The STAR channels made a quiet comeback after nearly two months to a section of the city?s cable households on Tuesday night, but disappeared soon after.

The beam remained out of bounds for viewers, but with peace talks carrying on through Wednesday, chances of the channels making a more widespread return have brightened.

?Last night, we had a meeting with Manthan, at which they agreed to pay the outstanding amount and sign a new contract. So, we switched on the channels,? Yash Khanna, senior vice-president (corporate affairs) for STAR India, told Metro from Mumbai on Wednesday.

STAR had withdrawn its beam from the multi-system operator (MSO) in March owing to ?non-payment of outstanding dues and non-renewal of the subscription agreement?.

The matter was subsequently referred to Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT). ?Since the issues have been sorted out, we are withdrawing the case from TDSAT as well,? added Khanna.

Soon after the late-night re-connection, however, the channels disappeared once again. Manthan officials could not offer an explanation for this. ?We will not make any comment,? said Manthan director Gurmeet Singh, when contacted by Metro.

According to market sources, the reason for the appearance and disappearance of the channels on Manthan was the STAR beam not returning to another MSO, SitiCable.

A large portion of SitiCable had switched off STAR on April 15, showing solidarity with Manthan and protesting STAR?s ?high-handedness?, rendering nearly 70 per cent of the city?s cable homes STAR-less.

During the beam block, both the MSOs had also displayed similar messages ? attributed to cable operator associations ? that said STAR was attempting to ?extort? money and acting against the interest of viewers and cable operators.

Representatives of Cable Operators Sanjukta Morcha and Federation of Cable Operators, the two operator bodies allegedly spearheading the anti-STAR movement, were not available for comment.

?Discussions are on to resolve the SitiCable matter as well and we hope to have things back to normal in the next one or two days,? a STAR official offered.