No cricket on public broadcaster

India-South Africa cricket series as the matches will not be available on All India Radio, for the first time in AIRs' history, and even on Doordarshan, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Nov 22, 2006, 20:40:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Hundreds of cricket fans in India would be alien to action in the India-South Africa cricket series as the matches will not be available on All India Radio, for the first time in AIRs' history, and even on Doordarshan, which has now given up on acquiring the broadcast rights.

The satellite radio service, World Space Radio, has got exclusive radio rights for the matches, though the commentary would be in Afrikaan English, an accent distinct to most Indians.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry officials said talks between ESPN-Star Sports and Prasar Bharati broke down earlier this week, resulting in the present stalemate. Except cable homes, where the matches would be available on ESPN-Star Sports bouquet, for most keeping track of matches may not be possible.

World Space Radio has a limited market in India as compared to AIR's reach of 99 per cent of the country. Moreover, the officials say, the commentary on AIR used to be in Hindi or English, easily understandable in rural and urban population.

Prasar Bharati officials told HT that the agreement could not be reached with ESPN-Star Sports, as they were demanding very 'high' money for sharing the feed. RC Venkateish, Managing Director, ESPN, told HT that they were under no obligation to share the telecast of matches, as Prasar Bharati had not complied with the downlinking guidelines earlier.

Under the guidelines, it is mandatory for the broadcasters to share the feed of matches involving India with Doordarshan on 75:25 revenue sharing model, in favour of the broadcaster.

RC Venkateish, however, said, "the rules cannot singularly apply to us as in the past Prasar Bharati had allowed Zee Sports and Ten Sports to telecast cricket matches exclusively". Earlier, ESPN had gone to the High Court to get a stay order on the mandatory sharing of feed with regard to India-South Africa series but the court refused to accord a stay on the guidelines.

While Prasar Bharati is thinking of taking action against ESPN Star sports for not sharing the feed, the ministry officials say, no official communication has come. "Action can be taken against the broadcasters as per downlinking guidelines notified last year. That may take some time," a Prasar Bharati official informed.

Ministry officials, however, said not sharing the feed with Prasar Bharati might be history as the government has decided to bring in a law to implement the guidelines. "It was Doordarshan and AIR that popularised cricket in India and when the time to earn profit came, the exclusive rights have been handed over to private broadcasters. This is not just," an official explained.

Email: chetan@hindustantimes.com

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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