DD to telecast 1st one-day international in South Africa

New Delhi, Nov 14 (UNI) Paving the way for the telecast of the first one-day international between India and South Africa on November 19 by Doordarshan, the Delhi High Court today refused to grant interim stay on the sharing of live feed with the official channel, the exclusive telecast rights of the ESPN-Star Sports (ESS) channel.

Justice Anil Kumar, however, issued notices to the Central Government--Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports; and Prasar Bharti for their reply by November 21, the next date of hearing.

Filing a petition before the High Court, the ESS had approached the court seeking direction to restrain Doordarshan from downlinking the live feed of the series beginning November 19.

The ESS has bought the international rights to telecast the one-day internationals and test matches between India and South Africa starting from November 19 in South Africa.

In the petition, the ESS had challenged the Government's November 11, 2005 downlinking policy which makes it mandatory for the private broadcaster to share its feed of all sporting events of national importance with Prasar Bharti.

Advocate Rajeev Sharma accepted the notice on behalf of the public broadcaster.

Senior Counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for the ESS submitted that Centre's downlinking policy was violative of the Constitutional provision and Copyright Act.

The channel contended that signal or feed of the sports events produced by it had been protected under copyright law.

It was only the sports cahnnels who had been singled out for such discriminatory treatment as the broadcasters of entertainment, cultural and music events were not expected to share their exclusive broadcasting rights nor were such requirements imposed on any other business entities, the petition said.

UNI PAT SAM RK1950