PRASAR BHARATI BAGS CRICKET RIGHTS

After much hemming and hawing and tonnes of controversy, the Indian cricket board finally sealed its deal with the Prasar Bharati awarding it the rights to telecast all domestically played international cricket matches on its network of channels. DD paid Rs 2285 million for pocketing the rights from 1999 to 2004.The deal had come under a lot of scrutiny after members of the Indian cricket board tried to force DD to settle a pending case against production company WorldTel before awarding it the rights. DD refused to toe the board line which would have entailed it dishing out $7 million to WorldTel.

DD then invited bids from production houses with stiff conditions. WorldTel objected to these being included in the bid document as they meant that it would not be able to make its offer. Finally, it was allowed to make its pitch. TWI, WorldTel, Air Time and Asiasport are among the production houses which are believed to have put in their bids. But the production rights contract is however restricted to India-New Zealand series, which is commencing from this month. The bids closed on 30 September and DD was expected to announce its decision by the evening of 4 October. However, at the time of writing no announcement had been made. Expectations were that DD would go with two companies - TWI and World Tel.

Meanwhile the state-owned broadcaster is queuing up to introduce a repackaged DD International channel targeted at Indian audiences in the US and Canada. The Prasar Bharati board recently cleared DD's proposal to tie up with a DTH company to rebroadcast DD International in these two markets.