Swaraj to meet cable operators today

Submitted by ITV Production on Aug 30, 2001

Information & Broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj has scheduled a meeting today evening at 5:00 pm with cable operators where major issues impacting the industry are to be thrashed out.

The meeting is to be held at the Shastri Bhavan (I&B ministry headquarters) in New Delhi.

In a note sent to all major MSOs and cable operators, Swaraj has set down two main topics for discussion - conditional access systems and the rampant piracy prevailing in the cable industry. Piracy is an issue which has come to the fore with the measures taken by the producers of two recent blockbuster movies - Gaddar and Lagaan - to ensure that their films were not shown own cable. That the effort - in spite of a high court ruling in the producers‘ favour - was largely a failure is another matter.

Representing the Hinduja-promoted INCablenet is its president Rajiv Vyas while the Rajan Raheja-promoted Hathway Cable (in which Star India has a 26 per cent stake) is being represented by its V-P North SN Sharma.