DD in a tiff with British TV firm

Host broadcaster for Commonwealth Games Doordarshan (DD) has faced initial glitches with SIS (Satellite Information Service) Live of United Kingdom, which has been given the production contract for the Games starting on October 3.

Updated on: Aug 17, 2010, 01:01:50 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Host broadcaster for Commonwealth Games Doordarshan (DD) has faced initial glitches with SIS (Satellite Information Service) Live of United Kingdom, which has been given the production contract for the Games starting on October 3.

DD’s Director General Aruna Sharma confirmed to HT that SIS Live was also to produce the Queen's Baton relay from 17 locations in 19 countries as against required 21 locations. “We have remedial measures under the contract which we will enforce,” Sharma said.

The Information and Broadcasting ministry had awarded the contract to SIS live for producing the games in high definition in October 2009, a few days before the Queen Baton relay was flagged off from London.

The delay in awarding the contract is said to be a reason for SIS Live — Europe's largest outside broadcaster— failing to meet its obligation. The company, however, did not respond to emails on this failure sent by HT last week.

It is for the first time that the Games would be shown on high definition like major recent international sports events such as FIFA world cup in South Africa and Olympics in China.

But, yet to be completed work at 12 venues, for which SIS live has been contracted, is causing a major concern. "During construction, proper care has not been taken to ensure that the broadcasting areas don't face direct sunlight. The company has problems with direct sunlight as it will impact the quality of high-definition production," a senior DD official said. In a bid to sort it out, the DD has asked the Organising Committee to cover all those areas from where direct or unnecessary sunlight was coming. "They have assured us of covering these areas by first week of September," a senior ministry functionary said.

Information and Broadcasting minister Ambika Soni said that arrangements have been made for setting up of International Broadcast Centre (IBC) at Pragati Maidan for broadcast and relay of the games. "All activities in respect of IBC have been entrusted to a consortium comprising Global Television Services Pvt Ltd and Shaf Broadcast Pvt Ltd," she said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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