Doordarshan not to telecast India-Pakistan series live
The Supreme Court has indicated that Prasar Bharati may have to pay more than its offer of Rupees 25 crore
Cricinfo staff
10-Jan-2006
Prasar Bharati, the national broadcaster, indicated to the Supreme Court today that Doordarshan, the state-owned channel, will not telecast live the India-Pakistan series beginning on January 13. Instead Doordarshan will show ninety minutes of highlights each day.
This follows Prasar Bharati's decision not to pay Rupees 25 crore (US$ 5,643,977) as compensation to Ten Sports, which has the exclusive rights, for the live telecast of the series.
The Supreme Court, however, urged the counsels of both Prasar Bharati and Ten Sports to see if it might be possible to reach an agreement so that at least the ODI matches could be telecast live. The next hearing of the case is on January 30.
The case for higher compensation was made because Ten Sports filed a petition stating that sharing of the telecast with Doordarshan (DD) would result in a loss of Rs 20 crores (US$ 4,515,182). GE Vahanvati, the solicitor general, then offered Rs 25 crore as compensation and said that it would make up for the loss incurred.
But Harish Salve, a senior advocate, said that Ten Sports would agree if DD did not add its own advertisements to the live feed. Salve added that the feed without advertisements would cost Rs 70-100 crores (US$ 15,803,138 - 22,575,911). Prasar Bharati responded by saying that it wasn't viable to pay Rs 25 crore and not be able to air its own advertisements.
Prasar Bharati has argued that a large number of people would not be able to watch the series if they did not telecast the matches. Recent government policy stipulated that the live feed of important national sports events should be shared with Prasar Bharati.