India’s Lok Sabha has passed Sports Bill which will make it mandatory for private broadcasters to share live feed of national sports events with Doordarshan and All India Radio on a free-to-air basis. This is a contentious Bill and has wider ramifications for sports telecast business.
The Bill will replace the Ordinance issued by the Government in February after Nimbus Communications, which had won the four year telecast rights from Indian cricket body BCCI for $612 million, had declined to share telecast signals with Prasar Bharati, which owns Door Darshan. Following the Ordinance, Nimbus had issued a notice to the board threatening to pull out of the deal.
Government’s contention is that it “has brought this legislation in public interest to show live cricket matches to all viewers across the country”. Interestingly, cricket will also cross-subsidise other sports telecasts, according to the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Bill, 2007. It empowers the central government to specify a percentage of the revenue received by Prasar Bharati from cricket matches to be utilised by the national broadcaster for telecasting other sporting events.
This revenue would be spent by Prasar Bharati in consultation with the Ministry of Sports and other Sports Councils.
The Bill will essentially change the economics of the business. It’s now likely that Nimbus may go in for a renegotiation of the contract.