A number of Indian television broadcast companies have stopped relaying their channels in Nepal for the past one week citing delays in settlement of dues by Nepalese cable TV service providers, local media reports from Kathmandu stated.

Networks including Star, Sony, Zee and Colors (part of Viacom18) have halted their broadcasting in Nepal as local service providers reportedly are yet to clear dues worth around Rs 1 billion to the Indian roadcast bcompanies, a Nepali news outlet myRepublica reported on Wednesday. (https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/four-indian-broadcasters-halt-70-associated-television-channels-in-nepal-over-rs-1-billion-dues/)

“The transmissions have been disrupted due to problems seen in financial transactions between channel broadcasters and their local distributors,” read the notice displayed by the concerned service providers, the Nepalese news outlet stated.

It quoted Gajendra Kumar Thakur, spokesperson for the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, as saying that the Indian channels have been disrupted after the companies concerned have refused to abide by the ‘a la carte’ price system enforced by the Nepal government since last year.

Two Nepali companies Net TV and Mega Max Digital have been working as local distributors of the four Indian television channels.