DD-STRACON SMOKE PEACE PIPE
State-owned broadcaster Doordarshan (DD)
and its associate commercial time marketer for the World
Cup Cricket telecast, Stracon India made peace last week.
DD, at the insistence of another associate air-time marketer,
Nimbus Communications, had demanded that Stracon increase
its minimum advertising guarantee from Rs 260 million for
the tournament's telecast on its terrestrial network. The
state-owned broadcaster refused to air promos revolving
around the World Cup.
The Delhi-based company had filed a petition
in the high court challenging DD's decisions. But the court
told the two to reach an out of court settlement to prevent
the immense revenue loss to both.
Under the settlement, Stracon has upped
its minimum advertising guarantee from Rs 2600 million to
Rs 6500 million. DD would get 10% as its share and an additional
carriage fee of Rs 123 million. Stracon will share 50% of
the profits generated on revenues beyond Rs 6,500 million
with the broadcaster. Stracon promoter Siddartha Ray has
also agreed to share 25% of the consortium's profits with
Nimbus provided it is ready to share costs in an equal proportion.
Nimbus is reportedly considering the offer.
