Supreme Court seeks response from Prasar Bharati

The Supreme Court today sought a response from Prasar Bharati, the state-owned broadcaster, on whether it was willing to share the Ten Sports' feed of the upcoming India-Pakistan series without any alteration. A bench headed by Ashok Bhan posted the matter for further hearing tomorrow, and asked GE Vahanvati, the Solicitor General, to elicit Prasar Bharati's position on the issue.

Ten Sports, the exclusive telecast rights-holder for the series, had on January 8 moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay of the Indian government's decision making it mandatory for private television channels to share feed of sporting events of national importance with Prasar Bharati. The petition, filed by Taj Television Ltd, owner of Ten Sports, had termed the decision arbitrary and contended that the government had no authority to take away its exclusive right which was negotiated with a foreign sports body.

Meanwhile, Prasar Bharati has already filed a caveat to pre-empt Ten Sports from taking any ex-parte interim order against the Bombay High Court order which refused to grant any relief to Ten Sports on the matter.

Terming it as a malafide exercise of power by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for making money at the cost of private channels, Ten Sports said it alone has the exclusive right to decide with whom it wants to share the feed and in India it has chosen the cable operators.