We watch them on ESPN, we watch them on Ten Sports---this time cricket360 recommends our very own DD. Poor signal, low resilience, missing sounds---you are sure to enjoy the live telecast of the last two matches between India and Sri Lanka in a different light---just like millions in the rural India do.
Believe it or not; in this ages of thousands 24X7 satellite channels and YouTubes and cricket portals, there are people who prefer to watch the live telecast of cricket matches on their good old DD channel! And Ravi Dev Gupta is definitely one of them and he even thought it his responsibility to move the court for settling the issue; that a private channel must share its feeds with Prasar Bharati whenever an important cricket match goes on air. And in a country where cricket is one of the most important religions among hundreds others, every match involving India accrues national importance of highest degree.
So the verdict is clear! Private channels in India can not eat the whole pie without sharing it with the Big Bother -Doordarshan. First you bid for an astronomical figure for wrestling out the telecast rights and then you share the feed of these cricket matches with Prasar Bharati ---this is what the private channels have to put up with if they are to telecast live cricket in India.
It all began when Ten Sports bagged the telecast rights for the India-Sri Lanka ODIs. Ravi Dev Gupta moved the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the public broadcaster Prasar Bharati to telecast the remaining two ODI cricket matches--- scheduled for 26th and 29th August--- of the ongoing India-Sri Lanka series. His petition was however based on the Government notification of Oct 3, 2007 under Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing of Feed with Prasar Bharati) Act. This Act stipulates that all the international cricket matches involving India, as well as the Twenty20 matches are of national importance and therefore people of India has the right to watch them on the Dooradarshan.
All is well that ends well---the private channel Ten Sports informed the Delhi High Court that it is ready to share the feed of the India-Sri Lanka One-Day International matches with Prasar Bharati. 'We are happy to know that Ten Sports would share the signal to enable the live telecast of the India-Sri Lanka ODI matches which are to be played today and on Aug 29,' the bench consisting of Justices Manmohan Sarin and Veena Birbal said. Thumbs up to Ten Sports; millions of Indians, in the fur flung rural areas now don’t have to miss the excitement when Dhoni’s team hits the Lankans in the remaining two matches.
