More trouble is in store for the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as its existing host broadcaster, Sony Television, has dragged the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), organisers of IPL, to the Bombay High Court for terminating their contract over the weekend.
Sony had last year won the broadcasting rights of IPL within India for 10 years. The BCCI took the step after alleging that the company breached the contract last year.
This move puts a question mark on the nearly Rs 500 crore worth of airtime space already sold or in the process of being sold to various advertisers by Set Max, the host broadcaster of IPL matches. And it comes on the top of the uncertainty over the schedule, with the central government rejecting the revised timetable due to security concerns.
According to the proceedings in the high court today, the BCCI terminated the contract on Saturday through a fax to Sony. After this, it signed a new contract with World Sports Group (WSG), a Singapore-based sports marketing agency, on Sunday morning.
The new contract allows the BCCI to enter into a fresh agreement with any other broadcaster for awarding the domestic telecast rights of IPL. WSG had bought the broadcasting rights for $1 billion last year in a consortium with Sony TV. Under the arrangement, Sony would broadcast the IPL in India, while WSG would market it overseas.
However, today, Sony moved the Bombay HC against the BCCI. The court granted an injunction restraining the BCCI from entering into further agreements on IPL with any other broadcaster.
Sony’s counsels said the BCCI should have given Sony prior notice. Also, Sony paid Rs 90 crore on March 9 to the BCCI as an advance payment towards the telecast rights for IPL. The matter will be heard on Tuesday
Sony TV and the BCCI have been at loggerheads over a number of issues pertaining to IPL. Some months earlier, there was a tussle between the two over awarding the rights for on-ground sponsorship to the Reliance ADA Group's direct-to-home (DTH) arm, Big TV, after SET MAX entered into an on-air advertising deal with rival Airtel Digital TV, the DTH arm of Bharti Airtel.
The BCCI maintained that Big TV should have been given the first right of refusal for on-air sponsorship too. But Set MAX then said that it had offered it to Big TV before awarding to Digital TV. As a result, Reliance ADAG walked out of the four-year, on-ground, sponsorship deal worth Rs 137 crore.
Another bone of contention between the two has been over the use of footage of IPL matches by news channels over the prescribed five-minute limit. IPL had complained that Sony did not adhere to the agreement of giving feed only up to five minutes.
