The Hindu : CRICKET TELECAST AND `NATIONAL INTEREST'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 17, 2004

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

CRICKET TELECAST AND `NATIONAL INTEREST'

PUBLIC FERVOUR FOR cricket, dressed up as national interest, has ensured the relay of the India-Pakistan one-day internationals by Doordarshan. The Dubai-based television channel, Ten Sports, which had bought exclusive rights for five years for the telecast of cricket matches played in Pakistan, agreed after understandable resistance to provide signals to Doordarshan following a direction by the Supreme Court. While cricket fans will welcome the facilitation of the live relay of the matches on free-to-air Doordarshan, several issues are involved in a case that originally started at the level of a commercial contract. The first relates to the ownership of airwaves, which the Supreme Court ruled in 1995 constituted public property and must be utilised for advancing the public good. This judgment formed the basis for the argument put forward by Attorney General Soli Sorabjee in the present case: that public interest is involved in India's cricket matches with Pakistan. There is no doubt that millions of people in India take a tremendous interest in cricket matches, especially those pitting India against Pakistan. However, logic will have to be stretched if this is to be taken to mean that telecast of cricket matches involves `public interest.' It is difficult to see how Doordarshan's reluctance or inability to bid effectively for telecast rights can be construed as a violation of a fundamental right (as was argued in court).

Another issue revolves round the differential reach of terrestrial and cable television. More than half the 90 million television households in India have no access to cable television and especially pay channels. The problem is complicated by the fact that while terrestrial television is a Doordarshan monopoly, Ten Sports, which has neither the legal authorisation nor the infrastructure for terrestrial telecast in India, holds the rights for such telecast of the India-Pakistan ODIs. By way of getting round this ticklish question, which more directly affects `public interest' in the commonly understood sense of the term, Ten Sports offered signals free of cost to 200 low power transmitters in areas where there was no cable TV penetration. This compromise was not acceptable to Doordarshan because commercial interest demanded cable distribution of its cricket telecast to households in metros and other urban areas. Aside from citing possible revenue loss from this non-negotiated and coerced sharing of its exclusive rights, Ten Sports raised the issue of "intellectual property rights" and World Trade Organisation covenants. Any violation of international agreements, even with the sanction of the Supreme Court, would lower the `image' of India and also discourage players in the television broadcasting and distribution sectors from seeing the country as a dependable market for commercial television. In the international context where sports is the driver for pay channels, Doordarshan should have bid properly for rights to telecast sporting events of interest to India rather than seek to override international agreements on the grounds of national sovereignty and public interest.

A murky situation in which `national interest' is invoked to sidestep international contractual agreements and the judiciary is approached to arbitrate commercial disputes over the telecast by a foreign TV channel of a cricket match in a neighbouring country reflects the failure of Parliament and successive Governments to do the sensible thing: enact a comprehensive broadcast law and put in place a forward-looking regulatory framework for the broadcast industry. The proposed Communications Commission of India, which will allow for the orderly development of the carriage and content distribution of broadcasting, telecommunications and multimedia, has its work cut out.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News Update

Stories in this Section

CRICKET TELECAST AND `NATIONAL INTEREST'

PUTIN TRIUMPHANT

Mediocre report card on economy

Power balance blown apart