Prasar Bharati has taken ESPN Star Sports to the Delhi High Court for illegally using the ongoing Indo-Pak cricket series footage and minting huge money by unauthorisedly booking advertisements on programmes based on exclusive DD-Sports telecast.The public broadcaster has sought to restrain ESPN Star Sports and ESPN Software India and their employees, agents from using DD-Sports footage of Indo-Pak cricket matches in any manner whatsoever except for regular news bulletins as permitted under terms and conditions issued by Prasar Bharati.During hearing of the matter before Justice Pradeep Nandrajog yesterday, Prasar Bharati Counsel A S Chandhiok and Rajeev Sharma urged the court to direct ESPN not to carry any advertisements before, during and after such footage.Prasar Bharti has also asked ESPN to render "true and correct accounts" regarding the amounts received and/or income generated from using the video footage of the India-Pakistan cricket series.ESPN counsel N Ganpathi gave an undertaking to the court that his clients would not use DD-Sports footage of Indo-Pak cricket matches till the next date of hearing (April 5) "without the express consent of the plaintiff (Prasar Bharati) except for purposes of footage in regular scheduled news bulletins".The court also issued summons to ESPN Star Sports, ESPN Software India Ltd and BCCI asking them to respond to Prasar Bharati's allegations by Tuesday.
