc hope wc will be able to operate all the pay channels. We want an immediate
solution to the dispute."
However, a few operators have reduced the line rent. Arif M
Syed, who is the owner of Dhaka Cable Vision that covers part of Dhanmondi area said, "We are
not operating Star TV channels and wc have reduced line rent by Tk50.”