Indian SC orders telecast of cricket match on Doordarshan

NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered private television network Ten Sports to share the broadcast of the second one-day India-Pakistan cricket match with state-run stations available to all homes. The decision means millions of viewers in even small towns and villages, who do not have access to cable television, will now be able to see the match. The Dubai-based Ten Sports channel had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court Friday, on the eve of the first match in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, against a lower court order to share the broadcast, arguing it had paid a huge sum for exclusive rights. Ten Sports said it bought the rights through global bidding in 2002 and had no agreement for sharing with Doordarshan. The Supreme Court had paved the way for broadcast of the first match after Ten Sports gave a last-minute assent to share it, provided the state-run television carried its logo and advertisements. However, the judgement only covered the first match and another hearing had been set for Monday to decide on viewership for the entire series of five one-day matches and three tests. But Monday’s judgement again will apply only to the second match in Rawalpindi and more hearings have been scheduled for a final judgement. The court ordered state-run Doordarshan to deposit 100 million rupees (2.20 million dollars) for payment to the private channel. The judgement noted Ten Sports’ complaint that the state-run channel had not broadcast its logo during the first match and ordered it to do so. The cable war broke out when Ten Sports last week demanded higher cable subscriptions from operators on a par with channels such as ESPN and Star Sports. The operators, led by Hathway and InCableNet, argue that Ten Sports is a relatively new channel and lacks the subscriber base to match that of ESPN and Star Sports and therefore should not expect similar rates. Cable operators beam paid channels such as Ten Sports in India while Doordarshan’s output is free-to-air and covers more than 80 percent of the country’s television audience. The Indian cricket team last toured Pakistan in 1989 and the ongoing series has whipped up such intense interest that a vast number of people stopped work and remained glued to their television sets for the first match. —AFP

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