'Govt violating Ten Sports' IPR'

Prasar Bharati might be violating intellectual property rights (IPR) by insisting Ten Sports to share the live feed of the India-Pakistan cricket series with it, legal experts opined today.

"It is difficult to understand on what legal grounds they are doing it. The agreement for the rights of the matches played in Pakistan was signed a couple of years ago outside the territory of India between two foreign entities. Moreover, no part of the cause of action is in India," a senior corporate lawyer told Business Standard.

He said the Indian party was taking advantage of the fact that Ten Sports had a large audience in India and almost its entire advertising revenue was coming from the country.

"I wonder if Prasar Bharati can ask a BBC or a CNN to share live feed if these entities win the exclusive rights to a sporting event like the summer Olympics," the lawyer said. The public broadcaster had not bid for the telecast rights of the tournament, but is now insisting live feed be shared in the larger interest of the Indian public.

The contention is that since Ten Sports is a satellite channel, it will reach only cable and satellite homes, leaving the millions of TV homes on Doordarshan's terrestrial network deprived of the excitement of the games between the arch rivals.

In the proceedings, Prasar Bharati had cited national interest. The court today passed an interim order asking Ten Sports to share the feed of all the matches with Doordarshan after the latter made a deposit of Rs 50 crore in the court.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice VN Khare, Justice N Santosh Hegde and Justice SH Kapadia, granted the relief keeping the public interest in mind.

But it told the public broadcaster it should restrain from showing any of its own advertisements during the match and 30 minutes before and after the match. The money has to be deposited within a week.

The court said that the deposit was being taken for future computation of loss and damages to parties to be argued before the court on April 15.

Lawyers said in effect the court's relief meant Doordarshan would eventually have to pay a compensation to Ten Sports, and they would not be able to use the feed for commercial gains by airing their own advertisements.

"The court has not gone into the legality of the issue as yet. In a previous similar case, the court never went into the legalities," a lawyer said.