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MUMBAI:
High acquisition price of cricket telecast rights is beginning
to cast its shadow as sports broadcasters are demanding renegotiation
of rates from the respective cricket boards.
Zee
Group has taken a step further and announced today that it
was pulling out of its five-year contract with the Board of
Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) following a new law on
sports broadcasting.
"We
have scrapped our deal with BCCI for offshore cricket. The
rights were given to us on an exclusive basis but the must
carry clause introduced later means that we have to share
the feed with Doordarshan. We had approached BCCI for a price
correction many weeks back but the board has not even acknowledged
our concerns. We believe Neo Sports is being given a price
correction on the same grounds," said Zee senior vice-president
Ashish Kaul.
Zee
has accused the Indian cricket board of following a double
standards approach. "While BCCI has agreed to bring down
the rates for Nimbus, they were not even willing to discuss
the matter with us," said Kaul.
Zee's
pullout has also put a huge question mark over the upcoming
ODI series against South Africa. India is scheduled to play
three one-dayers against South Africa from 26 June to 1 July
in Belfast, besides another against host Ireland. BCCI officials
could not be reached for their comments on the issue.
Zee
had bid a whopping $219.15 million last year to grab cricket
rights for 25 one-dayers played by India in offshore non-ICC
venues over five years. Analysts felt the price was too high
for Zee Sports, which didn't have any live India cricket rights,
to make money on it. Subsequently, Zee acquired a 50 per cent
stake in Taj Television which runs Ten Sports.
A
Nimbus Communications spokesperson confirmed to Indiantelevision.com
that it has reached an in principle agreement with BCCI to
relook at the price on the four-year India cricket rights.
"We have agreed for compensation following a validation
from our independent accounting firms. KPMG has finished the
report from our side and we have submitted it to the BCCI.
They will now come back after checking with their accounting
firm," he said.
Nimbus
had bid a humungous $612 million to bag the BCCI rights. But
with the government passing the Sports Broadcasting Signals
Bill making it mandatory for broadcasters to share live feed
with the pubcaster, the company had argued that its business
model would go for a toss. Without encryption of the live
feed, it felt that the signals of DD would be received in
other neighbouring countries and its revenues would be affected.
Essel
Group is setting up the Indian Cricket League and has announced
former international captains Kapil Dev and Tony Greig on
their executive board. Observers see this as a parallel cricket
league which will provide Zee live programming content for
its sports channel.
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