> Sports TV Channels:c DD b Govt

Cricket's Biggest Event ,World Cup,is just a few weeks away and seeing the current despute between Prasar Bharati & Nimbus over the Live share Feed of all India's Matches,the Central government ordered sports television channels, radio stations and content providers on Thursday to share live telecast rights with the state broadcaster Prasar Bharati ,for sporting events of "national importance" at home and abroad.The clearance of the proposal, which is set to upset private broadcasters who have purchased telecast rights at high costs, was given by the Union Cabinet.
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Analysts said the move was the first towards a planned law making it mandatory for private broadcasters to share major sports events with Prasar Bharati, legislation the government hopes to pass in the parliament session beginning this month.

"The union cabinet gave its approval to ... the Sports Broadcasting Ordinance, 2007, to make it obligatory to every content right owner and TV and radio broadcasting service provided to share live telecast signals," the statement said.

The decision came after courts had to intervene to persuade private Indian broadcaster Nimbus Communications Ltd. to share a live feed of the recent India versus West Indies cricket series following the government's failure to force it to do so.

Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi expressed the hope that it would be notified before the start of the coming India-Sri Lanka series on February 8.

After the ordinance comes into effect,it will ensure that millions of cricket lovers in non-cable houses and radio listeners would receive live feed of Indian team`s one-day matches, wherever it plays.
However, for Test matches, the government has said live feed would be required only for matches played in India while for those played abroad, the highlights ould be sufficient.

The decision is bound to irk private broadcasters.Private broadcasters like Nimbus and Sony TV have paid thousands of crores for rights to matches in India and the upcoming World Cup.They will now have to give the feed free to Doordarshan. In return DD will give them 75 per cent of the ad revenues to the broadcaster.
"The revenues will be shared on a 75:25 basis, with the big portion going to the private broadcaster," Dasmunsi said.

However, to assuage the feelings of the private broadcasters, Dasmunsi said a technical committee would look into the matter of encrypting the signals being telecast by Prasar Bharati`s Doordarshan, which would ensure that the feed is not accessed by broadcasters outside India.

Sports Broadcasters said they were waiting for the ordinance to be issued before planning the next move.
"I think the industry is waiting for the ordinance to come out and respond after having a look at it," Harish Thawani, chief executive of Nimbus

finally a wize move.

ofcourse the broadcasters are not going to like it one bit and especially the fly by night channels.

fact is given a choice no one would purchase decoders of channels like nimbus which have one series per year and extract money. cable walas will go for DD only so neo sports is in big trouble.
Don't think espn/start/ten sports will be bothered and even if they are, there is little they can do.

Oh, it basically means that next time around no one will bid very high for ICC and BCCI cricket telecast offers..... which is personally OK with me. Those two organizations don't seem to be doing that much with the money anyway.

that is not true.
They always knew this was going to happen. Unfortunately people bid high cos they think they can blackmail us into paying more every time there is cricket. And that will stop.

Well, they were succeeding weren't they?
And I don't see anything wrong in it either.
Entertainment cannot be considered to be a right. If you want to watch it, pay. If you can't pay, don't watch it.
If the government really thinks that these events are of "national importance", then it had bloody better do something to improve the state of Indian sports.
And DD is a channel which has not broadcast Grand slam finals when they (and no satellite channels) had the rights to them. Yet, if a satellite channel now refuses to give them that right, they complain.
Plus this 25% revenue thing is perverse.
Personally, if I ran a business, I might like such an arrangement anyway for business reasons. But you can't force it on anyone.

the point is there is everything wrong in it. Monopoly is not tolerated in any business. Exclusivity does not mean you set prices as you like based on one right to event.

The point is that cricket is not entertainment but religion in India(idiotic cliche but its a fact) so same yardsticks cannot be applied here as with other sports.

I am not in favour of DD. Even if ESPN was beaming the thing i would have been happy. Atleast with those channels, you know there is all year long good sports coming. Not with channels like zee sports/Neo Sports and all. Personally DD's production quality sucks big time but its better than paying 70 bucks per month for neo.

What needs to happen is that people say no to Neo. Within two or three months they would fix themselves, trust me.
And I don't see a monopoly here. The fact is they won the rights by bidding. And that bidding did not see them win by virtue of the fact that they were bigger than anyone else.
As for religion, well I think that the government should be working to relieve people of the unhealthy addiction rather than ply it out to them.