THE BATTLE OVER SPORTS MARKETING AT PRASAR BHARATI

A spat has broken out between the Prasar Bharati - the holding company of state-owned broadcaster Doordarshan - and a consortium of private companies on the issue of marketing of airtime during the telecast of the cricket World Cup on DD next month. The consortium led by sports marketing firm Stracon had assured DD of minimum advertising revenue of Rs 260 million for the 11 matches that the latter has the rights to and had signed a contract to this accord.

But allegations were hurled that Stracon was ripping off the broadcaster and that the the minimum commitment should be raised to about Rs 350 million, which had been given by another member of the consortium, Nimbus. Nimbus, it is alleged didn't bag the airtime sales deal despite quoting a higher guarantee amount to DD and it dropped out of the consortium. In fact, the dispute about the contract had even reached the courts.

Stracon promoter Siddhartha Ray denies that he is cheating on DD saying that his accounts are open for inspection and that everything is above board as far as his dealings with DD are concerned. This despite some newspaper reports that the Prasar Bharati acting CEO O.P. Kejriwal was in an aggro mood and would force Stracon to up the ante or drop the deal.

At the time of writing, Ray says his company is still on board to market the biggest televised event in India.