In what can be considered as a major win for the public broadcaster, Prasar Bharti. However, Star India had originally won the bid to broadcast the Indian Premier League (IPL), last year.
Both organizations have agreed to share the advertising profits equally for the upcoming season.
The two parties were negotiating for over a month with no conclusion at sights.
At one point, it even seemed the discussion had gone entirely off-the-track. In addition, Star India was eyeing a lions share of 75 percent out of the ads revenue.
“As per the Prasar Bharati Act, the public broadcaster would have received only about a fourth of the total revenue. However, there was a feeling that Prasar Bharati was being short-changed, given its huge infrastructure costs. It has to recover its variable expenses, and thereby, the need for a greater share of revenue generated,” a source told ET.
Both Prasar Bharati CEO, Shashi Shekhar Vempatti and Star India Chief Executive Uday Shankar declined to respond to the news yet.
In September last year, Star India beat heavy competitions to win the television and digital, Indian and global media rights to IPL.
The deals struck between Board of Control for Cricket in India and Star was for the next five seasons at the cost of Rs 16,347.50 Crore.
Star India has put forward its own set of demands. It wishes the DD free dish users should not be considered as the target audience. Further went on to ask for a one-hour delay in the telecast of the IPL matches on all Doordarshan channels.
While the delay in the telecast will be a huge letdown, Prasar Bharti accepted the demands because it was already going to receive a great share of the total revenue.
“Today, live telecast is all that matters, especially when you are getting everything on mobile as and when it happens. But given the revenues that we expect to earn, this is manageable,” an official said.
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