Ten Sports had announced earlier this week that it has the exclusive telecast rights of the FIFA World Cup and that state-owned broadcaster DD will be not be able to telecast the footer matches live terrestrially - a position that DD was taking stock of then.
Apparently, some progress has been made since then. The duo is believed to be negotiating the fee that Ten Sports will have to pay DD to telecast the World Cup on a deferred basis. The negotiations also involve the marketing of the World Cup telecast on DD by Ten Sports.
A senior Prasar Bharati official stated that the pubcaster was considering whether Ten Sports should be "charged prime time telecast fee or the normal telecast fee for the time band when the soccer matches are telecast."
Keeping the time difference in mind, the soccer matches will, by and large, get to be telecast on DD around midnight, which way past prime time in India. DD's prime time telecast fee is Rs 350,000 per 30 minutes with 120 seconds free commercial time (FCT), while non-prime time fees, specially those after 11 pm, come at a cheaper price at about Rs 50,000 per 30 minutes with 150 seconds of FCT.
The Prasar Bharati official also pointed out that DD has no other option but to telecast the soccer matches on a deferred basis as Ten Sports has claimed it has exclusive telecast rights for the India region.
Despite the telecast imbroglio, officials of Prasar Bharati, the corporation which oversees the working of DD and the All India Radio, feel that there would be viewership of the soccer matches on DD even on a deferred basis as Ten Sports' penetration still leaves much to be desired.
For example, in most parts of Delhi and north India, Ten Sports, launched last month, is yet to make a signicant enough appearance in cable TV homes.
"If Ten Sports is willing to market the matches to be telecast on DD along with the live telecast it will have, we have no problems as long as the revenue sharing is adequately okay," the official pointed out.
Ten Sports, which had won the global telecast rights for FIFA World Cup, had asked DD to provide only deferred transmission on its terrestrial network. Ten Sports had written to Prasar Bharati asking it not to air the Cup matches on the terrestrial network at the same time that Ten Sports airs the matches. They have also communicated that airing realtime is not possible as Ten Sports has the exclusive rights to air the matches for the India region.
