Talks between Nimbus and Prasar Bharti for sharing feeds of the India-West Indies cricket series failed here on Monday.
NEW DELHI: Public broadcaster Doordarshan and private network Nimbus have failed to reach an agreement on telecast of ongoing India-West Indies cricket series, a news that will disappoint millions of cricket buffs.
Rebuffing I&B Ministry and Prasar Bharati for their rigid line on the controversial issue, BCCI rights holder Nimbus said its proposals were rejected and challenged the public broadcaster to produce its own programme and go live.
"We offered Prasar Bharati that they can have live feed of the matches if they encrypt signals or else they can go in for a 15-minute delayed feed.
"However, since they do not agree to both these, all I can say is they can come to the stadium with their equipments and go live if they believe they are so entitled under guidelines," Nimbus CEO Digvijay Singh told reporters immediately after the talks with Prasar Bharati.
Asked if this would not be illegal, he said, "Let them first do it, then we will see," dropping hints that it would take action against the public broadcaster for doing so.
DD Director-General L D Mandloi ruled out any live recording from the stadium, saying "How can we do it without an agreement? It's not possible at all".
Monday's talks between the two broadcasters came even as both approached the courts to resolve the matter and swing things in their favour.
Nimbus went to the Delhi High Court, challenging the Centre's uplinking guidelines that make it mandatory on private broadcasters to share feed of sporting events of "national interest" with public broadcaster Prasar Bharati.
On the other hand, Prasar Bharati filed caveats in the Supreme Court, Delhi High Court and Bombay High Court, pleading that it be heard whenever the matter regarding the telecast row would be taken up.
With both sides refusing to climb down from their stated positions, all eyes are now on the courts to resolve the stalemate. The Delhi High Court has fixed the matter for hearing on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, while BCCI has thrown its support behind Nimbus, the Government has taken a serious view of denial by the private broadcaster.
Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi, who has said the government will take steps to bring in a law making mandatory to share feed of sporting events of national interest with DD, has accused Nimbus of being "unpatriotic".
Dasmunsi even questioned the BCCI rights award to Nimbus, saying terrestrial rights cannot be sold to any private broadcaster as they were not under the jurisdiction of the cricket board.
"Appropriate legislation will be brought so that millions of people who depend on Doordarshan do not miss the cricket matches," he said.
"Terrestrial rights to Doordarshan and radio cannot be overshadowed by any private marketing company. I will not be under pressure of any sort in this regard," he said.
Once the law was in place there would be no scope for the broadcaster to violate it, he added.
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