India's public broadcaster drops plans to telecast Pakistan cricket series by AFP

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Event:

India in Pakistan 2005/06

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DateLine: 10th January 2006

 

India's public broadcaster Doordarshan has dropped plans to telecast the upcoming Pakistan-India cricket series live and will instead give 90 minutes of highlights daily, a report said Tuesday.

 

Doordashan told the Supreme Court it could not afford the 1.4 billion rupees (31.69 million dollars) that Dubai-based Ten Sports, which holds the television rights to the series, is claiming in compensation for sharing its live feed, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

 

Ten Sports went to court to challenge a government decree that forces pay stations to provide terrestrial feeds of their national and international sports coverage to Doordarshan.

 

Satellite channels say they are willing to provide feeds in rural areas where they have no presence but not in major cities where their hugely expensive cricket rights would be diluted.

 

Ten Sports estimated its losses at around 1.4 billion rupees (31.69 million dollars) if it was forced to share the live feed.

 

"The condition that the respondents (Doordarshan) should make suitable deposit to compensate the sports channel for alleged loss is not acceptable," the lawyer acting for the public broadcaster told the court.

 

He said Doordashan would, instead of offering a live feed, share with Ten Sports a package of 90 minutes of highlights of the matches each day of the Test series, which begins in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Friday.

 

A decision on live coverage of one-day matches beginning February 6 is still pending before the court.

(Article: Copyright © 2006 AFP)