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Our Bureau

New Delhi , March 10

WITH Ten Sports firm on retaining exclusivity to the Indo-Pak cricket matches, the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister, Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad, today met the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to devise ways and means of widening the coverage through Doordarshan so that a major portion of the country is not denied the pleasure of watching this historic series.

The Government has been coaxing, cajoling and talking to Ten Sports to persuade the broadcaster to share the rights to the Indo-Pakistan cricket series with Doordarshan. And while I&B Ministry is not keen on promulgating an Ordnance, this may just be the last resort for the Government.

"We do not want to take a drastic step by issuing an Ordnance. We will try and persuade Ten Sports to share the rights with Doordarshan," said officials.

"Ten Sports is a cable channel and several parts of the country do not have access to cable services. Even such households which do not have cable should not be deprived of the matches," said senior officials in the I&B Ministry.

Even as the Madras High Court will give its final order on Thursday, the Court has suggested looking into the option of promulgating an Ordnance whereby national or international events of general interest be offered to the national broadcaster in the free-to-air mode. Pakistan already has a law to this effect.

Meanwhile, the I&B Ministry has asked all concerned to "rise above narrow commercial interests" to ensure that Indian viewers get to watch the upcoming Indo-Pak cricket series.

The Secretary of the I&B Ministry, Mr Pawan Chopra, told newspersons after the release of a handbook on General Elections 2004, "This match is very important for public to view. Everyone should rise above narrow commercial interest and ensure that there was no inconvenience to the people."

He added that there were several countries under which it was mandatory for giving rights to public broadcaster of sports of national importance. Sources in the Ministry also maintained that the Indo-Pak series should not be seen from a purely commercial perspective, but a long-term view should be taken.

"The series is the result of efforts by the Indian and Pakistani Government to improve the relations and therefore it should not viewed purely from the commercial angle," said sources.

However, there have been differences between the cable fraternity and Ten Sports with the former alleging that the latter has been demanding higher revenues.

But officials in Ten Sports told Business Line that it has tied up with major multi-system operators (MSOs) such as SitiCable, InCablenet, Sumangali, RPG and other independent operators in various metros. "Only Star Group backed Hathway and some others have to fall in line. The channel reaches out to 30 million homes," said officials at Ten Sports.

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