(3 November 2007 10:00 pm)

NEW DELHI: With the government notifying compulsory sharing of the Indo-Pak Test series with Doordarshan, Neo Sports could be in trouble so far as its subscription revenues go.

Several multi-system operators (MSOs) Indiantelevision.com spoke to, said that they had agreed to carry Neo Sports but had built in clauses where their payout terms would be subject to exclusivity terms.

"If DD is also going to telecast the Indo-Pak matches, we will certainly be reviewing our payout to Neo. We have build such clauses in. There is, after all, no way we can recover the money from the ground," said the head of a MSO in Mumbai.

Asked for his response, Neo Sports promoter Harish Thawani said he was ignorant of such moves.

The government has targeted the Test series in particular, as the notification comes into effect from 1 December, four days ahead of the first Test.

The latest notification has termed the upcoming Test series as a "sporting event of national importance", thus bringing its telecast under the ambit of the law.

Nimbus's plans for leveraging the upcoming Indo-Pak series has received a big blow as they now will have to share the feed with pubcaster Doordarshan, analysts said.

Not just the MSOs, the DTH players would feast on this as well, as they have already won a court case allowing them to show Neo (or any other) sporting event covered by DD at no extra cost to the company originally owning the content.

Dish TV has not entered into any contractual obligation with Neo. TataSky is offering its subscribers Neo Sports for an additional charge but so far there have been few takers.

What will worry Nimbus the most is that BCCI rights are currently going through a golden period. India recently hosted Austrlia, will play an ODI as well as a Test series with Pakistan, and this is to be followed with a series against South Africa.

Nimbus may not be able to monetise subscription revenues as much as it would have estimated earlier, industry sources said.