ITV

Tag: SetMax

  • Sony, Hathway expect to resolve connectivity dispute soon

    Sony, Hathway expect to resolve connectivity dispute soon

    Sony Entertainment Television and the Rajan Raheja-owned Hathway Cable & Datacom are hopeful that their ongoing dispute over paid connectivity will be resolved in a day or two. Sony has switched off its bouquet of channels – SetMax, AXN, CNBC (paid services) and the currently free-to-air SET to Hathway – in Mumbai, Pune and Nasik in the western state of Maharashtra.

     

    Industry sources say that Sony wants Hathway to increase the declared connectivity of the bouquet. When Sony has signed a deal with the Hinduja-promoted InCable for a 30,000 subscriber base there is no justification in Sony’s demand that its base be hiked above that (way higher than that it would seem) is the Hathway argument. “Ask Hathway what is the declared connectivity of Star Sports,” Sony’s senior VP franchise channels & distribution Shantonu Aditya counters, when it was put to him that the increase sought was too high. He, however, clarified that discussions were on and would be resolved sooner rather than later.

     

    Hathway’s other complaint is that while Sony is set to go pay from 1 September, it has already demanded an increase in the rate of its bouquet to nearly Rs 26.

     

    The Sony signal has been on and off the Hathway feed for the last month or so in the three Maharashtrian cities and the issue at stake seems to be more in the area of parry and thrust than an all out confrontation between the two parties.

  • Sony, Hathway reach compromise on issue of paid connectivity; SetMax, AXN, CNBC back on feed

    Sony, Hathway reach compromise on issue of paid connectivity; SetMax, AXN, CNBC back on feed

    Sony Entertainment Television and the Rajan Raheja-owned Hathway Cable & Datacom have reached agreement on a dispute that had developed over unpaid dues as well the declared connectivity of its pay channel service of SetMax, AXN and CNBC.

    The channels, which were off air since 2 January on the Hathway feed, began beaming again on Monday in Mumbai, Pune and Nashik – the areas under dispute. According to Sony, the dues outstanding were Rs 1.5 million for the period from June 2000.

    Officials in Sony and Hathway were tightlipped as to nitty gritty of what had been agreed upon vis-a-vis the declared paid connectivity of the three channels. But it is believed that Sony had to scale back its demand of a threefold increase in the declared connectivity of paid subscribers from November 2000.

    According to cable industry sources, Hathway earlier had a declared paid connectivity of around 10,000 for SetMax in Mumbai, 20,000 for CNBC, and 40,000 for AXN.