Nimbus delayed feeds against Ordinance;seeking legal opinion: Go

New Delhi, Feb 8 (UNI) Nimbus Communications, which has the BCCI rights to telecast the India-Sri Lanka cricket series, today became liable to be penalised a fine of up to Rs one crore or slapped a ban for not supplying live feeds of the Kolkata match to public broadcaster Prasar Bharati.

The above actions against the company can be taken under an Ordinance that makes it compulsory for private broadcasters to share live feeds of important national and international sports events with Prasar Bharati.

On failing to do so, the broadcasters can be punished in various ways including a fine of up to Rs one Crore and even a ban, according the Ordinance.

Nimbus, however, today provided the signals of the India-Srilanka Kolkata match in a transmission delayed by seven minutes, as per an interim court order delivered before the ordinance titled 'Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Ordinance, 2007' was promulgated last week.

''Action against Nimbus can be taken under the Ordinance. But we are seeking legal opinion and would wait to know what the Delhi High court says tomorrow in a case relating to the matter,'' Joint Secertary Information and Broadacsting Baijendranath told UNI.

He said there was a law of the land in force and if any broadcaster violated the law, it can be punished by various means including a ban.

Nobody has challenged the ordinance and no court has passed any order in this respect, so its provisions are binding for all, he said, but added that the government would wait for a legal opinion in the light of today's developments.

The court, which heard the matter today, did not come out with any order and posted the hearing for tomorrow. It, however, questioned the rationale of promulgating the ordinance.

In an interim order on January 23, the High Court had allowed Prasar Bharati to download the feed of Nimbus Comunications and telecast the India-West Indies ODI series in a delayed transmission of seven minutes on Doordarshan(DD) and broadcast commentary live on the All India Radio(AIR).

The matter had reached the court after Nimbus refused to share live sports feed with the Prasar Bharati, but was directed by the government to do so in accordance with downlinking guidelines of 2005.

These guidelines make it compulsory for sports telecast rights holding channels to share the live feed of important sporting events with Doordarshan and AIR by entering into a commercial agreement.

The terms provide for revenue sharing of 75:25 in favour of the rights holders.

The ordinance was brought in after the recent India-West Indies cricket series kicked off without Doordarshan and All India Radio broadcasting the event.

Just a day before the cricket series was to begin on January 21, the talks between Prasar Bharati and Nimbus Sports, the BCCI holder broke down on sharing the live feed.

The offer of Nimbus Sports to give the feed to the Prasar Bharati with 15 minutes delay was not acceptable to the public broadcaster.

Nimbus also did not agree to DD showing the matches on its DTH platform DD Direct Plus.

Nimbus had also said that if it shared the feed, the signals would have to be encrypted so that it reaches houses only on the terrestrial network and not to those who get DD signals through cable TV.

However, Nimbus provided signals of the remaining matches of the India-West Indies series with seven minutes delay after a court's intervention.

Terming the Nimbus action as unlawful and unpatriotic, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi had declared to bring in a law to avoid such a situation in future.

Meanwhile, the Ministry had also approached the court on the basis of Downlinking/Uplinking Guidelines issued by it in November 2005.

The court in an interim order had asked Prasar Bharati to accept Nimbus signals with a delay of seven minutes following which the second ODI between India and West Indies could be seen on DD.

However, Prasar Bharati again challenged this single bench order on which the Delhi High Court had issued notice to Nimbus Communications who own Neo Sports channel, to file their reply to the notice by February nine.

UNI