MUMBAI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has given broadcasters and other stakeholders until 15 January for providing comments on the Draft Sports Broadcasting Signals Amendment Bill, which was introduced in the public domain in October 2018.
The bill courted controversy as it has made it compulsory for broadcasters to share exclusive live feeds of sporting events of national importance with Prasar Bharti, the government-owned TV channel. The ministry’s initial deadline was 31 December 2018.
“It is informed that the deadline for receiving feedback/comments from General Public/Stakeholders on the said draft Bill, 2018 to enable telecast of ‘Sporting events of National importance’ on mandatory channels of Doordarshan via Cable/DTH/IPTV Operators has been further extended by this Ministry till 15.01.2019,” MIB said in its notice.
The ministry is keen on amending Section 3 (1) of the Sports Act 2007 with the objective of the masses gaining the widest possible reach when it comes to viewing important national sporting events.
Last year, the Supreme Court had declared that Prasar Bharti isn’t permitted to telecast events of national importance on private distribution platforms except its own terrestrial and direct to home (DTH) platforms. As a result, Doordarshan has been blocked by private operators on such occasions.
