Football fans find a way

Jamshedpur, June 11: The ?secret peeps? into World Cup action by a section of cable operators in the city might be short-lived.

ESPN-Star Sports, the official broadcaster of Fifa World Cup-2006 is contemplating legal action against RG Gupta Sons Network, a conglomerate of four major cable operators for screening the football matches live through ?free-to-air? channels from the neighbouring countries.

?Telecast of the World Cup, rights of which is exclusively with ESPN-Star Sports, through free-to-air channels is an act of piracy. The matter has been referred to our legal department, which will take necessary action in due course,? said Subhodip Bhattacharya, head (eastern region), ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd.

Officials of ESPN-Star Sports blamed the RG Gupta Sons Network for not clearing their dues, which resulted in the non-renewal of licence for the channel. ESPN owes over Rs 8 lakh from the network, which had the licence for areas such as Northern Town, Circuit House and a few parts of Kadma, Contractors Area, Bistupur, Dhatkidih and Sonari.

The RG Gupta Sons Network has in its fold four cable operators, including Catvision, Drishti, Jamshedpur Central Cable Network and Badani Cable Network. It caters to about 50,000 subscribers.

Though the subscribers have stopped complaining as they are able to watch the matches live on ?free-to-air? channels, they are not happy with the quality of transmission and intermittent disturbance. But, the subscribers under New SCCN, Sehnai Cables and MCCN, the three other cable operators are the luckier ones.