Bill may deny DD feed for test matches

Mandatory sharing of television coverage of Test match cricket involving the Indian team in India and abroad has been excluded from the ambit of the upcoming Sports Broadcasting Signals Bill.

This means that the broadcaster having the rights for such Test matches will no longer have to share the feed with Doordarshan.

The Bill has been drafted to force all private broadcasters to share with Doordarshan (DD) their "live" and exclusive feed of One Day International (ODI) cricket matches involving India.

For ODIs, DD also had the right to pick and choose the one-dayers it wanted to broadcast, sources said.

"Till now, broadcasters like Ten Sports and ESPN-Star went to court and refused Doordarshan the feed. This cannot happen with the new Bill," said an industry source.

While the government wants to introduce the Bill in the Budget session of Parliament starting next month, it may opt for an ordinance before January 20, when the West Indian cricket team tours India for a four-match ODI series.