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BCCI had also sought legal opinion from former attorney-general
Soli Sorabjee on the issue before preparing its stand for the Delhi
HC, which has admitted a petition filed by Zee Telefilms.
The Marketing Committee of the Board would meet tomorrow to discuss
the contentious issue of telecast rights and Sorabjee's opinion
would be placed at the meeting.
The present bidders for telecast rights for matches to be organized
by the BCCI in India include Zee, ESPN-Star Sports, Sony Entertainment
Television India and pubcaster Prasar Bharati.
The present legal impasse is part of long drawn court cases first
initiated by ESS and then Zee Telefilms after bids were first invited
in 2004, which stand cancelled presently.
Meanwhile, BCCI today suggested former chief election commissioner
T S Krishnamurthy as an observer to the Board elections before the
Supreme Court.
Prasar Bharati makes a grab for test matches too
While the court case in the Delhi High Court is keeping many busy,
including the media, Prasar Bharati is quietly angling for a bigger
slice of the telecast cake in the interim --- the three five-day
Tests --- realizing BCCI has few options.
“Apart from the one-dayers (to be played amongst Sri Lanka, South
Africa and India), we would like to telecast the three Tests also.
We have written to the BCCI in this regard today,” Prasar Bharati
CEO KS Sarma told Indiantelevision.com.
According to Sarma, if the BCCI agrees to give Prasar Bharati the
Tests also, it would be able to market the Test-ODI package better.
“However, BCCI has to inform us of its decision soon,” Sarma said,
adding the cricket board has acknowledged an earlier communication
on DD’s interest in airing the one-dayers, which hold better marketing
prospects.
After the legal wrangling over telecast rights, which broke late
2004, DD has been telecasting BCCI-organised matches that include
matches played by India against Australia, South Africa and Pakistan
during 2005.
For the forthcoming series of cricket matches DD has offered to
pay BCCI telecast rights fee at the rate of Rs. 70 million per one-dayer,
which is the same amount as for the Indo-Pakistan series, and has
said that it would not mind if the overseas rights were given to
any other channel or marketing agency.
For the three five-day Test matches, DD has quoted a price of slightly
over Rs 30 million per day.
“Though Test matches don’t get us that many eyeballs, we could
try packaging them with the one-dayers,” Sarma said, adding, with
his tongue firmly in cheek, that DD would bear financial losses,
if any, in the “interest of the masses” that don’t have much access
to cable TV.
Prasar Bharati has also reminded everybody concerned, including
the BCCI, that as a pubcaster it should get preferential treatment
vis-à-vis private sports broadcasters. This line seems to
have been swallowed by some policy-makers who are suggesting a law
mandating that all important sports content be shared with the pubcaster
on a mandatory basis.
(Rs. 45.33 = $ 1)
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Zee, ESPN
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Content
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