Govt indicates action ensuring for quality sports signals to DD

New Delhi, Feb 5 (UNI) After acting to ensure live telecast of cricket to non-cable homes, the government today indicated it was mulling action to ensure that private broadcasters gave good quality of signals to Doordarshan on which millions of homes depend for watching important sports events.

Replying to a question as to whether the government was doing anything regarding charges that Nimbus was supplying inferior cricket feed to the public broadcaster, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priya Ranjan Das Munsi said,''When you do something, don't say that you are doing.'' The Minister was talking to reporters on the sidelines of the Editors Conference on Social Sectors.

The private broadcasters charge that they were losing in business by sharing sports feed with the Doordarshan was absolutely wrong, he said.

The India-West Indies cricket series last month kicked off without the Doordarshan and All India Radio broadcasting the event as telecast rights holder Nimbus Communications refused to share its content with them.

They later gave signals to DD deferred by seven minutes only after the courts intervened.

Thereafter, the Union Cabinet approved the ordinance that makes it obligatory for broadcasters to share live telecast signals of sports events without their advertisements with Doordarshan and All India Radio.

However, a fresh controversy arose as Nimbus Communications was charged with supplying an 'inferior' quality of signals to Doordarshan compared to the signal, supplied to its own pay channel Neo Sports.

The charge has been made in a letter addressed to the CEO of Prasar Bharti by ASC Enterprises -promoters of Dish TV.

UNI