Kathmandu, June 19 -- On June 24, Nepali viewers switching their television sets are likely to find that 90 percent of the channels they have are not broadcasting anything else but a request to contact their cable operators. Or even, just a dark set with channel numbers.

The situation has unfolded in the wake of announcements by cable operators that they will not broadcast any foreign pay channels that run advertisements for a whole day starting June 24, 12:00 am. It means there will be no sports, daily soaps, movies or cartoons in the sets.

"That is what implementing the clean feed rule included in the proposed Advertisement (Regulation) Bill would look like, if enforced," said Sudhir Parajuli, president of the federation of cable TV a...