APCO's general secretary, Kinlay Dorji, told Kuensel that the channel was now taken over by an Indian distributor called Dati Corporation. The distributor had also come up with the proposition of five ngultrum per subscriber in a month.

“But the price is not agreeable,” he said. With most of the channels becoming pay channels, he explained that it was simply too expensive for the cable operators to function.

“While the rental fee is restricted by the government, most become pay channels and its rate increases without any limit,” he said. “We fear that there may come a point where all channels would become pay channels and we might have to approach the government for subsidy.”

He added that the BBC news channel have become a pay channel not just in Bhutan but also in other South Asian countries as it concerned same distributor.

“But other countries can manage because their operation is based on large number of subscribers,” he said.

The private multi service operators and the Bhutan Broadcasting Service are still negotiating the price with the distributor. “But the package will remain switched off until the negotiation is finalised,” said Kinlay Dorji.

In the past when Indian soap channels went off the air viewers were quick to express their disappointment. None of this happened when BBC went off the air. In fact only a few people noticed that it was not available.