Ten Sports, which has exclusive rights to telecast the India-West Indies cricket series, on Friday moved the Supreme Court, seeking to restrain the Prasar Bharati from downlinking the live feed of the matches.
NEW DELHI: Ten Sports, which has exclusive rights to telecast the India-West Indies cricket series, on Friday moved the Supreme Court, seeking to restrain the Prasar Bharati from downlinking the live feed of the matches.
A Bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhan and L K Panta posted the matter for hearing on Tuesday, telling Solicitor General G E Vahanvati to seek proper instructions on the issue as the Dubai-based sports channel has declined to provide the link without payment.
The private channel filed an application contending that if the matches of the Test and one-day international series were simulcast on Doordarshan, it will suffer a huge loss.
It said it has sold the distribution rights to Set Discovery Pvt Ltd, which will have the right to license throughout the country.
The channel said if interim relief was not granted to it, the order of the court delivered before the recent India-Pakistan series would become infructuous.
Taj Television Ltd, owner of Ten Sports, had filed the petition seeking stay of the government guidelines making it mandatory for the sports channels to share feed of sporting events of national importance with Prasar Bharati.
The court had allowed the live telecast of Indo-Pak ODIs on DD after an agreement was reached between Ten Sports and Prasar Bharati that latter would deposit in court a sum of Rs 15 crore.
During a brief hearing, the Bench observed that the last time it was a series with Pakistan and "matches of Indo-Pak series are different from the others". "For West Indies many people may not be interested," it said.
Ten Sports has challenged the validity and legality of the downlinking guidelines terming it as arbitrary without the authority of law.
The sports channel had challenged the Bombay High Court order of December 21, 2005 refusing it any relief. Later the matter pending before the high court was transferred to the apex court.
The guidelines state that sports channels will share their feed with Prasar Bharati for "national and international sporting events of national importance" in India or abroad.
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