NEW DELHI: The ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) has permitted Discovery Communications India to launch Eurosport and Eurosport HD in India with the approval of Discovery’s name change application.
According to the permitted satellite TV channels database of the ministry, accessed by trade website DreamDTH, Discovery Communication India’s DSport HD license has been renamed to Eurosport HD. The ministry has also renamed the DSport license to Eurosport.
It was on 9th October 2019 that Discovery had initially applied for the renaming of DSport and DSport HD license to Eurosport and Eurosport HD.
It needs noting that Discovery’s claim to ownership of the DSport license had been disputed by the RC Venketeish-promoted Lex Sportel, which had moved the Delhi High Court in December challenging the renaming.
Both parties were heard at length by the court, which on February 24, while disposing of the case, directed the ministry to take a call within eight weeks on Discovery’s application, DreamDTH reports.
As per Television Post, the Delhi High Court order further stated that if Discovery continues to rely upon the letter dated 17th January 2017, which had approved the uplinking of the DSport channel from Hong Kong, as part of its name change application or any other application seeking approvals, Lex Sportel’s submissions would be considered and they would be given an opportunity to explain their stand.
If on the other hand, Discovery does not rely upon the approval dated 17th January 2017 then the UOI shall consider the same as per its policy guidelines, and pass appropriate orders as per the prevalent guidelines for uplinking and downlinking, the order had said.
With the DSport saga officially closed to it, the road ahead for Lex Sportel is to build distribution for 1Sports, for which it holds a TV channel licence, from scratch as it were.
