The Delhi high court on Friday restrained 66 cable operators across the country from unauthorised broadcast of the India-South Africa cricket series, an ESPN STAR Sports statement said.

Following the order, any cable operator telecasting the India-South Africa series, through any unauthorised means or any other channel, will be held liable for contempt of court proceedings.

The court also permitted ESPN to take action against all other cable operators found to be unauthorisedly utilising the feed of ESPN and Star Sports without license.

The 66 cable operators -- from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkand, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab -- are receiving the signal of the DTH Operators and then routing these signals, not meant for further transmission, through their cable network to respective subscribers.

The sports channel had filed a suit for permanent injunction against the 66 operators seeking directions to ban unauthorised broadcast of the series through their networks.