The Hindu : Prasar Bharati's last hope

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 09, 2004

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Prasar Bharati's last hope

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI, MARCH 8. Prasar Bharati has apparently tapped and ``exhausted'' all avenues — including diplomatic channels — to secure for Doordarshan the terrestrial telecast rights of the India-Pakistan cricket series scheduled to begin in Pakistan later this week, and has now set its eyes on the Madras High Court where a public interest petition has been filed in this regard. The petition is slated to be taken up on Tuesday.

This apart, Prasar Bharati appears to have resigned itself to the fact that Doordarshan may well have to be content with telecasting hour-long highlights on match days as Ten Sports — which holds the global television and radio rights of the series — has made it amply clear that it is not possible for it to ``re-roll the contracts'' afresh at this juncture. Having already struck huge advertisement deals in India for the series, Ten Sports says that allowing Doordarshan the terrestrial rights under the circumstances would dent its standing in this highly competitive arena.

When four meetings with Ten Sports managers have come to naught — despite the public broadcaster offering to pay $ 4 million for terrestrial telecast rights — the Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer, K. S. Sarma, is said to have tapped the diplomatic channels. Last week, he met the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, and the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Brajesh Mishra, to seek their intervention.While the diplomatic channels were explored, not much came of it as Ten Sports has the global television and radio rights of the series because of a commercial agreement with the Pakistan Cricket Board.

Mr. Mishra apparently spoke to the Chairperson of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Pradeep Baijal.

After this, Mr. Baijal informed Prasar Bharati in writing that TRAI — which earlier this year had been asked by the Government to double up as broadcast regulator — did not have the mandate to intervene in what is purely a commercial arrangement.

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