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To
telecast or not to telecast (World cup soccer matches) is
the question that is haunting Prasar Bharati and it is still
attempting to salvage an almost a dead deal.
"Talks are still on with Ten Sports for telecast of the
World Cup matches," a senior official of Prasar Bharati
told indiantelevision.com on Tuesday, pointing out that
the national broadcaster is faced with a strange dilemma
of trying to balance economics and its role as a public
service broadcaster.
"We are trying to see whether we can do something with the
opening match and then the semi-final and final games of
the soccer World Cup," the official said, adding that taking
all the matches on a six-hour delayed telecast basis would
not be prudent.
Since the soccer matches, if telecast on DD, would be under
the sponsored category, Ten Sports would have to pay a certain
amount of telecast fee to Prasar Bharati and, in return,
will get a certain amount of free-commercial time for hawking
on every 30-minute basis.
Admitting
that Doordarshan is under "severe pressure from viewers
and policy-makers alike," the official said: "We are sitting
on the horns of dilemma. If we decide to telecast the soccer
matches then it would have to be on a delayed basis of at
least six hours. If we go ahead and do it, then viewers
will not get anything extra as in six hours time results
of matches would have already been known in this age of
information superhighway, even if the matches have not already
been seen on Ten Sports."
The official further pointed out that if DD decides to give
the soccer World Cup a complete go-by since Ten Sports has
the exclusive telecast rights for the Indian region, it
was sure to attract lot of flak from politicians and the
public.
DD also does not see much revenue flowing in from the delayed
telecast of the soccer matches.
Prasar
Bharati, overseeing the functioning of Doordarshan and All
India Radio and one of the biggest broadcasters in the world,
is smarting under the fact that it cannot telecast live
the World Cup matches as Ten Sports has with it exclusive
satellite and terrestrial rights and had written to DD earlier
that the pubcaster would not be permitted to air the soccer
games live.
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