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Goel reiterated that as the declared highest bidder, Zee Telefilms
would not give up easily on something that it thinks is "rightfully"
its. "We are sure the court would finally see our point of
view too," he added.
Meanwhile, Prasar Bharati, the third highest bidder for the cricket
rights after Zee and ESPN Star Sports at $ 150 million, stated it
would be filing its submission before the apex court.
Confirming the move to indiantelevision.com, Prasar Bharati CEO
KS Sarma said the decision to approach the courts had come in the
wake of the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) announcement
yesterday that the board would arrange for the live telecast of
the India-Australia series beginning on 6 October through Sony Television
Entertainment India.
Sarma said, "As the third highest bidder, we feel we should
be rightfully offered the rights for cricket at the price we had
bid for. BCCI's current intentions make us an aggrieved party and
we'd move the court next working day (Monday, 4 October)."
As per the BCCI plan, the live feeds would be produced by the Dubai-based
Ten Sports network to be shown on a Sony channel.
As the cricket rights saga was unfolding and getting into a legal
logjam with parties moving the court, BCCI did try to sell the rights
to Prasar Bharati to be shown on Doordarshan, but was rebuffed as
the asking price was "high".
According to Prasar Bharati sources, BCCI had conveyed to DD that
even if it offers a dollar more than $ 308 (Zee's quote), the telecast
rights were for the taking."But when we had bid almost half
the amount that, taking into account all aspects, we could not have
paid up more on the second invitation," a source privy to the
confabulations between BCCI and DD said.
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