HC restrains cricket match info providers

The Delhi High Court has said TV channel STAR India has the exclusive media rights over cricket matches organised by BCCI until 2018 and barred telecom operators and others from disseminating match information through SMS and Mobile Value Added Service (MVAS) without obtaining license from the channel.

The Delhi High Court has said TV channel STAR India has the exclusive media rights over cricket matches organised by BCCI until 2018 and barred telecom operators and others from disseminating match information through SMS and Mobile Value Added Service (MVAS) without obtaining license from the channel.

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The court, however, said the telecom operators and others can report "noteworthy information" or "news" after a time gap of 15 minutes after the telecast of the match.

Allowing Star India Pvt Ltd's plea for a restraint order against the telecom operators and others, Justice M L Mehta said, "I am convinced that the plaintiff (TV channel) has made out a prima facie case."

"A limited interim injunction is ordered restraining the defendants(telecom operators and others) from disseminating contemporaneous match information in the form of ball-by-ball or minute-by-minute score updates/match alerts for a premium, without obtaining a license from the plaintiff," the court said in an interim order.

The court, however, allowed the informations providers to report the news with a gap of 15 minutes for which they were not required the channel's license.

On August 10,2012, Star India had spent Rs 3,581 crore and won the bid for the Media Rights Agreement with the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI), which had assigned exclusive media rights to the Star channel over the cricket matches, organised by it, till 2018.