Fresh proposal to ESPN Star

Prasar Bharati has made a new proposal to ESPN Star where a minimum guarantee of Rs 1.5 crore per Test, and a 70:30 arrangement above that.

A day before Madras High Court holds hearing of the telecast row over upcoming India-Pakistan cricket series, public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has made a new proposal to sports broadcaster

HT Image

ESPN Star

for a joint arrangement.

Prasar Bharati, which already has an arrangement with ESPN Star for terrestrial telecast rights for one-day matches, is seeking to widen this by including Test matches as well, official sources told PTI.

The move comes even as the public broadcaster intends to make a bid to bag the rights on an individual basis, the official said.

As per the present arrangement with ESPN Star, Prasar Bharati would get a minimum guarantee of Rs one crore for a one-day match while sharing everything above this on a 70:30 ratio, the big pie in favour of ESPN Star. For Tests, currently it is limited to match highlights only, the price being Rs five lakh for an hour.

"The Empowered Committee of Prasar Bharati, which held an exhaustive meeting last night in presence of senior officials from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, felt that test matches also need to be shown on the national channel.

"For this, a new proposal has been sent to ESPN Star where a minimum guarantee of Rs 1.5 crore per Test, and a 70:30 arrangement above that, has been asked," the sources said.