DD to telecast World Cup cricket live courtesy Nimbus

New Delhi, Feb 18 (UNI) The Government has informed the Delhi High Court that the private sports channel SetMax in collaboration with Nimbus Communications has signed an agreement with the public broadcaster Prasar Bharti to provide live feed of the Cricket World Cup matches played at West Indies from March 14.

Appearing before a bench of Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice J P Singh, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) P P Malhotra said that an agreement had been signed between the PB and SetMax to provide live feed of all the cricket world cup matches.

Nimbus Communications, the owner of NEO Sports, will be providing the live feed to SetMax, said Advovate Rajiv Sharma, the counsel apeparing for Prasar Bharti.

The cases pending before the High Court will not come in the way of showing the matches live to the non-cable homes in India, he said.

Even though the Sports Broadcasting - Ordinance, 2007, did not specify about the mandatory sharing of live feed of the sports event held abroad, the agreement with the SetMax will enable the DD to show the match live.

Nimbus, which had bought the rights to telecast matches held in India for four years for Rs 27 billion, had filed a petition before the court challenging the Sports Broadcasting (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharti) Ordinance, 2007, terming it as ''bad in law''.

''The ordinance transgresses the constitutional limits and apart from violating the petitioner's fundamental rights, it also interferes with the power of the court to review the circular enforcing the private channels to share the feed,'' said the petition.

The High Court has issued notice to the Government and Prasar Bharti asking them to file replies to the allegations in the petition.

Moreover, the conditions to share the live feed with the Prasar Bharti was mentioned in the tender documents, which was in the knowledge of the Nimbus Communications, argued Senior Counsel Dushyant Dave appearing for the Prasar Bharti.

Before granting the licence to telecast the matches in India, the government had made it clear to the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) that whoever was given the right to telecast the matches, would have to share the live feed with DD and AIR, said the application filed by the government in reply to the private channel.

UNI