ESPN threatens to take Prasar Bharati to court

The controversy over the telecast of India-Pakistan cricket tournament took a new turn today with sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports threatening to take Prasar Bharati to court.

This action of the sports broadcaster is prompted by the decision of the public broadcaster to not to give ESPN Star Sports highlights of the tournament to be telecast on its channels.

"We have an existing contract with Prasar Bharati, which clearly spells out that they have to provide us with one-hour highlight package for every cricketing day, in case they get rights. We will wait till the middle of the next week and if they don't respond positively by then, we will use other options, including legal action," R C Venkateish, ESPN Star Sports managing director, said here today.

Venkateish said ESPN Star Sports has written to Prasar Bharati asking it to honour the contract.

Prasar Bharati on its part claimed that the said contract will come into force only after either of the broadcasters bag the four-year cricket broadcast contract from the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI).

"We do not have to give ESPN the highlight rights. The agreement is not into effect as the four-year contract hasn't been awarded. ESPN had the same demand at the time of the Australia and South Africa series and we had turned it down then. Why are they going to court now," said K S Sarma, chief executive officer, Prasar Bharati.

As per the contract, if ESPN Star Sports gets the contract, it will simulcast the one-day international matches on the Doordarshan channels.

ESPN will also pay Prasar Bharati a placement fee of Rs 1.25 crore, which would go up by Rs 25 lakh for after every subsequent year.

For the test matches, ESPN will offer Doordarshan a highlights package of one hour and a placement fee of Rs 5 lakh for the first year of the contract, which will go up by 10 per cent after every subsequent year.

In the event of Prasar Bharati getting the contract, it will offer ESPN a highlight package of one hour daily, for both one day international and test matches, for a placement fee of Rs 5 lakh, which will be increased by 10 per cent after every subsequent year.