Centre issues notification for private operators to share ODIs and T20 matches

Oct 04: The private TV operators have to mandatory share the feed of the all official One-Day Internationals, Twenty20 matches and some Tests from now onwards, as they carry high public interest as per the notification issued by the centre on Wednesday.

The Union government on Wednesday informed the Delhi High Court that it would be mandatory for private channels to provide live feed of the matches to public broadcaster Doordarshan.

Government counsel Rajiv Sharma said, “all ODIs, Twenty20 matches and selected Tests would be shown live to the Indian viewers”, while submitting a copy of a notification, adding certain clauses in the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharti) Act, 2007.

The government, however, do not place all Test matches on a par with the ODIs and T20 matches. But the government also notified “semi-finals and finals of men’s World Cup and International Cricket Council Championship Trophy” as sporting events of national importance.

The High Court had issued notice to the government and Prasar Bharti in July 2007, on a petition seeking direction for telecasting all cricket matches, includes India-England series held in England earlier this year, live on Doordarshan under the provisions of a recent law.

The Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat, an NGO, had said Doordarshan was not telecasting the India-England series, which is mandatory under the provisions of the Sports Broadcasting Signal Sharing Act.

According to the act, any channel telecasting sports events featuring India was bound to share the telecast with Doordarshan for the advantage of the public, the petition pointed out.