The Hindu Business Line : Prasar Bharati sends legal notice to channels on cricket footage

PRASAR Bharati on Friday sent legal notices to over a dozen channels, including NDTV, Aaj Tak, ESPN-Star Sports and CNBC, for alleged violation of the copyright norms, by airing footage of the on-going India-Pakistan cricket series.

According to a back on the envelope calculation, the national broadcaster has dues of about Rs 1.16 crore from these broadcasters. Speaking to newspersons, the Prasar Bharati CEO, Mr K.S. Sarma, said, "We are not going to compromise on the set terms and conditions. I expect that with these legal notices, they stop or be ready to face legal consequences. We are dead serious about it."

He added that several of the broadcasters have violated the norms by promoting and airing cricket-related programming. In fact, sports broadcaster, ESPN-Star Sports has been running a regular highlights package, which is currently under dispute. Mr Sarma also said that Prasar Bharati is yet to recover Rs 99 lakh from broadcasters who had used its Olympic footage.

According to the letters sent out to channels, a broadcaster can utilise sound bites not exceeding 30 seconds in news bulletins free-of-cost subject to the secondage utilised not exceeding two minutes per day.

"Sound bites may be used only as a part of regularly scheduled daily programmes. Such programmes must not be positioned or promoted as cricket match programmes," it said.

Channels were asked to pay Rs 6,000 per minute for extra footage used.

Digital terrestrial transmission

PRASAR Bharati is reviving digital terrestrial broadcasting to cater to a niche segment of viewers who are on the move.

According to Mr Sarma, currently five channels are available in the format and this could be increased to 25. However, the whole issue of digital terrestrial transmission is being debated and private broadcasters are not permitted to be present on terrestrial networks.

However, the national broadcaster has met with success on its free direct-to-home (DTH) venture. The Prasar Bharati board on Friday decided to increase the number of television channels to 50 from the present 33. Also, it will charge a carriage fee of Rs 90 lakh to Rs 1 crore from broadcasters next year as carriage fee.

Besides this, the national broadcaster wants to be present on Rupert Murdoch' BskyB DTH platform in the UK. Mr Sarma said that he hoped to discuss this issue with the NewsCorp Chief during his visit to India.

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