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 feed of the series without any alteration including the 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.

Appearing for Ten Sports, senior counsel Harish Salve said Doordarshan had no right to demand sharing of signals when the channel had entered into a contract with the Pakistan Cricket Board. He said 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. He said the glaring illegality of the guidelines was that they were made applicable even to existing contracts between different parties.

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 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 Doordarshan telecast the matches with the advertisements.

Mr. Vahanvati said the issue involved public interest and if Prasar Bharti would not get the live feed several millions of cricket lovers would be deprived of the series in small towns and villages. The Bench sought to know from Prasar Bharti whether it was willing to deposit Rs. 25 crore or any amount fixed by the court for sharing signals of the private channel as was done by the apex court in 2004 when a similar dispute arose. The petition filed by Taj Television Ltd, sought a stay of the Government guidelines making it mandatory for the sports channels to share feed of sporting events of national importance with Prasar Bharti. It contended that the guidelines were arbitrary and without the authority of law.

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