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Tag: Ranjana Desai

  • HC refuses to grant interim relief to Ten Sports; admits plea

    HC refuses to grant interim relief to Ten Sports; admits plea

    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has admitted a petition filed by Ten Sports, challenging the Union Government’s uplinking guidelines on telecasting the India-Pakistan matches scheduled next year. However, the court refused to grant any interim relief and adjourned the hearing till further order.

    This means that Ten Sports’ cricket telecast fortunes will hang in the balance. The Bombay High Court’s Christmas vacation spans from 26 December 2005 to 8 January 2006 (both days inclusive). India plays its first Test in Lahore from 14 January to 18 January.

    Yesterday, Ten Sports had submitted a proposal before the High Court expressing its willingness to share the cricket telecast feed with Doordarshan only in rural India’s non-cable markets.

    In the proposal, the channel had said it was ready to provide feed of sports events to Prasar Bharati in the rural Very Low Power Transmission (VLPT) areas, where cable is not available, as an interim measure.

    Ten Sports had moved the Bombay High Court on 9 December challenging a government move on making it mandatory for private sports channels to share listed sporting events with pubcaster Doordarshan. The channel alleged that acquisition costs of such events run into millions of dollars and sharing feed with Doordarshan would mean a loss for the broadcaster in advertising and subscription revenue.

    UNI adds that a consumer body called Consumer Action Network has also intervened in the matter and opposed the Ten Sports plea. The intervention was not opposed by the bench comprising Justices Ranjana Desai and Abhay Oak.

    Ahmed Abidi, representing the forum, told the court that as per the Supreme Court guidelines, the signals had to be made available to DD and free-to-air channels also. He pointed out the Australian example where the Government has taken concrete steps in this regard.

  • Ten Sports files case against I&B ministry on content sharing; hearing on 12 Dec

    Ten Sports files case against I&B ministry on content sharing; hearing on 12 Dec

    MUMBAI: Ten Sports has done it again by going to court against the government / pubcaster Prasar Bharati over telecast rights issue.

    Dubai-based Taj TV Limited, which owns Ten Sports, has filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court challenging a government move on making it mandatory for private sports channels to share listed sporting events with pubcaster Doordarshan.

    This development comes close on the heels of the government issuing new downlinking guidelines on 11 November that has tightened the screws on private sports channels having rights to cricket matches.

    Ten Sports holds the rights of the India – Pakistan one-day international series scheduled to be held in January-February 2006. Any Indo-Pak cricketing encounter is a money spinner for broadcasters.

    In its petition, Ten Sports has alleged acquisition costs of such events run into millions of dollars and sharing feed with Doordarshan would mean a loss for the broadcaster in advertising and subscription revenue.

    The case is expected to come up for hearing before a division bench comprising Justices Ranjana Desai and A.S. Oka on 12 December in Mumbai.

    The downlinking norms allow DD to keep 25 per cent of the revenue generated from marketing such shared events on its networks, while the rest goes to the private broadcaster holding that event’s rights.

    In the case of Indo-Pak cricket matches in Pakistan, the rights holder will be Ten Sports.

    Ten Sports also petitioned in the court that it has sold close to 90 per cent of its ad inventory for the Indo-Pak series much before 11 November.

    “Sharing the feed with DD after collecting advertising revenues would amount to a breach of trust of the clients, since they had paid higher sums for exclusive telecast on Ten Sports,” the petition said.

    Ten Sports has alleged that with the new downlinking norms, government’s intention was to enable Prasar Bharati to make profits.

    Ten Sports’ petition mentioned that if it shared feed with DD, it would incur a minimum loss of Rs 200 million in fixed fee under the distribution agreement.

    However, at this moment, no other private sector TV channel has come forward to join issues with Ten Sports against government norms.

    A sports broadcaster told Indiantelevision.com that it will “wait and see the outcome of the event or the turns the Ten case takes.”