The Hindu Business Line : Way cleared for sharing sports live feed with DD

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New Delhi Feb. 1 Bringing an end to the controversy over sharing of broadcasting feed between Prasar Bharati and private broadcasters, the Government on Thursday gave its approval for promulgation of an Ordinance making it compulsory for content providers, television and radio broadcasters of major sporting events, cricket and non-cricket, to share live feed with the national broadcaster.

The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Ordinance 2007 mandates that live television and radio feed, minus advertisements, be shared with Doordarshan and All India Radio for events judged as being of national importance by the Union Government.

The move comes even while the Delhi High Court has scheduled the next hearing of Nimbus Communications' plea against the existing uplinking guidelines, which mandate sharing of feed with Prasar Bharati for February 8.

On the first day of the recent India-West Indies series, Nimbus which owns all broadcasting rights of BCCI matches, in effect all cricket played in the country, had taken legal recourse. In an interim order, the court had allowed DD to show the matches with a delay of seven minutes and Nimbus was granted marketing rights of DD's telecast.

Sources had suggested that the fallout was not as much over sharing of feed as over marketing rights. Nimbus finally outquoted DD and was awarded the rights to the seven matches of the ongoing series. DD defended its own quote of Rs 4.8 crore against Nimbus' Rs 22 crore with the argument that Nimbus could market both DD's telecast and the live run on Neo Sports as a package. With the ICC Cricket World Cup scheduled to start on March 11 in the West Indies and huge advertisement revenues at stake, the issue of sharing feed was of mounting importance both for right holders and the national broadcaster.

Mr P.R. Dasmunsi, Information and Broadcasting Minister, was hopeful that the ordinance would be notified before the Indian cricket team meets the Sri Lankan team on February 8. A Bill is expected to be introduced in the coming session of Parliament to replace the Ordinance with an Act. Mr Dasmunsi has also suggested that a technical committee look into the matter of encrypting DD's signals.

Nimbus' primary complaint against DD was that the latter's unencrypted signals violated the rights of those television channels outside India who had paid Nimbus. Nimbus is still unwilling to allow DD to telecast matches on its Direct to Home service. Although, it welcomed the ordinance as fair and equitable, it reserved its right to make an official comment. Both Zee and ESPN have welcomed the ordinance as well, which only makes it compulsory to share live telecast of one-day internationals and Test matches within the country and highlights of Test matches played overseas.

"It strikes a balance between private and public interest, while also allowing an exclusivity for the broadcaster," said Mr R.C. Venkateish, Managing Director, ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd. However, adds Mr Ashish Kaul from Zee, "We have been expecting this ordinance for a while, but in the near future it may hurt broadcaster with heavy investments in cricket."

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