Thursday, October 04, 2007

 

Cricket Telecast

I saw this headline
Doordarshan to telecast cricket ties live: court informed

If this happened in the US, the Senate would mandate that all NFL/NBA games be shown on network TV (free to air) channels. Monday Night Football would continue to be on ABC as well as ESPN. Baseball playoff games could not be just on TBS any more.

I don't know which side to take.
The Americanized me says that, from a free-enterprise point of view this is a retrogressive step. I mean what business has the government to dictate telecast of a non public event. It is not republic day parade, it is a cricket match organised by a private body (BCCI) with private sponsors, right?

The cricket fan in me says that the ordinary people cannot be denied their entertainment. Just because people are too poor to afford cable, should they be denied?

What think you?

Doordarshan to telecast cricket ties live: court informed



The government on Wednesday informed the Delhi High Court that the private TV channels would compulsorily share with the public broadcaster Doordarshan the live feed of all official One-Day Internationals, Twenty20 ties and some Tests of public interest abroad.
Submitting a copy of a notification adding certain clauses in the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharti) Act, 2007, issued in New Delhi on Wednesday, government counsel Rajiv Sharma said all ODIs, Twenty20 matches and selected Tests would be shown live to the Indian viewers.
The semi-finals and finals of the Men's World Cup and the International Cricket Council (ICC) Championship Trophy would also be shown live, according to the notification submitted before the bench headed by Chief Justice MK Sarma.
In July 2007, the high court had issued notice to the government and public broadcasting corporation Prasar Bharti on a petition seeking direction for telecasting all cricket matches, including India-England series held in England earlier this year, live on Doordarshan under the provisions of a recent law.
The Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat, an NGO, had said Doordarshan was not telecasting the India-England series, which is mandatory under the provisions of the Sports Broadcasting Signal Sharing Act.
According to the act, any channel telecasting live sports events featuring India was bound to share the live feed with Doordarshan for the benefit of the public, the petition pointed out.
The petition was disposed of following the government's submission on Wednesday.
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