The cricket fans may not be able to see cricket matches on Doordarshan anymore as the Supreme Court, on Tuesday (August 22), upheld the Delhi High Court’s verdict which in 2015 had barred Prasar Bharati from sharing the live feed of cricket matches with cable operators.
Through Doordarshan channels, Prasar Bharati used to broadcast the matches of which private broadcasters ESPN and Star had the exclusive rights. Referring to the 2007 Sports Act, the bench made it clear that the live feed received by Prasar Bharati from content rights owners was only for the purpose of re-transmission of signals on its own terrestrial and direct-to-home (DTH) networks and not to cable operators.
“We, therefore, come to the conclusion that under Section 3 of the Sports Act, 2007 the live feed received by Prasar Bharati from content rights owners or holders is only for the purpose of re-transmission of the said signals on its own terrestrial and DTH networks and not to cable operators so as to enable the cable TV operators to reach such consumers who have already subscribed to a cable network,” the apex court said.
Consequently, the court dismissed the appeals of the Centre, Prasar Bharati, Home Cable Network Private Limited and Sopan Foundation and upheld the Delhi High Court judgement.
“For these reasons, all the appeals will have to fail. They are accordingly dismissed. The judgement and order of February 4, 2015, passed by the high court is affirmed,” the court stated.
Under the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act, 2007, private broadcasters are obliged to share live broadcasting signals of sporting events of national importance with Prasar Bharati. And while Star insisted that they had no objection to the games being showed on Doordarshan’s terrestrial channel and its own DTH service, it expressed its reservations over the Prasar Bharati’s decision to carry the feed on other Doordarshan channels which led to a loss of revenue.
Meanwhile, the bench comprising justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha also said that the broadcasting rights are leased out by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after a bidding process and the live games are being broadcast to the millions of Indian fans by Doordarshan, cable operators and DTH operators.
“Today, if there has to be a national game in India, cricket would certainly be a front-runner. The packed stands in all cricketing venues are certainly not the full picture. Live telecast of all major cricketing events, domestic and international, is beamed to millions of homes in the country,” the court said.
“The rights of these entities in respect of the live telecast of major cricketing events in the country and the consequential revenue implications are the core issues arising in these groups of appeals…,” it added.