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Tag: sharing

  • Government may mandate sharing of sports telecast rights

    Government may mandate sharing of sports telecast rights

    NEW DELHI: It’s not just terrestrial feed of sporting events that pubcaster Doordarshan is angling for. It wants rights for its DTH service too. And, a section of the government is ready to play ball.

    Private sports broadcasters are in for some serious trouble if the government okays a legislation mandating sharing of telecast of sporting events of national importance with pubcaster Doordarshan on a compulsory basis.

    “For the purpose of ensuring the widest availability of viewing in India (of sporting events)… on a free-to-air basis, broadcasters having distribution/broadcast rights for India of such events, shall be obliged to offer the terrestrial and DTH broadcast rights to Prasar Bharati,” a note prepared by the information and broadcasting ministry states.

    Of course, in an effort to seem fair to the industry players, the note adds that feeds of sporting events of national importance should be made available to Prasar Bharati, which manages DD and All India Radio, on terms and conditions “to be mutually agreed upon.”

    This particular part of the proposed legislation is contained in the draft uplink and downlink policy that is now being studied by a group of ministers headed by defence minister Pranab Mukherjee.

    The I&B ministry has backed its proposal by asserting that similar dispensation is available in the UK, Australia and Ireland and in the European Union (EU).

    “The EU in its ‘TV without Frontiers’ directive had asked its member-states to make available suitable provisions in their domestic legislation to ensure that important events are available to the general public on a free to air basis,” the note asserts.

    The government has proposed that a list of sporting events of national/public interest will be notified as soon as a Cabinet nod is obtained without waiting for an omnibus legislation being planned.

    Interestingly, in its submission to the I&B ministry, Prasar Bharati has said that the bundling of satellite, Internet and terrestrial rights by rights holders (read, private sports broadcasters) is “not a healthy practice” for the pubcaster.

    After having listed some reasons given by private broadcasters in getting all the rights of an event, Prasar Bharati goes on to add that whatever may be the reason, “it would be a good idea to pin down the rights holders to prevent them from packaging.”

    And, why doesn’t Prasar Bharati bid for rights (cricket rights to be specific) since that is what rolls in the moolah?

    Prasar Bharati has justified its stand thus: “Uncertainties in the events finally happening, which is not uncommon, makes the entire exercise speculative with high risks, which is generally not appreciated by the Comptroller and Auditor general of India since it tantamounts to playing with the taxpayers’ money.”

    Further, it has been pointed out that no public broadcaster in the world has bid for such rights sold overseas by any cricket board.

  • Private broadcasters lobby against sharing of cricket telecast rights with DD

    NEW DELHI: In a bid to apprise policy-makers of the ground reality of sports broadcasting, some private broadcasters have submitted a representation to group of ministers (GoM), headed by the defence minister Pranab Mukherjee.

    GoM is entrusted to study a proposed legislation relating to telecast of sporting events of national importance.
     
     

    At the meeting, the private broadcasters stated that mandating sharing of terrestrial feed with pubcaster Doordarshan of all events involving India would upset business calculations and would not create a level-playing field for everybody.

    As the proposed legislation stands, the dice would be loaded heavily in favour of Prasar Bharati, which manages DD and All India Radio, a private broadcaster said after the meeting with Mukherjee earlier this week.

    In a note to the GoM, the information and broadcasting ministry has proposed, as part of a revised uplink and downlink policies, listed sports events in India or abroad in the national interest could not be telecast on an exclusive basis by any private broadcaster in India and the feed has to be shared with Prasar Bharati.
     
     

    In its support, the ministry has also said that similar laws exist in countries like the UK, Australia. European Union too is contemplating a legislation on these lines, the ministry has said, quoting from representation made by Prasar Bharati.

    First, the private broadcasters conveyed to Mukherjee — the GoM is likely to meet some time after the present session of Parliament gets adjourned this week — that there was no need to have such a law as most broadcasters would and could come to informal understanding with Prasar Bharati.

    Second, and more importantly, Mukherjee was told that if at all such a law is mandated, then it should not be with retrospective effect (meaning, telecast rights obtained before the passage of the proposed law) and should exclude sporting events held outside India.

    The industry-government interaction was facilitated by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), which, too, has come out against mandating such a law forcing sharing of feed with Prasar Bharati.

    The meeting, held earlier this week in Delhi, was attended by ESPN India MD RC Venkateish, Star India CEO Peter Mukerjea, Ten Sports India head Sharmistha Rijhwani and Ficci secretary-general Amit Mitra, amongst others.

    What’s more, Prasar Bharati wants that such shared telecast be also made available for its DTH platform for which subscribers don’t pay any monthly subscription fee.

    If this was not enough, a section of the government, the ministry of youth affairs and sports, had suggested that “a portion of revenue accruals by the agency (read, mostly satellite sports broadcasters) that gets broadcasting/telecasting rights (of listed events) should be remitted to the national Sports Development Fund.”

    Thankfully, the nodal ministry for media laws, I&B ministry, struck down this suggestion due to lack of statutory back up, though this observation has been included in the note prepared for the GoM.

    The Supreme Court late last month poured cold water on pubcaster Doordarshan’s efforts to arm-twist the terrestrial feed from Ten Sports for the recently-concluded cricket tri-series in Sri Lanka.

    The SC ruling deflated a till-then smug Prasar Bharati that had issued statements cautioning rights holder Ten Sports against “hoarding” terrestrial rights.

  • Government not averse to FM radio revenue sharing

    NEW DELHI: The government today indicated that it is open to a revenue sharing model to help migrate the existing FM players into a new regime.

    According to an I&B ministry official, it is being examined whether under a new regime a revenue sharing formula would be better or having a low entry license fee.

     

    “As per a proposal that the I&B ministry will be circulating to other ministries for feedback next week, it has to be seen which of the options are feasible to pave the way for the opening of the second phase of FM Radio.”

    The official added that the revenue shared percentage as suggested by the sector regulator (four per cent) seems to be on the lower side, which would effect government revenue collections.
     
     
    The I&B ministry is also seized of the issue as to how to tackle the legal cases pertaining to the first phase of FM Radio privitasation. Several companies including Zee Telefilms and the Ambani’s backed Observer group had moved the court on various grounds after they had successfully bagged licenses for FM Radio during the first phase.