New Delhi, Sept. 7: Your favourite channel will not be knocked off air abruptly when the neighbourhood cable operator and the television company wage a beam battle.

A three-week notice is the least you will get under amendments made to a 2004 “interconnection regulation” by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), which serves as the country’s broadcast watchdog.

The interconnection regulation governs business relations between broadcast companies, big cable companies (called multi-system operators or MSOs) and local cable-operators. Typically, cable-operators get into agreements with MSOs who strike deals with broadcasters.

Disputes arise over a range of issues, from unpaid bills to declaration of subscribers less than the actual number.

The older norms laid down notice-periods of a month or two days, depending on the dispute. But since the squabbles were hard to categorise, broadcasters often gave the operators only two days before they switched off.

The new order scraps the two-day norm, making a three-week notice the standard for all in the cable chain. Earlier, only broadcasters planning to hold back signals from a cable operator were required to give notice. Now, if your cable-man wants to stop subscribing to a particular channel, he must do the same. All sides will have to mention the reasons for disconnection. The disputes will have to be published in local newspapers and scrolls displayed on the channel concerned.

The amendments also make it mandatory for broadcasters to give a month’s notice if they want to turn a free-to-air channel into a pay channel, or vice versa.

Broadcasters must spell out the terms on which they have agreed to beam channel signals to cable operators. They should also mention past and current dues, and the last payment date, in invoices (bills) to cable operators. This is aimed at limiting the reasons for disputes.