No screen play for World T20

It will be deja vu for cricket lovers. After a similar fracas over licence fees during the Indian Premier League, over 8,000 restaurants and pubs will switch off their TV sets during the matches in protest

If you were hoping to enjoy tonight's India-Bangladesh match at your favourite restaurant, you should can the plan.

The 8,000 Indian Hotel & Restaurant Association (AHAR) members and some other pubs have decided to switch off their TV sets during the telecast of World T20 matches as a mark of protest.

The restaurant and pub owners claim the distribution company, Novex Communications, is demanding a license fee based on their own whims and fancies.

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'Extortion'

"This is extortion. Hotels and restaurants are like second homes for customers.

We have been paying the cable fee to cable operators and if the company needs to take action they need to catch hold of the distributors and not the users," said an angry Narayan Alva, president of Indian Hotel & Restaurant Association (AHAR).

"We will not take this any more. We have been trying to negotiate with the company, but they have refused to budge," he added.

Sushant Kamath, owner of Bootleggers pub in Colaba, which was raided last month for screening IPL matches, has decided to join AHAR's move.

"The distribution company has no standard policies. They have been bullying pub and restaurants owners by asking for different licence fees and forging the contract documents.
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We don't mind paying for the licence, but there has to be some parity for all users," he said.
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Defiant

Others like M R Vikram, director of Andheri's Soda Everything has fizz! Pub, have sent a legal notice to Novex regarding this.
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"So we don't charge for the screening, the company has no right to ask us for a license fee. We have sent a legal notice to them and are awaiting their reply.

We will screen the matches without paying the license fee, as we are not making any money from it." Vikram was asked to pay Rs 1 lakh.
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No comment

M/s Novex Communications Private Limited refused to comment on the matter and directed MiD DAY to ESPN, which hired them.

An ESPN spokesperson only said, "We are in negotiation with various parties on this issue. We can only comment after the negotiations are over."

Pay up

The channels: SET Max, AXN, Discovery, Animal Planet, MTV, Nickelodean, Discovery Travel & Living, Animax, NDTV 24x7, NDTV Profit and SAB.

The rules: Ooutlets, which get more than 50 footfalls, are supposed to pay about Rs 60,000 for screening any of these channels.

Punishment: According to the copyright act, any person who infringes or abets the infringement of the copyright in a work shall be fined of minimum Rs 50,000 and maximum of Rs 2 lakh. He could also be imprisoned for six months to a maximum of three years.

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