| Taking a stand that may not amuse the Indian cricket
board much, Prasar Bharati is unlikely to follow a BCCI tender document
condition that the bids' denomination should be either in dollar or
Euro.
"We are assessing the bid document and in a day or two would
put up a competitive bid," Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma told
newspersons today, a day after the organisation's board met to discuss
various issues.
Reiterating what indiantelevision.com had reported yesterday, Sarma
added that the Prasar Bharati board had decided to request the government
to formulate a legislation that would "give the public service
broadcaster
mandatory access to telecast rights of events of national importance
on a non-competitive basis."
Prasar Bharati is an autonomous organisation that manages the affairs
of Doordarshan and All-India Radio.
Clarifying on the collaboration issue, additional secretary (broadcasting)
in the I&B ministry Vijay Singh, (a government nominee on the
Prasar Bharati board), said that Prasar Bharati would alone bid
for the telecast rights. "But in a situation where it fails
to bid successfully, it would keep the option open to collaborate
with the rights holder," he added.
Concurring with him, Sarma said that Prasar Bharati was scheduled
to meet up with ESPN executives "today or tomorrow" to
keep all channels open.
In a stand that may upset the Indian cricket board, Singh also
said that Prasar Bharati would make it clear to BCCI that it would
make payments in Indian rupees.
Asked whether payment by an Indian organisation to another Indian
organisation in foreign currency is banned under an existing piece
of legislation, Singh said that those aspects were being examined.
"Let me assure you all that Prasar Bharati would abide by the
law of this country and so would BCCI," he added.
DD TO TELECAST ICC TROPHY, HOLLAND CUP
In a clear bid to augment its revenues, DD has bagged the terrestrial
rights for quite a few up and coming cricket tourneys, some of them
on a revenue-sharing basis with the original rights holder the Newscorp-owned
Global Cricket Corporation (GCC).
The telecast rights obtained by DD include the Champions Trophy
later this year and the one to be played in 2006, apart from the
terrestrial rights of the cricket World Cup in the West Indies in
2007 and the Holland Cup.
DD will telecast live nine matches each from the ICC Champions
Trophy and 19 from the ICC Cricket World Cup, including all India
matches, semis and finals and 'Big Gun' matches, particularly on
weekends.
According to Sarma, for the Champions Trophy later this year, a
minimum guarantee of Rs 7.5 million per One Dayer would be provided
by Nimbus Communications while the revenue share would be in the
ratio of 80:20 in favour of Nimbus (GCC has appointed Harish Thawani's
sports management company to exclusively handle on air sales of
these events).
In the case of Holland Cup, which promises to be high voltage drama
with India, Pakistan and Australia participating, Sony Entertainment
TV India, the rights holder, would provides the bank guarantee and
make available signals of India matches to DD on a revenue-sharing
basis, the details of which were not disclosed.
As ministry's Singh rightly pointed out --- half in jest --- that
with the Olympics coverage turning out to be a financial loss for
Prasar Bharati (expenses: Rs 250 million; revenue: approximately
Rs 80 million), maybe advertising revenue from cricket does some
compensation.
Also Read:
Government
to make it mandatory to give India cricket telecast rights to DD
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