Currently, Star charges cable ops Rs 30 for the Star package, but they disclose only 20 per cent of their actual subscriber counts, he says. "Now if they are willing to take their disclosure up to 40 per cent, we are willing to charge these cable ops, half of what we are charging them currently," says Mukerjea.

Mukerjea has given his own spin to the whole affair by declaring that the valuations of cable enterprises will go up if they buy into his proposition. This might have made sense in a context outside that existing in India because internationally valuations are based on connectivity. The Indian market operates quite differently so where Mukerjea derives the confidence that his idea is workable is a bit of a mystery.

Mukerjea, along with his distribution head Arun Mohan, has started discussions with two large MSOs - Hathway Cable (in which Star has a 26 per cent stake) and the Hinduja-run Incable - on this issue. InCable has often been involved in arm wrestling matches with the network as it has refused to cough up even the 20 per cent carriage fees. Star in turn has on occasion switched off the receiver boxes in InCable headends in order to get them to pay up.

Mukerjea says he is taking this step because broadcasters are getting payments from cable ops for only 5-6 million of the 40 million cable and satellite homes in India. At around RS 100 for all the basic subscription channels, that works out to about RS 600 million a month or RS 7.2 billion a year. Total cable subscription revenues garnered by cable ops amount to about RS 4,000 million a month (@RS 100 per month) or RS 50,000 million a year.

These figures are nowhere close to reality. If the pay channels were collecting so much money they would be laughing all the way to bank. Last year, they reported pay TV collections of only RS 3,000 million for the 12 months. Obviously Mukerjea is flinging the numbers out of thin air, or he expects the digitisation and encryption efforts of Zee TV and Sony Entertainment to result in the increased figures he is talking about for this year.

Or he could be voicing that he is making a desperate grab at subscription revenues at a time when ad spends are vanishing.

Will cable ops buy into his scheme? Unlikely. The reason: what guarantee is there that Star will not hike its rates after cable ops disclose higher subscriber numbers. Even if Star promises that there will be a lock-period what guarantee is there that it will stick to it? The trade is known for the conflicts between broadcasters and cable operators.

A school of thought is that Mukerjea is letting loose some smoke to camouflage the real issue. Once cable ops refuse to buy into his scheme, he is going to propose a hike in subscription rates for cable ops at the existing subscriber levels.

Mukerjea said that they are charging the cable operators and not the end subscribers. ‘‘It is sad that just 6 million subscribers in the country share the cost of 38 million cable homes. Cable operators and MSOs have to declare true figures,‘‘ he added.

Mukerjea said that Star is ready to cut down its subscription cost once they get a reasonable declaration from cable operators. ‘‘It is our long-term strategy to cut down prices. For that we need true declaration from cable operators,‘‘ he said.

While the news of the hike comes as a surprise to many, indiantelevision.com had predicted earlier this week that the proposed cut in rates was an eyewash and that Star would be hiking rates shortly.

In its latest issue of The Indian Cab & Sat Reporter, a weekly subscription newsletter, indiantelevision.com had foreseen that `once cable ops refuse to buy into his (Mukerjea‘s) scheme, he is going to propose a hike in subscription rates for cable ops at the existing subscriber levels.‘ The prediction came true in three days.

Star Plus has a lion‘s share of Indian cable & satellite viewership and is the numero uno satellite channel by far. It leads the number two Hindi entertainment channel by a factor of two and the number three by a factor of almost three, while it trails its rivals in the news category. Overall, nine of the top 10 slots for Hindi entertainment programmes are occupied by Star India‘s shows.