Under Declaration Sigue Landmark Judgment by TDSAT

The feud between Multi System Operators and the Broadcasters is nothing new. Every next day we may listen about it. But this time TDSAT's ruling for a dispute between Zee Turner and Bhaskar Cable Network of Jabalpur is being largely looked upon as a landmark judgment. Reason being that for the first time a decision has been taken by TDSAT in respect of declaration of connectivity by an MSO/Cable operator in non-CAS area. 

TDSAT on 4th May 07 directed Bhaskar Cable to correct its declared subscriber base to Zee Turner and increase it by 700% during the period of the agreement between them based on the MSOs declaration with another broadcaster. TDSAT's ruling at this point of time is a sign of big relief that will leave a long term impact on the industry till CAS is implemented all over the country. 

Hon'ble Justice Lt Gen DP Sehgal (Retd.) took the case very seriously and decided in favour of Zee Turner because Bhaskar Cable Network was engaged in under declaration of subscriber base where it had declared a miniscule 4,221 subscribers to Zee as against 41869 subscribers to Star TV. 

Now the operator ought to abide by the court's order and pay Zee Turner on a subscriber base of 28, 000 with effect from 1st September 2006 till a fresh agreement is entered between the two parties. 

Zee Turner's head Mr. Hitesh Vakil said, “We really appreciate and welcome the judgment passed by Hon'ble TDSAT. For our industry, where under-declaration has become a norm and operators have been making money for long at the cost of broadcasters', a directive like this comes a big relief and motivation. We have full faith in judiciary and this judgment has further strengthened our confidence. We are hopeful that the operator will exhibit the similar respect towards court's order by immediately abiding by the directive.” 

The case was actually brought by the Bhaskar Cable to TDSAT where he prayed to restrain Zee Turner from disconnecting the signals it provided to Bhaskar on observance of terms and conditions of agreement signed in June, 2006 by the operator. It also asked for a compensation for the damage suffered to its business reputation on account of illegal disconnection of signals by Zee, from September to October 2006. The case has had several hearings. In a hearing on 17 November 06, TDSAT directed Zee to resume its signals to the operator subject to Bhaskar making payment of the admitted amount as per the agreement. The final hearing took place on 4th May 2007 where Bhaskar was directed to pay seven times more than he was paying earlier. In support of its case, Zee Turner brought into notice the terms and conditions of the agreement. Whereby the operator was responsible for providing complete and true list of the names and addresses of all the customers along with exact number of cable homes. The contract also said that any under-declaration or miss-declaration of the number of subscribers would lead to termination of the services without any notice. In addition to this, Zee compared the subscriber base declared to Star India Pvt. Ltd. with its own. This made the case stronger. It said that it is not possible that Bhaskar has just 4, 221 subscribers for Zee and 41, 869 customers for Star. However, Mr. Meet Malhotra, advocate for the operator contended that in their city there was large demand for Star's channels and very few demanded Zee. 

Having examined all the arguments properly, TDSAT found that since the operator was obliged to submit all and correct details of its franchisees and subscribers which it did not abide by, it directed Bhaskar to pay for its higher subscriber base atleast from September, 2006. TDSAT realised that since transmission of all the channels was through a cable feed because of which all the customers had access to all the channels therefore the subscriber base of both Star and Zee channels ought to be the same. 

Going by the statement of Zee Turner advocate Sh Maninder Singh that Zee's popularity was 70% to 80% that of Star, TDSAT found that it will be fair to grant a lower slab of 70% of Star figure as admitted by Zee Turner. And thus Bhaskar Cable Network was directed to pay according to a subscriber base of 28, 000 with effect from September 2006.

Source: http://cablequest.org/articles/regulations/item/1389-under-declaration-sigue-landmark-judgment-by-tdsat.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/articles/regulations/item/1389-under-declaration-sigue-landmark-judgment-by-tdsat.html