NOOO!!! Blackout on TV-Article

Ekta Kapoor who has the maximum number of shows on Indian television right now says that there is no end in sight at the moment.

'This is the biggest issue concerning us right now. Talks are on between production houses and channels. In fact we had a big meeting yesterday as well discussing what we can do to deal with the situation. Production houses want a hike in their payment from channels but they are not ready for it as they think that advertisers will not be ready to pay the higher charges and so they do not have that much money to pay us. And if they don't have ads then there won't have any soaps also. As a result of all of this next week there will be a blackout for a week,' says Ekta.

Speaking about the strike itself, Kapoor says, 'It all started when junior artists and technicians went on a strike. After that producers agreed to increase their daily wages. However after that producers asked channels for hike in their contract prices but the channels agreed to increase the rates for only the prime time shows between 8 to 10 pm. So producers did not like it and they went on a strike."

"Many meetings took place between the producers and channels but they are not getting any concrete solution. Very few production houses are working and even if they are then it's by paying these technicians high prices,' adds Ekta.

Sources within channels say that old episodes will be re-run across most channels. This includes regional channels also as most production houses will not be working for an entire week.

http://www.indya.com/news/newsDetails.aspx?xfile=2008/November/News_20081106_30