``We've paid our subscription for the entire year, but we aren't receiving Star Plus and Star Movies for five days now'', Anita Verma of Subhanpura told Express Newsline. Hers is only one of the 500-odd households of Fatehgunj and Subhanpura to be so affected.

The onus apparently lies with cable TV subscribers who've defaulted on their payments. ``At least 150 households in my jurisdiction have not paid their dues'', said Naginbhai, a cable operator at Fatehgunj. ``It is difficult for us to pay our fees in a lump sum if the subscribers do not pay us.''

Local cable operators like Naginbhai receive their signals from larger hubs called the head-end -- 22 such head-ends or disc operators cover the city of Vadodara -- whose charges are decided by the length of cables needed and the distance covered. (That is why cable charges vary from area to area). Cable operators recover these fees from the upto-2,000 individual subscribers in each jurisdiction. The conversion of Star Plus and Star Movies into pay channels apparently was the trigger for the selective black-out.

``But that decision was announced four months ago'', Prakash Patel, who operates a head-end at Alkapuri, told Express Newsline. ``If subscribers are not receiving these channels, it's because their operators have not paid their respective head-ends. After all, the head-ends have to pay the representatives of the Star channels in Ahmedabad'', he said.

With each link in the chain passing the blame on to the other, no one appears to have any idea when the situation will normalise. The most a subscriber can do, as a head-end operator pointed out, is file a case against his local operator in the Consumer Court.

And yes, if you're receiving all these channels today, don't laugh at the misfortune of others; tomorrow, it could be your cable man doing the dirty on you.