The Hindu Business Line : Draft Bill: Share rights for sports broadcast

Stringent norms
The Bill has restricted the ownership cross-holding limit among broadcast companies at 20 per cent of the paid up equity capital.
To reign in errant broadcasters, the Ministry has put in stringent penalty conditions.

New Delhi , June 22

The new draft of The Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, 2006, to be put up for Cabinet approval soon, proposes to put at rest all the court cases with regard to sharing of broadcasting rights between different channels.

It says that rights for all national and international sporting events that would be notified by the Government would have to be mandatorily shared with the Government by the private broadcasters.

In the case of cricket, the Bill states that the private broadcaster will have to share the broadcasting rights with the public broadcasters Doordarshan and All India Radio for all One Day International (ODIs) matches in which India plays, at home or abroad, and the semi-finals and finals of all international cricket tournaments whether India plays in those matches or not.

For test matches, the rights have to be shared for all matches played in India while for those played abroad, a 90-minute highlight will have to be given to the public broadcasters.

The rights have to be shared without the advertisements, the Bill specifies.

The Bill also proposes strict norms on the names and logo of the channels. In order to prevent misuse of existing established channels, it says that if the name or logo or the symbol of the channel, either in part or full or abbreviated form is the same or similar to that of any other registered channel in India or any well known channels outside India, whether registered in India or not, then its registration may be cancelled or refused unless the other older channel's owner holds at least 26 per cent equity in the new channel or provide at least 50 per cent of the content of the new channel.

In order to restrict accumulation of interest inside the media and prevent monopoly like situation, the Bill has restricted the ownership cross-holding limit among broadcast companies at 20 per cent of the paid up equity capital.

In order to rein in errant broadcasters, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has put in stringent penalty conditions in the new Bill that is expected to be placed before Parliament in the coming monsoon session. Once the Bill is passed by Parliament, penalty for first offence under the new Act would attract imprisonment up to two years or a fine of up to Rs 25 lakh.

Any subsequent offence would lead to imprisonment of up to five years or fine of up to Rs 50 lakh or both.

While there would be licensing requirement from the local cable operator up to the satellite broadcaster, exemptions would be granted to non-commercial establishments under common ownership from obtaining licensing for local delivery systems without using wireless cables. This provision would help consumer cooperatives and resident associations.

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