Exorbitant licence fees may mean that you won't be able to cheer for Dhoni & Co at your favourite watering hole

If you were planning on watching the ICC Cricket World Cup matches with your buddies at the nearest watering hole, here is some bad news.
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Several eateries are contemplating not to broadcast cricket's biggest show owing to the big licence fee that they will be forced to shell out for televising the matches.


With just a few days to go for the World Cup, many hotels and restaurants across the city are yet to obtain the licence to telecast these matches

With just nine days to go for the World Cup, hoteliers and restaurants across the city are yet to obtain the licence to telecast these matches from Novex Communication, who is responsible for issuing licences for the matches.

Novex has already issued legal notices to several eateries asking them to seek a licence worth Rs 25,000 (see box), which will be applicable for the entire year.

Speaking to MiD DAY, Sudhakar Shetty, president of Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR) who has more than 8,000 hotels, bars and restaurants under their umbrella across the city confirmed that many AHAR members had received notices from the company. "We are not going to pay them as we are already paying cable fees.

They are sending us legal notices. We have decided to reply to them as they are extorting money from us. For the last two years we are fighting against this, we are not going to tolerate it."

Deja vu

However, that is not the only bad news. If the hospitality industry plans to boycott the screening of these matches, sports lovers might have to lose out on watching other big sporting events such as Wimbledon and the Champions Trophy that are to take place later in the year.

A similar situation had arisen during IPL matches where AHAR had registered a complaint with the Mumbai police regarding arm-twisting and the extortionary tactics that Novex had taken to, added Shetty.

Several owners wishing to be rid of any kind of hassles have chosen not to telecast the matches. "The government needs to wake up and take stern action against these fraudsters.
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Or else, every year they will have some reason to extort money from us.

This year, we have seven big sports events coming up and I don't want to be in trouble and hence I have decided to not to show these matches," said a South Mumbai pub owner, who had earlier faced the whip from the service provider after a complaint was lodged against him.

The Hotel and Restaurant Association-Western India (HRA-WI) has advised their members to go ahead and screen the matches.
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"We have advised our members who are protected by applicable tariff order (TRAI) not to pay any licence charges unless the World Cup is being commercially exploited by the establishment.

Those members who have received notices, have been advised to reply accordingly. We will continue to screen the matches," said Chairman-legal subcommittee (HRA-WI) Pradip Shetty.

Charges
The cost of the licences imposed by Novex:
>Rs 25,000 per TV set (one year contract) for all restaurants and pubs
>Rs 1.8 lakh for 3 to five star hotel (per year)

Events to watch out for
ICC Cricket World Cup Feb 19 to April 2
Wimbledon 20 June to July 3
US Open August 29 to September 11
Champions Trophy December 1 to December 11

The Other Side
Refuting claims of extortion, Ketan Kanakia, u00a0MD, Novex Communication said, "The fee collected from pubs, restaurants or hotels is followed under the Copyright Act and as per the norms. Also, we are not charging this for the World Cup exclusively but we are doing it for screening of our channels for the entire year. The fees are meant for the entire year and not for few days, which is negotiable. We have issued legal notices to many restaurants and hotels across India and one who fails to seek the licence will have to face the music. Also, if owners are taking signals from authorised cable operators we have no issues but we can't allow anyone to just pay Rs 500 to a cable operator and later say we have paid the money to the operator."