There are cable wars and there are cable wars. In the United States the ongoing, contentious battles between cable operators and programmers are often referred to as wars. In India, the definition hits a little closer to home, so much so that Wire and Wireless Ltd. (WWIL) has called for police help in battling a new group of "novice MSOs" who are "indulging in nefarious activities by threatening WWIL operators and high handed tactics like cutting and damaging our cable lines," according to a story in Media Mughals.
The situation in India has become so serious that WWIL has asked police to step up surveillance to prevent future incidents such as one in the Janakpur area where "the distributor was badly beaten up by goons and is still languishing in hospital in critical condition" and a situation in the Madangir area where a distributor was "stabbed and assaulted almost fatally."
Compare this to what the New York Post headlined as "cable wars" in a story talking about how negotiations between Big Apple MSOs Time Warner Cable and Cablevision Systems could get hot this summer. According to the story, contentious negotiations are already "heating up" between TWC and Disney with a Sept. 1 deadline looming. Cablevision, of course, already had its own little tiff with Disney earlier this year when the Mouse pulled ABC off cable and some subscribers missed precious minutes of the Academy Awards broadcast.
The TWC situation is seen to be a bit more threatening because the deadline butts up against the start of football season, although it's said that the NFL would "likely take a dim view if Disney were to yank the signal ahead of a big game."
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