As much as this is in the best interest of the "Common Man", sad to say that th government is acting like a bully and being very unfair towards Nimbus. Nimbus have spend a lot of money in winning exclusive rights to broadcast cricket in india based on the forecast of getting exclusive advertisment and revenue from channels. How can the court order Nimbus to share the feed with DD who do not even have an encryption technology, which means people outside India do not have to pay for viewing Ind/SL matches but just steal DD's feeds. If Gov. of India wants to potray their pro-public image, where were they when the deal was being struck between BCCI and Nimbus? This is extremely damaging for India as no major broadcasters will bid in the future and the eventual losers will again by the "Common Man" as the quality of coverage will suffer!
RE:Is this democracy?
by Ranjit Pati on Feb 15, 2007 05:58 PM
What we all are saying is true but is it getting conveyed to the ears for which these comments are meant for ??
Cricket after all is the current opium of masses. Why reduce the status of cricket to a point where only rich people are allowed to watch it? Nimbus paid 600 million dollars to make 1 billion . So if goverment introduces a condition that they have to share with DD, they would bid lower. Everybody knows when the match is coming on both DD & Neo, which channel is viewed. After all it's just a sport. Do we want cricket to end up like some of the boxing games or WWE in USA where people have to pay much higher just for a crucial game. I remember a Mike Tyson match where the Pay-per-view charge was 37$ for the match. Every world cup or such important matches, the broadcaseter jacks up the cable rates, even though they make huge amounts through advertising. This should stop. People in India should have access to the matches paid by India whether they have cable or not. After this, who makes how much money is none of our concern.
RE:I feel it's fair
by Shetty on Feb 15, 2007 05:35 PM
if This is a case of 'public interest' why doesn't DD beam live with Nimbus Ads or maybe even Ad-free. In this era of free market,what govt is doing is criminal.
This is just another fine example of bureaucacy. It had happen in the past with Star-Espn as well as Ten Sports channel.In case of Ten sports Live feed dd had telecast its own set of Advertisement.
This issue are going to be like this and We claim that we live in democracy.
I am a cricket fan. But a few doubts i have are. Is watching cricket match live the fundamental right of a citizen of india? If so the government should spend the money to get it to its citizens. Why the private operators are bullied to get it to the citizens. Also has the government so concerned to satisfy all the fundamental rights of its citizens, what about education, sanitation, security, good roads?
RE:Bad example
by P ROHIT on Feb 15, 2007 05:36 PM
truly said man..the govt. is trying to win favour from the masses using the popularity of cricket..its unfair on the part of Neo.
The fault is with BCCI. It should sell terrestial rights to DD separately in the interest of terrestial viewers. The Govt. should direct BCCI in this matter so that this problem will not arise and there is no need of ordinance
RE:Fault is with BCCI
by G VIJAYA on Feb 15, 2007 05:22 PM
Yes you are 100% correct and DD should not telecast this match through satellite. Only it should telecast on terrestial mode.
its not that this is happening 1st time, its always a case of "OLD SAME STORY", NEO-SPORTS won the race to beat big gaints Like ESPN-STARSPORTS to name a few,after that DD gets in with out any work-load, goes to High court or supreme court and wins the race, every one knows in india that half-country is with out cable, in villages, now-a-days in town also {due to non-payment of cable rents!!} but what i wanted to explain every one is that "what is the use of ALL-SPORTS-CHANNELS to bid for a series or periods with out involving DD..??" SPORTS chennals will be in HEAVY-LOSS.. this is not the 1st time that DD have won with private channels, every time he goes to court, DD wins.. i think thats why ESPN-STARSPORTS wont bid higher in sub-continant cricket matches, they know the results, where as they bid high as mush as they can i FOOTBALL in SPANISH n EUROPEAN countries.. i really miss the ESPN-STARSPORTS coverage, there camera clarity n settings will be amazing to watch..!! (they commertary persons will add taste to them!) after all bottom line is : we indians cant do any thing! its better to watch match in our channeL i.e D-D !! zindabaad! cheers D-D
at last the row is over and indian viewers can witness the last but not the least a 'tazaa' battle of cricket. thanks to the law of court. but why such things make to happen. is the prasar bharati not aware of the telecast of odi series between india & sri lanka much earlier. had it been acted earlier things might have settled prior to the beginning of the series. so wake up prasar bharati, if you stay in hybernation, nothing will come to your net and will be forced to face situation alike. such fiasco will not serve any purpose
The spectators who watch the matches live at stadia have to struggle to get tickets and also pay for the tickets. Sponsors get mileage of advertisement by paying money. BCCI is supposed to use the revenues to promote the game in different ways - infrastructure, coaching, training of potential players, talent hunting etc. In view of all this, those who want to watch the matches on TV should naturally pay their cable operators. So in all this where is national interest? If someone doesn't watch a match will heavens fall? Do all the poor people have TVs at home to see it on DD? Once again the Govt. / Ministry is working in a frenzy on a misplaced priority!
Anybody who wants to retaliate to this post, please wait!
I am also an ardent fan of cricket. I watch not only matches played by India, I watch every other cricket match. For example I followed keenly the matches played in recent CB Triseries in Australia involving Aus, NZ and England. I also watched the matches between Pak and SA. I also watched NZ-SL matches a few days back (In NZ). Yet I am not unduly bothered if DD does or does not telecast any match. In any case the quality of coverage by Nimbus and telecast by DD leaves much to be desired.
RE:Where is public interest?
by Ranbir Thakur on Feb 15, 2007 05:05 PM
See from other's point of view where cable system is not in place but TV is there to watch on DD. It is the prasar bharti which should wake up from its mundane approach.
RE:Where is public interest?
by keshavmurthy kuppuswamy on Feb 15, 2007 05:24 PM
Quite right! If public interest was really intended, some concern would have gone into the quality of broadcasting. During the matches against Windies as well as Srilanka, one camera is always disfunctional and one does not see replays, follow the sequence of what the commentators say, etc. I wonder who will be interested in seeing a kid lolling about on the lawn when the commentator narrates the beauty of a shot! Further, look at the quality of the commentators: they are utterly monotonous, lacking in fluency of the spoken language, et al. Public interest might be enforced if the broadcasting right winners are compelled to charge a reasonable fee and not an exhorbitant one; public interest will be served if the cable operators are pushed to beam what is most in demand by most people without dreaming up reasons for not doing so;public interest could be protected if the government itself shows a way to respect equity, fairplay and justice.
RE:Injustice
by shalendra jain on Feb 15, 2007 05:00 PM
Yes you can say it injustic to nimbus, but my friend do yo know the fact that apart from CAS (conditional Access System) cities Nimbus was demanding Rs.38/- per Cable connection home. Was it not a pure case of Monopoly ? Millions of people in india with cable connections were also unable to see live match.
RE:RE:Injustice
by Ravi Madiraju on Feb 15, 2007 05:19 PM
But isn't that what it means when the BCCI awards the rights to Nimbus ONLY to telecast the matches...? What did the Government expect... that Nimbus will do charity by giving the Telecast of matches free..?? Doesn't the Government know this when such high-profile bidding and awrding happens and some body (like Nimbus here) wins it for such astonomical price...? It is effectively 'mafia' run by government (as Swaminathan above put it). BCCI announces the rights for an entity for some exhorbitant price ... only for the Government to armtwist the same entity to get DD enter the fray for no cost...!! So much for the free market...!!!!
RE:RE:RE:Injustice
by gadbad on Feb 15, 2007 05:24 PM
I think the story is projected one sided and seen only from the economics point of view, nimbus is making money in by subscription as well as on the advertisement revenue, in both ways the common people is affected, tomorrow some other company bids for 10 times more than nimbus, does it mean that always the common man needs to share the burden which is highly inflated
RE:RE:Injustice
by rajeev bhatia on Feb 15, 2007 06:09 PM
Please get your facts right. As per directive of govt. any pay channel can ask for is Rs.5 per viewer home.
RE:RE:Injustice
by Rajesh S on Feb 15, 2007 05:11 PM
My dear friend, Nimbus had to pay about a billion order to BCCI to get the telecast rights. So why did not DD with all govt money and support win the telecast rights.
RE:RE:RE:Injustice
by Rajesh S on Feb 15, 2007 05:12 PM
by Rajesh S on Feb 15, 2007 05:11 PM My dear friend, Nimbus had to pay about a billion dollar to BCCI to get the telecast rights. So why did not DD with all govt money and support win the telecast rights.
