Prasar Bharati eyes hard measures for tele rights

Kolkata, Jan 22: Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi today hinted at bringing a separate legislation in Parliament soon to prevent private television channels from bypassing the exclusive rights of Prasar Bharati for live telecast of any sporting event.

Speaking to newsmen here following the Nimbus' moving court, Mr Dasmunsi refused to make any further comment on the issue, saying since the issue was now sub-judice he should not make any further comment.

But at the same time he made it clear that the Prasar Bharati would not succumb to any pressure tactics from any organisation, including the BCCI, and do everything to protect the interests of millions of sportslovers across the country like bringing a separate legislation in the coming session of Parliament.

Asked about the role of Nimbus in this connection, the Information and Broadcasting Minister said till 2300 hours last night top Nimbus officlas were in touch with him in finding an acceptable solution to the vexed problem, which had deprived millions of viewers all over the country of watching the live telecast of Nagpur ODI between India and West Indies.

'' Finally they have informed me about their decision to meet me in New Delhi tonight to overcome the dispute over the telecast rights of not only the present ODI series but also the coming World Cup amicably, '' Mr Damunsi said but regretted that this afternoon he came to know that instead of coming to him to settle the differences, Nimbus had decided to move court, ''thereby bounding me not to make any further comment on the issue''.

He was also very critical of the role of BCCI and its marketing units for not accepting the Prasar Bharati's proposal of accepting the television and radio rights on 75:25 cost sharing basis.

'' Some of their comments in this regard are not only unjustified but also very unpatriotic, '' Mr Dasmunsi said and made it clear that his Ministry would leave no stone unturned to ensure that all viewers in the country would be able to watch the live telecast of both the present India-West Indies ODI series as well as the World cup in June uninterrupted and without any hitch.

Meanwhile, the Nimbus Communications, the owner of Neo Sports, approached Delhi High Court, challenging the Central Government's guidelines to the private channels to share the live feed of the ongoing India-West Indies cricket series with public broadcaster-Prasar Bharti.

Counsel Gopal Jain appearing before a bench of Chief Justice M K Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Khanna mentioned the matter in the morning and the court posted the petition for hearing tomorrow.

Nimbus had bought the telecat rights from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for over 612 million Dollars to telecast all matches in India.

Nimbus had offered to provide encrypted signals to the DD for the ongoing cricket series to restrict the viewers from neighbouring countries to download it.

Mr Dasmunsi was speaking to newsmen after announcing the proposed visit of FIFA president Joseph Blatter in India for the first time and to mark the 70th Anniversary of All India Football Federation of which Mr Dasmunshi is the President.

Mr Dasmunsi also announced the appointmernt of Mr Colin Toal from Ireland as the new Technical Director of AIFF besidesa series of other programme to celebrate the 70th anniversary of AIFF.

UNI