Sports fans in Maharashtra will be deprived of watching any action in the ongoing DLF Cup tri-series in Malaysia with talks between cable operators and Zee Sports reaching a stalemate.

"They were asking us to pay a huge amount for the whole year when the only event they have in hand is this tri-series.

"Why should we charge the customers unnecessarily? When we refused to agree on the point, the Zee Sports people said they would shut off the decoders from tomorrow," Ganesh Naidu, president of the Cable Operators and Distributors Association told PTI in Mumbai.

Zee Sports had asked for Rs 10 per subscriber from the cable operators, but Naidu said this was not feasible as it would be taxing customers for the entire year in lieu of four matches.

"They are blackmailing us on this issue because Zee also promotes DTH and they want that to emerge as an option, but we will not give in," he added.