| NEW DELHI: Millions of viewers
who don't have access to the Nimbus owned Neo Sports can finally heave a sigh
of relief. The Delhi High Court has ruled that terrestrial broadcaster Doordarshan
can telecast the ongoing cricket series between India and the West Indies "deferred
live" with a seven-minute delay. Seven minutes on an average comprises
two overs bowled on the trot. All India Radio will, however, be allowed to broadcast
its commentary live, with no time lag. The consensus emerged
after the High Court, in its order issued today, ruled that 50 million viewers
(who don't have cable TV access) cannot be denied the right to watch the game. The
timing of the ruling is critical since it comes a day ahead of the second One-Day
International to be played in Cuttack, Orissa. It may be recalled that millions
of viewers missed out on the action Sunday that saw India defeating the West Indies
in the first ODI that was played at Nagpur.
While issuing his orders,
Justice SK Kaul made it clear that this was an interim ruling and that the final
decision about the Sri Lanka series (that follows immediately after the current
four-match Pepsi series gets over) will be taken on 8 February. On the petition
filed by Nimbus yesterday, the court asked Prasar Bharati to file its replies
by 29 January, to which Nimbus will have to file its rejoinder by 1 February. Nimbus' counsel argued
that it would stand to lose cmmercially if Doordarshan were allowed a live feed
and said DD was being adamant despite concessions offered by Neo Sports. Reacting
to the news, information & broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi welcomed
the decision of the court, stating it (the ruling) was only fair considering DD
has "96 per cent reach in the country". Nimbus Sports, the rights
holders for the BCCI organized cricket events in India that it had acquired for
a whopping $ 612 million, had earlier offered to give the feed to Prasar Bharati,
but only under certain specific conditions, and these were not acceptable to the
pubcaster. Nimbus had originally suggested a 15 minute deferred telecast
on DD referred 'as live'. Nimbus also did not agree to DD showing the matches
on its DTH platform DD Direct Plus. Nimbus had said if at all it shares
the feed, the signals would have to be encrypted so that it reached houses only
on the terrestrial network and not those that get DD signals through cable TV.
The talks broke down after Prasar Bharati officials, citing previous government
orders and court rulings they claim had gone in their favour, said they should
get live feed of the cricket series without any conditions, and that it was also
to be shared on DD's DTH platform. Following the breakdown of talks DD
officials had gone back to taking the cover of the Uplink-Downlink Guidelines
that perforce allow DD to get the telecast feed. | 
