Following sports on private television channels is going to be dearer in the near future as STAR Sports have hiked their annual service contract rates with the cable operators around the country.

The per subscriber fee of the channel has been raised from Rs 3.30 to 4.99 per month, an increase of Rs 1.69.

Explaining the hike, Mr RK Singh, managing director of ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd said, ``the per subscriber price has been revised to compensate for the increasing costs of sports programme acquisition and production besides the rise in inflation.''

The price of Rs 4.99 per subscriber per month would be the floor price that will be charged on the cable networks, he added.

cricket tourney

The 24th Thanevaibhav cricket tournament (35 overs) will commence at 9.00 a.m. on March 8 at the Dadoji Konddev Stadium, Thane, with a D Division tie between World Network Services and Herdillia Chemicals.