India TV strike comes to a halt after ten days

The dispute between the broadcasters and the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) has finally come to an end after ten days of strike action.

The strike resulted in most Hindi channels to telecast repeat episodes of shows from Monday 10th November. The move caused panic among advertisers and media-buying companies and viewers.

In the UK, Sony Entertainment Television Asia was one channel, which was severely effected due to its shows being on par with India telecast. STAR Plus had a couple of shows affected too. ZEE TV’s repeat episodes were set to take place from later this week.

According to Mukesh Bhatt and FWICE President Dharmesh Tewari, the interests of the lower most section of the trade have been kept in mind. “Workers will move from a per day payment to a monthly wage,” said Bhatt. “Their work timings will be between 9 am and 10 pm, beyond that they will be paid on a pro-rata basis,” added Tiwari.

This was the biggest crisis ever to hit Indian TV channels. Shootings for soaps resume tonight, with fresh episodes set to continue later this week.

Extracts from IndianTelevision