The Hindu : Provide signals to DD for all matches: Court

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 18, 2004

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Provide signals to DD for all matches: Court

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, MARCH 17. The Supreme Court today directed Ten Sports, Dubai-based television channel, to continue to give live signals and provide facilities to Doordarshan for telecast of the remaining three One-Day International cricket matches and the three Tests to be played between India and Pakistan.

A three-judge Bench, comprising the Chief Justice V.N. Khare, Justice N. Santosh Hegde and Justice S.H. Kapadia, directed Prasar Bharati to deposit Rs. 40 crores within a week towards the likely loss and damages suffered by Ten Sports for sharing the telecast with Doordarshan.

In response to the court's order passed on Monday, Prasar Bharati today deposited Rs. 10 crores. The Bench said that an additional Rs. 40 crores was needed till the actual loss, if any, suffered by Ten Sports or its sole distributor Modi Entertainment Network was determined by the court.

Making it clear that Doordarshan could not exploit the order commercially, the Bench directed it to carry the signals received from Ten Sports with the logo and advertisements 30 minutes before, during and after the telecast of the matches.

After heated arguments and exchange of words for about two hours, the court found it difficult to hammer out a settlement. Keeping the contentious issues open, the Bench posted the matter to April 15 for the final hearing of the Special Leave Petitions of Ten Sports against the interim orders of the Madras and Bombay High Courts, directing it to give live feed of the India-Pakistan series.

When it was brought to the court's notice that Doordarshan had telecast the last two matches to West Asia and other countries, the Bench directed Prasar Bharati to limit the telecast to India and not beam it to West Asia. Further, it should also try to avoid beaming its signals to Far Eastern countries, if it was technically possible.

When the matter was taken up this morning, the Attorney-General, Soli Sorabjee, appearing for the Centre said that Ten Sports had an agreement with Pakistan TV for simultaneous telecast of the cricket series on a payment of $4 million. He said that Prasar Bharati was prepared to pay $10 million for the same rights.

This was, however, not acceptable to Kapil Sibal, senior counsel for Ten Sports, who placed the Ten Sports claim for Rs. 200 crores for providing the live feed to Doordarshan.

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