IndiaCast faces the brunt of alert ad; Dish TV issues legal notice

Dish TV users were taken aback last weekend when leading dailies read a public notice issued by IndiaCast UTV alerting the DTH operator’s subscribers that 21 channels might be disrupted from 1st January 2014 and will be replaced with movies-on-demand unless the subscribers message or call the DTH operator saying they want to continue receiving those channels. If one observers, the bottom half of the ad asks subscribers to call up Dish TV or another cable TV or DTH service providers.

Following this rather atypical and eccentric public alert ad, Dish TV has sent a legal notice to the content aggregator.

When Adgully tried to reach, Dish TV officials, the legal statement sent was shared on condition of anonymity. It read, “Dish TV issues legal notice to Indiacast for false and malafide advertisement taken on in leading dailies. We have issued a legal notice calling upon Indiacast to cease and desist from spreading false and malafide information regarding Indiacast channels on Dish TV’s platform. All necessary steps including criminal and civil actions against Indiacast UTV and its functionaries are being contemplated by the largest DTH provider in Asia”.

IndiaCast, reportedly, has five different agreements with Dish TV for TV18-Viacom18, Disney, UTV, Eenadu and HD channels. Off these deals, three deals namely TV18-Viacom18, Disney and UTV are slated for renewal on 1 January 2014. The channels mentioned in the IndiaCast issued notice include Colors, CNBC TV 18, MTV, CNN IBN, Bindass, Nick, Nick Jr,� IBN7, CNBC Awaaz and IBN Lokmat. Also mentioned are UTV Movies, History TV, Disney, Hungama, Sonic, Disney XD, UTV Action, Comedy Central, VH1, UTV World Movies, Disney Junior.