Let Doordarshan Telecast Indo-Pak Matches: HC Tells Ten Sports

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The bench, comprising Chief Justice B Subhashan Reddy and Justice M Thanikachalam, gave the order while hearing a petition seeking a direction to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to secure the telecast rights from the private Ten Sports for Prasar Bharati.

The Bench also directed Doordarshan to use the logo of Ten Sports and carry their commercials in all the telecasts.

However, pertaining to the amount to be deposited by Doordarshan, the Bench said the amount and the liability to be paid by whosoever it may be shall be worked out in course of time and will be decided during the final hearing of the writ petition.

Senior counsel and former Attorney General K Parasaran told the court that his client, Ten Sports, would adhere to the directions of the court.

Earlier Ten Sports said it has offered to show the India-Pakistan cricket series on low powered transmitters of Doordarshan in non-cable areas, but Prasar Bharati has not accepted this deal.

Ten Sports CEO Chris McDonald told reporters: "We have offered to show the matches on DD's LPTs in non-cable areas free of cost. DD has about 1,000 LPTs, but we are looking at couple of hundreds at best. But Prasar Bharati has not accepted this proposal."

Asked about the Madras high court judgement asking the company to show the matches on DD with its logo, McDonald said he was not aware of it.

He said Ten Sports works on twin business models of advertising and subscription and "it will not telecast the matches in cable homes on DD, opting instead to cater to non-cable homes through DD."

Meanwhile, IN-Cable is believed to have approached TDSAT against Ten Sports asking for increased subscription.

Replying to a question on the highlights deal, he said it has not been timed with Prasar Bharati till now "but the agreement stands."

BITTER TUSSLE: It is worth mentioning here that earlier on A day after the government threatened to come out with an Ordinance making it mandatory for Ten Sports to grant terrestrial rights of the series to Prasar Bharati, the two parties on Thursday came to the negotiating table to find a solution to the dispute.

Though hitches and concerns remained, Ten Sports and Prasar Bharati on Thursday discussed the commercial and technical terms of sharing the telecast feed for the series. According to government sources, a final agreement is expected on Friday after the Prasar Bharati board meeting in Mumbai.

According to sources close to the talks Prasar Bharati had proposed to pay about $8 million for the terrestrial rights of the matches, while Ten Sports was demanding about $20 million.

The government proposed a solution wherein Prasar Bharati would provide its platform to Ten Sports to telecast the matches live on Doordarshan. In this arrangement, Ten Sports will also have the mandate to market the series and keep the advertisement revenue, while paying a carriage fee to Prasar Bharati.

"Doordarshan will just provide the platform and Ten Sports will market the event. This will give the channel a wider reach," said a source.

According to the sources, Ten Sports pointed out that in such an arrangement, there was a possibility of piracy of signals by cable operators and possible loss of advertisement revenue. A deferred telecast of matches was proposed by Ten Sports, which was rejected by the state-owned broadcaster.

"We are not interested in a deferred broadcast of the matches," said K S Sarma, chief executive, Prasar Bharati.

Ten Sports representatives told the government during the meetings that it could face a huge loss of subscription revenue in such a case.

The government has directed both the broadcasters to work out a way to prevent stealing of signals in case Doordarshan telecasts the matches on its terrestrial network. During the negotiations, it was also proposed that while Ten Sports would have the satellite rights for the series, Doordarshan would show the matches in the non-metro areas.

Ten Sports representatives also met TRAI chairman Pradip Baijal and expressed their reservations about sharing the live feed of the series with Prasar Bharati.