Cable operators, in a meeting, decided they would switch off television channels for 24 hours. A few operators however said they would switch off only pay channels and beam the free-to-air channels so as not to inconvenience customers. The operators, who have formed the Maharashtra Cable Consumers’ Action Committee, have criticised satellite television channels for increasing subscription rates that are then passed on to customers. "The Central and State governments have failed to rein in the multinational cable television companies," said Sudhakar Velankar, a spokesman of the committee.

Those who attended the meeting hit out at politicians, including MPs of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for ‘demonising’ cable operators. They said the MPs must use their clout with the BJP, which leads the Central Government, to get television channels to reduce subscription rates. Senior BJP leaders, including Kirit Somaiya, an MP from Mumbai, and members of the Maharashtra Assembly Atul Shah and Mangalprabhat Lodha, are leading the campaign for lower cable television rates.

The politicians have set up a helpline manned by party workers to listen to complaints and tabulate the number of cable television connections in every neighbourhood in Mumbai. They said the exercise would allow the government to collect entertainment duty on all cable television connections. Somaiya said cable operators in Mumbai had declared only 447,000 connections in the city. According to him, the number of cable connections in Mumbai exceeds two million. Every subscriber is required to pay Rs. 30 every month as entertainment tax, but the gross under-reporting results in large-scale revenue loss to the State.

The BJP felt entertainment tax should be drastically reduced and cable operators should bring down subscription rates to Rs. 150 per television set per month. At present cable subscription charges vary from Rs. 275 to 350 a month. Last year it was about Rs. 200 a month.

The BJP leaders have now tied up with consumer rights groups to take on cable operators who cut off links to subscribers who have resisted paying the higher bills.

Cable operators say they are caught in the war between private television channels and the consumers. While the channels frequently increase their fees, consumers are reluctant to pay more. Most operators provide between 80 and 100 channels on entertainment, sports and current affairs in a number of languages. Most of these channels bill the operators on the number of customers they have in the absence of a system to accurately track viewing habits. At present, most cable subscribers pay Rs. 300 per month for the entire bouquet. Of the 80-100 channels on offer, only eight or 10 are regularly watched. "I don’t need the Kannada, Tamil, Arabic, Chinese, Malayalam and the sports channels," said Julia D’Costa, a suburban housewife. The Indian government has enacted a law to enable installation of set-top boxes on every television set so subscribers can pick and choose the channels they want. However, the law comes into effect only later this year after sufficient electronic set-top boxes are made available in the market.