BackSupreme Court reserves verdict in Prasar Bharti feed-sharing case
Order relates to a temporary system during the World Cup for sharing match feed to balance claims made by Prasar Bharti and private broadcasters
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on the issue of whether a temporary arrangement can be made during the 2015 Cricket World Cup for sharing match feed to balance claims made by Prasar Bharti and private broadcasters like Star India Pvt. Ltd and ESPN India.
On Thursday, state-owned Prasar Bharti through attorney general Mukul Rohatgi told the court that it was not feasible to create an alternative DD channel to carry match feed for its terrestrial and DTH network, as it would have to be carried on a new frequency. This was one of the suggestions by Star to ensure that it didn’t lose subscriber revenue.
Lawyer P. Chidambaram said Star was set to lose ₹ 290 crore subscription in 2014 for its channel and ₹ 120 crore for the world cup, because Prasar Bharti shared Star’s match broadcast on its must-carry channels. Cable operators are required to carry two Doordarshan channels on their network as a must, and Prasar Bharti has the right to receive feed from private broadcasters for matches of national interest, which it can share on two notified channels. As a result, often, private cable operators can access these matches free of charge from the DD channels.
A bench headed by justice Ranjan Gogoi said that the court was looking to only balance the claims of the parties at an interim stage, and the appeal against the Delhi high court judgement would require further consideration.
The high court had directed that Prasar Bharti could only share the feed it got from private broadcasters on its terrestrial network, and not with private cable operators.
Chidambaram offered more alternatives after Rohatgi claimed that no new channel could be created. These included request for a ticker carrying the disclaimer that the match feed could not be carried by private cable operators or a replica channel of Doordarshan, without the match feed. Rohatgi said that a disclaimer of such nature would fall foul of the law.
Lawyer Amit Sibal, for the Board of Control for Cricket in India, said that there was private interest involved for both Prasar Bharti and ESPN/Star. Sibal argued that Prasar Bharti could retain 25% of the advertisement revenue through these matches, without paying any cost of the feed. He asked that the reasoning of the high court be retained.
The interim stay on the high court order will continue till such time the court delivers its order.
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