The Hindu : National : Government considers action against Nimbus

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Friday, Feb 09, 2007
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National

National

Government considers action against Nimbus

Special Correspondent

Nimbus refuses to share live signals with Doordarshan despite ordinance

NEW DELHI : With Nimbus — which holds the telecast rights of the India-Sri Lanka cricket series — refusing to share live signals with Doordarshan despite the promulgation of an ordinance mandating such sharing with the public broadcaster, the Government is considering penal action against the channel. However, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry will firm up its course of action only after the Delhi High Court pronounces its verdict in a related case pending before it.

Under the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Ordinance 2007, the Government can revoke uplinking permission to the channel and cancel its licence for not sharing live feed with Doordarshan. Nimbus gave signals to Doordarshan on Thursday — the first day of the series — but deferred it by seven minutes, in effect continuing with the arrangement ordered by the court midway between the India-West Indies series last month.

Fearing that Prasar Bharati — armed as it is now with the ordinance — would show the matches simultaneously, Nimbus deferred the transmission of signals to the public broadcaster at its end itself on Thursday. Following the court order in the West Indies fixtures, Nimbus gave Doordarshan the feed live and the deferring was done by the public broadcaster.

With Nimbus violating the ordinance, Prasar Bharati was quick to register a complaint with the Ministry on Thursday. However, the Ministry is likely to follow the procedure of taking penal action by first issuing a show cause notice against the channel. "The Government will take action as per the law after giving the channel reasonable opportunity to be heard," officials said.

Expert group

Meanwhile, the Ministry has constituted a joint group of experts to examine the feasibility of encrypting feed to Doordarshan's terrestrial network. Also, it will look into the issue of shared signals of sporting events being shown on Doordarshan's free-to-air DTH platform as telecast rights holders fear that it an be picked up in other countries — particularly the Gulf — and affect their revenue generation opportunities.

Besides senior officials from Prasar Bharati, the committee includes vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India Lalit Modi, president of the Punjab Cricket Association I.S. Bindra, two representatives from Nimbus and one each from ESPN and Zee Sports.

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