MUMBAI: DD Sports will stop beaming the Indo-Pakistan series via PAS-10 satellite from midnight, following strong protests from Sony.

As the footprint of PAS-10 spreads across Europe and the Middle East, Sony argued that the DD Sports spillover as an unencrypted free to air channel would affect its commercial interests as it had paid $11.5 to acquire the international telecast rights.

Instead, DD Sports will beam from Insat 2E so that the coverage of the cricket matches do not reach markets outside India. "We made a request to the BCCI.. DD Sports has agreed not to beam from PAS-10," says SET India CEO Kunal Dasgupta.

Sony had sold to Ten Sports the satellite telecast rights for the Middle East and Pakistan territories for $2.5 million.

Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma admitted that cable operators had been informed to receive signals from Insat 2E. "BCCI made a request yesterday that we remove DD Sports from the PAS-10 satellite as the footprint of the channel spreads across 146 countries. We have agreed to do this but it will take time for the cable operators to react," he says.

Cable operators admitted that they have been intimated by DD Sports to make the necessary switchover. "We have been told that the channel would be available on Insat and not PAS-10," says a source in Hathway Cable & Datacom.

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