Mumbai: Global media mogul James Murdoch on March 15 accused India's independent cable operators of siphoning off around Rs 2,000 crore of revenue annually and under declaring their ever-increasing subscriber base in the country.

"The retail subscription on the total ground is upto $ 900 million or Rs 4,500 crore out of which around Rs 2,000 crore or $ 420 million is stuck with the sub-operator level," Murdoch, Star group chairman and CEO, said in his keynote address at the inaugural session of FRAMES-2002, a two day seminar on the business of entertainment organized by FICCI here.

"This action is outright copyright theft, obfuscation, stalling and evasion and it needs to be stamped out," Murdoch said.

He said independent cable operators were under declaring subscription base by nearly 80 per cent and pocketing round Rs 2,000 crore, which rightly belonged to the broadcasters.

"The cable operators need to get their act together, legitimise and not under declare subscription. They have to learn to adopt with international business practices and work hand in hand with the broadcasters instead of opposing them," Murdoch warned.

"One has to root this system out. The middlemen have to transfer their margin value to the customers. It can be done. Earlier, they said there would be no broadcasting but it has been made possible. Unless a premium is charged, none of the basic services can be introduced," Murdoch added.

PTI