Pvt sports feed on all DD platforms?
THE MINISTRY ON TUESDAY ISSUED A STATEMENT INVITING COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS FROM STAKEHOLDERS FROM THE INDUSTRY AND THE PUBLIC ON THE PROPOSED AMENDING SPORTS BROADCASTING SIGNALS ACT
NEWDELHI: The Union ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) has proposed amending the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act, 2007 to allow public broadcaster Doordarshan to air the feed for sporting events of ‘national importance’ that it gets from private broadcasters on cable networks, and not just on its terrestrial and Free Dish networks.
The ministry on Tuesday issued a statement inviting comments and suggestions from stakeholders from the industry and the public on the proposed amendment.
At present, as per the Supreme Court order of 2017, Prasar Bharati, which runs Doordarshan, can air the feed from private broadcasters on its terrestrial and own direct-tohome platforms, but not on cable networks.
“The government received feedback that there should be regulations to allow telecast of all sporting events of national importance on Doordarshan channels carried on DTH platforms as this would allow viewers who cannot afford expensive cable TV subscription to watch the sporting events,” the official quoted above said.
MIB officials declined to comment on whether the issue has been discussed with sports broadcasters, who may have concerns about the amendment.
Two leading sports broadcasters, Star India and Sony Pictures, did not respond to the queries.
Section 8 of the Cable Television Networks Act makes it mandatory for all cable operators to carry two Doordarshan channels.
Earlier this year, MIB proposed that telecast rights of Indian Premier League (IPL) should be mandatorily shared with other channels, notably Prasar Bharati, but the ministry of youth affairs and sports (YAS) did not back the idea.
The sports ministry did not find merit in the MIB’S proposal to allow the sharing of telecast rights, which rest with Star India, and said that the matches are not national or international tournaments and therefore it is not incumbent on Star India to share the broadcast rights of these matches.