Stung by telecast rights holder like World Sports Group Nimbus and Taj Sports (managing Ten Sports channel) not willing to play ball, Prasar Bharati has decided to appeal to the third umpire - the Indian government - seeking a "level playing field" in the name of larger interest of the viewing Indian public.
"The Prasar Bharati board has decided to ask the government to come out with a legal framework, ahead of the enactment of the Communication Convergence Bill, which would make it mandatory for the satellite and cable rights holder(s) to share the feed (of events felt important for Indian viewers) with Doordarshan‘s terrestrial network," Prasar Bharati chief executive K.S. Sarma said today.

The Prasar Bharati oversees the working of pubcasters DD and All India Radio. Despite its corporatisation, which was modelled on British pubcaster BBC, the government (read the information and broadcasting ministry) still retains control over the functioning of DD and AIR.

Addressing a press conference in Delhi on Friday, Sarma said that the government, in consultation with the Prasar Bharati will decide on the events which are telecast worthy and of importance to the Indian viewers and will notify them which will make it mandatory for telecast rights holder to share them with DD and/or AIR.

Pointing out that Parasar Bharati cannot afford to pay "large and heavy fee" to acquire telecast rights, a la private satellite channels, Sarma said, "Instead, we‘d prefer to go in for revenue sharing (with the company that markets the events telecast on DD)."

In recent times, Prasar Bharati has lost out on the live telecast of the ongoing soccer World Cup and is also under severe pressure from World Sports Group Nimbus on the issue of rights of ICC-organised cricket matches, the cable and satellite TV rights which are held by Sony Entertainment TV for six years.

According to Sarma, since the Prasar Bharati board has decided to refer the telecast issue to the government, the formal missive will "be sent soon."

However, he did not elaborate on the fact how the government can have a policy in isolation like this in place.

Chapter IX of the Communication Convergence Bill, 2001 details special provision in respect of certain services, specially live broadcasting of certain events.

The clauses read: "For the purpose of ensuring the widest availability of viewing in India of a national or international event of general public interest to be held in India, the central government shall notify the same well in advance.

"The national or international event of general public interest notified under sub-section (I) shall have to be carried on the network of a public service broadcaster as well. "In order to strive towards providing a level playing field for bidders for broadcasting rights or person interested in receiving broadcasting rights for events notified under sub-section(i), the Commission (the proposed super regulatory authority for IT, telecom and broadcasting areas) shall determine, well in advance of such an event, the principles and terms for the access to the network of public service broadcaster."

The last bastions have surrendered. MSOs Hathway and InCable, who have been holding out against carrying the signals of exclusive Fifa rights holder Ten Sports for a week now, agreed to relay the service a few minutes ago, to the relief of hundreds of thousands of football fans in the city.
The agreement makes the channel available to over two million more homes in the city. Sports buffs can now view World Cup soccer, with the MSOs reaching an agreement with the broadcaster on Friday evening. The channel has already started beaming into Mumbai homes. It is still not clear whether both MSOs, who control nearly 75 per cent of C&S households in the city have agreed to the demand for a declared subscriber connectivity base of 2,00,000 by the channel‘s distributor Modi Entertainment Network.

Whether the channel will be on the prime band, and whether any new advertisers have now come on board, is still unclear. Ten Sports had last weekend clamped down on cable ops in Mumbai city who were illegally transmitting the channel. Crack teams had been deployed to stop unauthorised transmission, since only a few MSOs like Seven Star and Rajesh Cable had signed on Ten Sports till then.

Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat) and Macau‘s Cosmos Satellite Television (Macau Satellite TV- MSTV) have signed a long-term satellite transponder leasing agreement for the use of C-band capacity on AsiaSat 2.
Macau Satellite TV ( MSTV) will broadcast its five channels : Travel Channel, East Asia Channel, Cartoon Channel, Macau Asia TV Channel and the Chinese TV Guide Channel in digital free to air MCPC format to viewers across AsiaSat 2‘s huge C-band footprint. A larger audience will be able to receive the programmes provided by MSTV. Furthermore, it is anticipated that MSTV will further expand the number of its channels in the future.

In addition to the above five channels, MSTV is also broadcasting the Five Star Channel and the Five Star Finance Channel on AsiaSat 3S‘s C-Band transponder, AsiaSat‘s other powerful satellite. After the commencement of this agreement, AsiaSat will carry all seven television programmes provided by MSTV.

Says MSTV chairman Ng Fok, "After having the two channels of Five Star TV onboard AsiaSat 3S, we are very satisfied with the quality of service provided by AsiaSat and its extensive coverage , and we therefore wish to use AsiaSat 2 to broadcast the rest of our channels. AsiaSat‘s powerful regional coverage across Asia and Australasia enables our programmes to reach a wider geographic audience. This will give us greater flexibility in our future expansion of services and more people can learn about Macau via satellite."

AsiaSat 2 is a Lockheed Martin Series 7000 model and carries twenty 36 MHz and four 72 MHz C-band, as well as nine 54 MHz Ku-band linearised transponders. Its C-band footprint covers 53 countries embracing Asia, the Middle East, Australasia and the C.I.S. AsiaSat 2 also has a high-power Ku beam serving China, Korea, Japan and the surrounding areas.

Even as Ten Sports makes hay with World Cup soccer, it is making sure that the fledgling channel does not fade from public memory once soccer mania subsides.
The Taj Sports promoted channel has announced a new weekend programming line up termed ‘Spectacular Sunday‘ to ensure continued viewer interest. Beginning this Sunday, the channel starts the day with a WWF fight, now rechristened the WWE Judgment Day. At 11 am, soccer dominates with three games - Mexico v Ecuador, Costa Rica v Turkey and Japan v Russia.

The evening‘s line up includes live coverage of Indian ace driver Narain Karthikeyan in the Motorsports World Series, followed by the World Cup highlights at 9 pm. Formula 1 will be beamed live from Canada at 10.50 pm.

The decision to telecast Karthikeyan‘s races live are part of an effort to bring in more of ethnic sporting action from the sub continent, says Ten Sports vice president, programming and events, Peter Hutton. "The idea is to increase the image of Indian sports; while the world cup has a huge following in India, the perception of Indian football is none too great here. That is why we have Indian captain Bhaichung Bhutia our studios during the World Cup too", he says.

There are other proposals for producing shows on ethnic games in the pipeline, but have ‘be relevant, look good as well as be cost wise on the production front," he says. While a majority of ad slots for the soccer event have already been sold, there is still some space left in the last couple of weeks, says Hutton. While life for Ten Sports will continue to be event driven post World Cup, Hutton says the channel is trying to build up an audience in the 14 to 35 age group with its regular WWF shows and regulars like the chat show hosted by singer Raageshwari.

Sport. A programming property that keeps millions glued to their TV sets in India, especially when cricket and Tendulkar are in full flow. In recent times, pubcaster Doordarshan has been beaten back by private companies who have anted up top dollars to acquire prime sports events. Among the big events that DD has missed out on or has looked like it is going to are the Fifa World Cup which is in progress right now and the ICC cricket rights which are with WSG-Nimbus and Sony.
Irked by this, the Prasar Bharati board chaired by former space scientist Prof U.R. Rao, is calling for government intervention to make sure that DD is not left out of the sports loop. Sources indicate that the board is petitioning the Union government to bring in a law which will ensure that telecast rights of all important sports events accrue to DD.

If the government does agree, it could deliver a body blow to sports rights holders, who have built up positions in events for the long term, says an industry observer. It‘s quite possible that passing of the legislation could lead to protests and litigation.