A row is on between India's television media and the Formula One Management (FOM), which could see the former boycott the inaugural Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit this weekend.
The bone of contention is F1's restrictive guidelines, which don't allow the race feed to
be shared with non-rights holders.
The world over, FOM never releases the race feed to news channels, a stipulation that was already stated in the guidelines that accompanied the accreditation form.
Jaypee’s vice-president of communications, Askari Zaidi, played down the threat and was pretty confident that television journalists would toe the line.
No problem
“When they signed their accreditation form, they agreed to the terms and conditions, so I expect them to cover the event,” he said.
Zaidi added that even the organisers couldn't get a race feed for a promotional documentary they were shooting on the making of the circuit.
“We requested them (FOM) to allow us to bring in cameras, but were refused. Even after we asked them to look into the matter, they refused, saying we could only buy a one-minute feed of the race,” he said.