DD homes to miss ODIs as Nimbus deal collapses

Fifty-five million terrestrial TV homes will not be able to watch the live telecast of the four one-day matches between India and West Indies beginning tomorrow as talks between Prasar Bharti and Nimbus Sports on sharing the feed have broken down.

In India, Nimbus-owned Neo Sports will be the exclusive broadcaster for 65 million cable and satellite TV homes.

Prasar Bharti blamed Nimbus for putting demands that were outside the purview of the downlinking and uplinking guidelines issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The guidelines make it compulsory for channels with telecast rights to share the live feed of important sports events with Doordarshan and AIR. The terms provide for a 75:25 revenue sharing in favour of the holder of the rights.

According to Prasar Bharti, Nimbus (rights-holder for the series) wanted Doordarshan to show a 15-minute "deferred live" feed on terrestrial TV with Neo Sports showing the match live on cable TV.

Rejecting the proposal, Prasar Bharti CEO BS Lalli said, "It is unacceptable to divide the citizens into two categories--one getting to eat freshly baked bread and others stale stuff. Equity and propriety demands that uniform clean feed of international quality is made available to all viewers."

Speaking to Business Standard, Nimbus Sports CEO Harish Thawani said Nimbus wanted to share the feed with Doordarshan but not on the rigid conditions put up by Prasar Bharti. "It can be deferred live for terrestrial DD viewers. But on cable, Neo Sports will be the exclusive channel for the series," Thawani said.

With no breakthrough in sight, Prasar Bharti asked Nimbus Sports to allow broadcast of commentary on All India Radio. However, Nimbus disagreed.

According to industry sources, advertisers are not willing to pay more than Rs 25,000-30,000 for a 10-second slot on Neo Sports as its reach is limited to 10 million cable homes. Under the circumstances, it's up to the ministry to bring in an ordinance to force private broadcasters to share their feed with Doordarshan, they say.

"If these matches were on Doordarshan also, advertisers would have paid up to Rs 90,000 for a 10-second advertising spot. It will be difficult for Neo Sports to generate enough advertising revenues from these four matches," a media planner said.