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Meera Mohanty

New Delhi, Aug. 25 ESPN Star Sports (ESS) and Ten Sports have been hauled up by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for not following guidelines. Show cause notices have been sent to the two sports companies, which could be off air for a month if found guilty of “non-compliance”.

The Ministry’s notice to ESS for violating pricing guidelines, and not offering its channels to Direct-to-Home Service providers according to TDSAT prescribed 50 per cent of cable rates, was sent on Friday. It comes after ESPN failed to “reply in compliance” to the Telecom Regulatory Authority’s show cause notice against it.

The regulator had also dragged the broadcaster to court. However, the Metropolitan Magistrate’s court at Tees Hazari, New Delhi has not issued any summons yet. There has been no stay order either; the Ministry has thus decided to give the broadcaster 15 days’ time to reply.

“We have not received any official intimation as yet. We shall respond in an appropriate manner as and when we receive it,” said Mr R.C. Venkateish, Managing Director, ESPN Software. According to a source, the broadcaster believes that the TDSAT order (to which it wasn’t party) was an interim one. The tribunal had also directed the TRAI to fix pricing for DTH, which is yet to be done, he added.

A show cause notice has also been sent to Ten Sports mid last week for not sharing its feed of the on-going India-Sri Lanka One-Day series with public broadcaster Doordarshan. According to sources in the Ministry, Ten Sports is yet to respond. The channel declined to comment.

The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory sharing with Prasar Bharati) Bill, 2007 was brought in last March, after Nimbus, the telecast rights owners, refused to share its feed with Doordarshan unless the latter’s signals were encrypted. Post the Bill, all broadcasters or right owners of sports events have to share their telecast with Prasar Bharati of any sporting event that the Government decided was of national interest.

Sports broadcasters argue that acquisition and production costs make sports content more expensive.

More Stories on : Radio/TV | Regulatory Bodies & Rulings

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