FIFA World Cup: DD plans to muscle into ESPN’s party on ‘national importance’ plank
The I&B Ministry is likely to bring the FIFA World Cup in the ambit of ‘national importance’. According to Prasar Bharati sources, ESPN, which has exclusive telecast rights for the soccer extravaganza, will have to share all matches from the quarter final stage with Doordarshan.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry is likely to bring the FIFA World Cup, starting from June 9, 2006, under the ‘events of national importance’ clause. According to highly-placed Prasar Bharati sources, ESPN, which has the exclusive telecast rights for the soccer extravaganza, will have to share all quarter final, semi-final and final matches with public broadcaster Doordarshan.
When contacted, R C Venkateish, MD, ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd, said, “We have already offered to share the semi-final and final matches of the FIFA World Cup with Doordarshan on a 75:25 revenue sharing basis.” He, however, refused to comment on DD’s plans to telecast quarter final matches as well.
The sources further said that not only soccer, but also hockey and other important events would be included under the ‘national importance’ clause. Ministry sources said that the government would soon be coming out with an exhaustive list of sports items to be included under the ‘events of national importance’ clause for uplinking and downlinking under which sports channels were obliged to share sporting events of national and international importance, held in India or abroad, for terrestrial transmission and DTH broadcasting.
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