Indonesian subscribers of pay television provider Astro can no longer watch their favorite shows, after Malaysia's Astro All Asia Network Plc ended its partnership with local operator PT Direct Vision (DV) on Monday.

DV's senior president for corporate affairs, Halim Mahfudz, said DV had pledged to provide refunds for the 36,000 subscribers who paid for the service in advance. The operator has a total of 98,000 subscribers.

"We will not compensate the remaining 62,000 subscribers as they pay their fees at the end of the month, and are enjoying the service they havn't yet paid for," Halim said.

DV is now calculating the total cost of the compensation, and plans to finalize a settlement within 30 days.

Halim said all of DV's employees were working to help accelerate the compensation process.

DV has around 1,600 workers, 311 of whom are permanent.

"Thus far, we do not expected to lay off our employees. We are working as usual, but more people are serving the customers," he said.

Halim added that DV was waiting for further direction from its shareholders over the continuity of the company's operation.

It remains unclear when the company will restart broadcasting.

DV stopped airing Astro programs after it received a third termination announcement on Sunday.

"Sunday was the latest grace period given to DV. Astro already extended its service on Aug. 31 and Sept. 30," he said, adding DV had informed viewers of the termination on screen Sunday night.

Sudaryatmo, a member of the Indonesian Consumer Foundation (YLKI), said DV should have informed its subscribers of the termination plan earlier, to allow customers to find other operators.

"Some subscribers resent the sudden stop. They have asked about the refund mechanism," he said.

DV is slated to submit an official notice to the Information and Communications Ministry regarding the partnership termination.

Earlier, in September, Astro decided not to renew its contract with DV -- which is 49 percent owned by PT Ayunda Prima Mitra, a Lippo Group unit through PT First Media (FM) -- over allegations the latter failed to pay a US$245 million bill.

Astro, which has no stake in DV, said the bill included interest on all outstanding payments due since March 2005.

However, Ayunda's lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea earlier denied that DV owed the stated amount, saying "it was an investment fund required to be paid by Astro".

"It is clearly stated on the joint venture agreement that the amount of money is an investment, not a debt. If it is a debt, Astro and DV should have signed an agreement about that," he said.

On Oct. 6, Astro filed a notice of arbitration with the Singapore International Arbitration Center against a number of companies under the Lippo Group to help recover the bill.

According to recent media reports, the break up of Astro's joint venture is the latest in a series of business rows between Lippo Group -- now under the helm of James Riady -- and the Malaysian business group controlled by high-profile tycoon Ananda Krishnan.

In 2004, Astro was invited by Lippo to become a strategic partner in DV. The two companies entered into an agreement on March 11, 2005 for the establishment of a joint venture to operate a cable TV business in Indonesia through DV.

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