The Hindu Business Line : Nimbus, DD fall out on India-WI match telecast

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Mumbai/New Delhi Jan. 20 Cricket fans dependent on Doordarshan to catch live action of the India-West Indies one-day international match being played in Nagpur on Sunday may have to depend on their Neo-neighbours.

Despite several meetings, Nimbus Communications Ltd, which holds the rights to all cricket played in India, and Doordarshan have failed to resolve the deadlock over sharing of live telecast.

Doordarshan estimates that at least 55 million terrestrial homes and those who do not subscribe to Neo Sports will be deprived of live coverage.

The problem is DD's un-encrypted signals, says Nimbus, and claims to have raised it a long time ago, and, therefore, it should not have come as a surprise to DD, says Mr Yannick Colaco, Senior Vice-President, Marketing, Nimbus.

Discussions are believed to have carried on till late Saturday evening. However, with both parties threatening to drag each other to court, an understanding was unlikely to be reached, sources indicated.

Nimbus claims that the Downlinking Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting that make it mandatory for right holders to share feed with DD and AIR is not legally binding. "If you look at the Supreme Court verdict on the ESS (ESPN-Star Sports) case that has very clearly said that there is no legal basis on this (necessity of sharing signal with DD), " says Mr Colaco.

A DD spokesman said that the fallout could have been over the marketing rights of DD's telecast. Nimbus is believed to have been keen to market both its own telecast on Neo Sports and DD's as well.

Nimbus on its part claims DD's satellites have significant dispersion and can even be tapped into by many neighbouring countries and that amounted to violations of the rights of television rights' owners in many Asian countries, encouraged piracy and harmed business. Nimbus has decided that while there is no agreement with regard to sharing of television feed there would be no sharing of radio feed to AIR.

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Nimbus, DD fall out on India-WI match telecast