GECs
Chandra confident of bagging India rights
NEW DELHI: “I don’t expect anything otherwise (than getting the India cricket telecast rights),” is how Zee Telefilms CMD chooses to put it when queried about the continuing suspense around the issue.
As things stand currently, the announcement by the Board for Cricket Control in India (BCCI) as to who gets the live television and radio broadcast rights for international cricket to be played in India for the next four years, is expected to be made after the BCCI’s crucial working committee meeting in Kolkata on 5 September. This is when board supremo Jagmohan Dalmiya will announce whether it is highest bidder Zee or highest “legitimate” bidder ESPN Star Sports (as the sports broadcaster describes itself) that gets to keep the most coveted prize on Indian broadcaster television today.
Queried as to whether Zee had sent in the clarifications sought by the BCCI (the reason Dalmiya had given for not awarding the rights at the working committee meeting of 17 August), Chandra had this to say: “I have no information of the BCCI seeking any clarification from Zee Telefilms as of now.”
Chandra also sought to play down reports of Turner International Asia Pacific, an AOL Time Warner group company, having made a proposal for jointly floating a global sports channel. “It is just an exploratory letter that has come to us from Time Warner so I cannot comment on the matter at the moment,” Chandra said.
