Jan. 8: About 4 lakh cable homes in Calcutta could miss Virat Kohli's first series since taking over as Team India captain in all formats, thanks to STAR India yanking its channels off the Manthan beam over unpaid dues a week before the first ODI against England.

Sources in STAR Sports, which will telecast the ODI and T20 series, said Manthan was being denied its channels because it had run up dues of Rs 29.23 crore.

"Manthan undertook to repay Rs 22.11 crore in dues in August 2016 after being served disconnection notices in May and June last year. Between then and now, they kept issuing cheques that on most occasions bounced or were returned unpaid," a STAR India official said on condition of anonymity.

The last three cheques that were dishonoured were for Rs 25 lakh (October), Rs 4 crore (November) and Rs 3 crore (December), the official said.

When contacted on Sunday, director of Manthan Broadband Services Limited Sudip Ghosh was not able to say when channels that are off air on their network like the 10 STAR sports channels, STAR World India, STAR Movies, National Geographic, STAR Plus and STAR Gold would be back because the MSO is yet to start talks with the broadcaster.

"STAR India withdrew the channels from Manthan on Friday late afternoon. Since the weekend followed after that we have not been able to speak to them (STAR India) on the issue. We will get in touch with them on Monday. It is difficult to say how the talks would pan out and by when the channels will be back," said Sudip Ghosh, director, Manthan Broadband Services Limited.

He declined to share details about the amount the MSO owed the broadcaster.

Asked how long the impasse might last, Ghosh said: "It could get resolved in days but it also might drag on for weeks."

Officials of STAR India also declined to provide details about the amount but one of them said that the service to Manthan was discontinued on Friday after a cheque Manthan gave STAR India "was dishonoured by the bank".

The lakhs of TV homes serviced by Manthan would hope that the channels would be back soon with English Premier League about to resume from January 14 and India's ODI series against England under the new captain Virat Kohli staring in Pune the next day.

Under pressure from subscribers, some cable operators linked to Manthan had already started piracy of STAR Sports channels. "My operator told me there were some technical issues which is why the STAR channels, including the sports ones, were available at the end of the bouquet (beyond channel No. 900)," said a resident of Baguiati whose TV runs on Manthan signals. According to industry insiders, pirated channels are broadcast at unusual positions and not at their usual numbers.

Other subscribers were peeved to miss the Koffee with Karan episode on Sunday with Siddharth Malhotra and Jacqueline Fernandez as guests and worried about missing the next episode where Kapil Sharma would be the guest.