New Delhi: With sports channel Ten Sports making it clear that it would not share signals of the India-Pakistan cricket matches, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to inform it by Tuesday how much money it could pay the channel for receiving `live feed' for telecast on Doordarshan.

A Bench comprising Justice Ashok Bhan and Justice Tarun Chatterji sought a response from Solicitor General G.E. Vahanvati, appearing for Prasar Bharati, whether Doordarshan was willing to share with Ten Sports the feed of the series without any alteration including advertisements. Mr. Vahanvati told the court that he would discuss the issue and inform it by Tuesday.

The Bench was hearing a special leave petition filed by Taj Television (India), owners of Ten Sports, against an order of the Bombay High Court admitting its petition challenging the revised guidelines on telecast of national events but refusing to grant interim relief.

"No right"

Appearing for Ten Sports, senior counsel Harish Salve said Doordarshan had no right to demand the sharing of signals when the channel had entered into a contract with the Pakistan Cricket Board. He said that without participating in the bid for telecast of the matches, Doordarshan wanted to "reap a harvest" by demanding the sharing of signals, which he said would violate intellectual property rights.

When the Bench wanted to know whether any solution could be worked out keeping in mind the interest of millions of viewers in India, Mr. Salve said the offer of Rs. 20 crore for sharing the signals was the estimated loss from cable operators. He said once the signals became free to air, cable operators would not be willing to take the signals from Ten Sports. It had already booked 90 per cent of the advertisement slots and if the cable operators did not accept the signals, the estimated loss would be around Rs. 140 crore. He said Ten Sports was prepared to share the signals provided DD telecast the matches with the advertisements.

Mr. Vahanvati said the issue involved the public interest. If Prasar Bharati did not get the live feed, millions of cricket lovers would be deprived of the series. The Bench sought to know from Prasar Bharati whether it was willing to deposit Rs. 25 crore or any amount fixed by the court. The petition filed by Taj Television sought a stay of the guidelines making it mandatory to share the feed of sporting events of national importance with Prasar Bharati.

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