DD, ESPN kick off row on FIFA Cup

Prasar Bharati and ESPN Star Sports are on collision track once again; this time over sharing feed for the FIFA World Cup, with the public broadcaster wanting to show the sport extravaganza live on its channel.

The money at stake is huge as the football World Cup is expected to generate a viewership of over 100 million in India. ESPN Star Sports has already raked in advertisement revenue as high as almost 800 per cent more than that for last time's event and has Coke, Adidas and Airtel as its leading sponsors for the event.

While Prasar Bharati wants ESPN to share the live feed of the football tournament with it, the private broadcaster is not ready for it.

"The event is very much on the list of events of national importance and will have to be shared with Doordarshan. However, the list is yet to be notified by the government," said an industry source close to the development.

ESPN Star Sports, on its part, is ruling out any such possibility. "Live telecast of FIFA World Cup is our exclusive property. There is no question of sharing it with any other broadcaster," said R C Venkateish, managing director, ESPN-Star Sports. If the content is actually shared, it would break new ground in policy implementation.

ESPN is also planning massive programming and marketing initiatives to ramp up its property value. Private sport broadcasters fear that the government policy on mandatory content sharing with Prasar Bharati would lead to an annual loss of over Rs 350 crore for the sport broadcasting sector. The loss will occur as a result of the near complete wipe-out of subscription revenue and a partial dip in advertising revenue.

As per government norms, events of national importance and cricket, which accounts for the bulk of sport broadcasting advertisement in India, will have to be shared with Prasar Bharati. The revenue generated by the public broadcaster will be shared with the private broadcaster in a 75:25 per cent ratio.

If the content is shared, the advertising revenue for the private broadcaster will dip as Doordarshan can also insert its own advertisements on its broadcasting feed. Estimates by sport broadcasters point out that the incremental advertisement revenue from Doordarshan would cover only 10 to 15 per cent of the loss.