|
NEWDELHI: The Indian cricket board today assured the Delhi high court that it would not decide on bids for grant of cricket telecast and broadcast rights in India for the next four years till September 8, when the hearing on Zee Telefilm’s petition, challenging the eligibility conditions, would resume. |
|
The assurance was given to a division bench of acting Chief Justice B A Khan and Justice M B Lokur on behalf of the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) by senior counsel Aryam Sundaram, who said the marketing committee of the cricket body was yet to meet. Senior counsel Mukul Rohatagi, representing Zee, had sought an interim order to restrain the BCCI from deciding the bids till the next date as it would prejudice the interest of the petitioner, which has demanded quashing of BCCI’s ‘invitation to tender’ (ITT) for cricket telecast rights in India on the ground that the eligibility conditions were framed to oust Indian bidders, according to Press Trust of India (PTI). |
| In fact, the court had made it to BCCI that either it should undertake not to decide the bids till the next date or an order would be passed to restrain it from doing so as in the event of the cricket body deciding the bids, the writ petition would become infructuous.
However, the court did not pass any formal order. Rohatagi alleged that the present set of eligibility criteria for ITT was Sundaram said BCCI wanted only those having three-year experience as direct first original licensee (and not as an agent) from any event owner of telecasting live international cricket matches in each of the three years — 2002, 2003 and 2004 to bid for the telecast rights, states the PTI report. The next date of hearing is 8 September. |
Tag: decision
-
No bids decision till 8 September: BCCI
-
Decision on Star News uplink extension likely Thursday
NEW DELHI: The government is determined to keep Star News on tenterhooks as it did not take a decision on its uplinking even today.
A senior government official told reporters today evening that the lengthy replies filed by Media Content and Communications Services India Pvt. Ltd. (MCCS), which has sought government nod for uplinking news content for Star News from India, are still being studied. “A decision (on the weekly extension being given till now) is likely to be taken tomorrow,” the official said.
According to Kaushal Dalal, a board member of MCCS who met the information and broadcasting ministry officials today, “The government is yet to take a final view on our case, but we are protected by the Mumbai high court ruling, which will ensure that the uplinking continues even after the deadline expires.”
MCCS had moved the courts against Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL), which uplinks content from India for Star News, from terminating the process arbitrarily. The court had observed that VSNL is free to come back to the court if it thinks that the government has directed Star News on something or had not given it the temporary uplink permission. VSNL cannot stop uplinking without informing the court even if the government decides to stop giving Star News the weekly extension it had been giving for the last four weeks.
However, government officials indicated that the replies of Star News are exhaustive and cover most of the areas which had been questioned by the government.
An executive of Star, which holds 26 per cent stake in MCCS, said in private that the case of Star News seems to be a long drawn affair.
Meanwhile, tomorrow in the Lower House of the Indian Parliament the government— read I&B minister Ravi Shankar Prasad — is likely to face a barrage of questions on conditional access system and also on Star News. Some opposition Members of Parliament, reportedly, have been doing their homework on CAS and Star News by getting feedback from a few journalists on the media beat.