MUMBAI: The information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry is working on a proposal that will make the Indian Premier League (IPL) available on state broadcaster Doordarshan and has asked the sports ministry to weigh in on the matter.
A Livemint report says that if the proposal goes through, Star India, the official broadcaster of IPL for the next five seasons beginning in 2018, will have to share the live feed of the tournament with Prasar Bharati under the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act, 2007.
While the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act, 2007 (and a 2012 notification), stipulates that all private broadcasters are required to share live broadcasting signals of sporting events of “national importance” with Prasar Bharati simultaneously, to enable the public broadcaster to re-transmit them on its terrestrial networks and direct-to-home (DTH) networks, a recent Supreme Court verdict decreed that Prasar Bharati cannot share the feed it gets from rights owners such as Star on Doordarshan channels that are carried by cable operators and private DTH platforms.
