The agents--MGH Group and Nationwide Communications Limited -- locked in the dispute in early October following arrest of several cable TV operators in connection with a case filed with Tejgaon Police Station.

The subscribers and the Cable Operators Association of Bangladesh (Coab) want an immediate solution to the dispute but the two agents stick to their stances and seem to have no headache about the subscribers' demand.

The viewers are deprived of the channels including Star Plus, Star Movies, Star News, Star World, National Geography, The History Channel and Sky News distributed by MGH Group and Sony, Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Alpha Bangla, Discovery, AXN, Star Sports, Ten Sports and ESPN distributed by Nationwide Communications Limited.

The subscribers have to pay the full line rent for cable TV connection although the operators have refrained from providing the popular channels.

"We are missing many channels for the last few weeks. We cannot watch our favourite programmes on these channels. Still, the operators are not decreasing the line rent," said Pavel Rahman, a subscribers of Paltan area.

The officials of Star TV Network and Total Sports (ESPN) visited Dhaka recently but they failed to resolve the crisis.

An operator in Paltan area on condition of anonymity said: "We are in deep trouble. The problem began on October 3, when police arrested a few cable operators. We and the viewers are the victims of the dispute which is still unresolved."

M Nazrul Islam, a director of Dhaka East Cable Vision (DECV), said, "Both the groups (MGH and Nationwide) are forcing us to take a side and subscribe the pay channel package they offer. But we choose the package considering the subscribers' demand."

"In my locality sports channels have a great demand. That is why we are operating the pay channels distributed by the Nationwide Communications. And being forced by the distributor, we are not operating any channels of Star TV Network," he added.

Asked why they are not reducing the line rent, Nazrul said, "As soon as the problem is solved, we will operate all the pay channels. I agree that the viewers are the losers, but we are also. We cannot do a business with loss."

SM Anwar Parvez, president of Coab said, "If the problem continues, we will give an announcement of reducing line rent. But still we hope we will be able to operate all the pay channels. We want an immediate solution to the dispute."

However, a few operators have reduced the line rent. Arif M Syed, who is the owner of Dhaka Cable Vision that covers part of Dhanmondi area said, "We are not operating Star TV channels and we have reduced line rent by Tk 50."