National

Law to help DD get signals of all important events mooted

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 7. Evidently smarting under the loss of telecast rights of the biggest sporting event of the year — the Football World Cup — the Prasar Bharati Board today decided to request the Government to bring in legislation to enable the public broadcaster get signals of all events of national and international importance; particularly in sports.

Disclosing this at the end of the Board's meeting here this afternoon, the Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer, K.S. Sarma, said such a provision was in place in many a country including Britain and Australia. Though such a provision was being made in the proposed Convergence Bill, the Board felt that an interim measure ought to be in place so that Doordarshan did not lose out in the race because of limited resources and the lack of legal safeguard.

While the inability to secure the live telecast rights of the Football World Cup provided the immediate provocation for the Board to consider such a move, the urgency is being attributed to the fact that this time round Doordarshan has been denied the rights to show even the Wimbledon semi-finals and finals. Add to this the fact that the telecast rights of World Cup Cricket (WCC) and the ICC Trophy, too, have practically been ruled out for the next six years.

Mr. Sarma said that terrestrial rights of the Football World Cup had been sold to Ten Sports -- which then sold it to B4U -- despite the fact that neither had a single transmitter to telecast it on such a mode. "We are increasingly being left out just because we cannot offer the astronomical sums satellite channels cough up.''

A case in point is the negotiations for telecast rights of WCC and ICC Trophy. "Sony paid $ 250 million for the satellite rights alone. Our offer for both satellite and terrestrial rights was $ 90 million. Now, though WSG Nimbus -- which has the telecast rights of WCC and ICC Trophy -- is negotiating with us on the terrestrial rights, we have information to suggest that Sony has bagged these rights for India also for $ 90 million without having a single transmitter,'' the CEO said. Asked whether such mandatory provision would go against the concept of a level-playing field, Mr. Sarma said: "We do not want the signals for free. We are ready to enter into a revenue-sharing arrangement with those holding the telecast rights so that we do not have to put up the money upfront.''

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