BCCI , DD, and Govt of India all are equally at fault here. But the prime responsibility for the fiasco lies with BCCI.
Govt of India has guidelines that force private broadcasters to let DD telecast the game of national interest that is cricket. Its a guideline not a law as far as I see it, and its a different matter of debate to question its legitimacy. Lets imagine the following scenario. Mr A (BCCI) sells Mr C's (public , Govt or DD) house without his knowledge to Mr B (Nimbus), who takes control of the house and when Mr C returns he is not allowed to enter. Normally in such a situation both Mr B and C who have been cheated will sue Mr A for unfair practise. In this case strangely it is B and C who are fighting amongst's themselves while A is having fun. This leads us to the basic question who owns the actual right to telecast of matches.
Well its C the public, and A (BCCI) was created to take care of C's interest and to promote the game and was granted autonomy to work as an entity in a free market economy. So as of now A has the rights of telecast. So if C has a problem sue A, may be a public interest litigation.
Now should A show the matches at a low cost to make the public happy. Of course not if BCCI does not earn the game will die down. Cricket will become like hockey or athletics, no one will want to make a career in cricket. So A sells telecast rights on behalf of C to B for a price. Now B is trying to collect the money from C. So that makes it a full circle. You pay for the game you love so that the game stays healthy.
If you cannot pay the price of a burger a month to watch the game you love then stop loving that game. People already pay more than that amount to watch stupid soaps. I do not know the exact amount Nimbus is asking may be its a bit high (Rs 50 a month or so ) but Rs 10 a match would be a fairish price. But the point is you have to pay for the cause of the game. In a free market economy if you do not buy your own lunch then you can never earn it also.
But what about people who do not eat burgers, I mean those who cannot really afford, there should be an alternate arrangement I guess that is what NIMBUS was trying to do with the dirty feed ( 15 min delay and 75-25 reveue sharing and so on) to DD, which is completely justifiable.
Compare this with $10-20 which is the price for watching streaming matches on the internet. Such a price is completely unjustifiable even for people living abroad and is just a case of sheer greed on part of ICC and cricket boards who sell telecast rights for exorbitant price without laying down any guidelines. If this is the way ICC wants to popularise cricket in the world I am afraid its going to take a very long time.
Why did'nt BCCI object to the Govt when it announced the uplinking policy? If did not object earlier, then why did it sell the rights unconditionally to Nimbus? Well Nimbus too should have been aware of this when the rights were brought. Why was the issue not cleared then?
As for governments uplinking policy, its a shame for a govt that tries to promote free market economy. I am sure it can be challenged in a court of law. If the government was really serious about public interest then it should have sat and worked out a middle ground with BCCI much before laying down its policy.
But we all know how the govt works, i.e take the short cut and in the process kill the hen that lays the golden egg. If you cannot, educate and uplift the neglected and impoverished people the proper way, then bring in the quotas. If you cannot frame a proper policy for telecast of matches just steal others rights.
I wonder what Mr Munshi or govt has to say about the sorry state of affairs of hockey which is our national game. What happens to their patriotic feelings then?. Would be interested to know how much money DD was able to generate for hockey?
The blame goes to BCCI as for want of money they are selling rights to a foreign company ignoring the interest of the public.Our law to reframed & companies like Star/Neo should not be allowed to utilise our money & fly their employee throughout world.I am with Doordarshan or any Indian broadcaster.We are not here to compromise on deferred live feed.
RE:No Foreign company to be allowed to rule
by ashwini venkatachalaiah on Jan 23, 2007 06:58 PM
Kaushik, Neo is not a foreign channel. It is owned by the Indian company (Nimbus). It is good idea to have DD broaedcast it. But It is not fair for Dooradarshan to get the clean feed with out paying for it, when Nimbus is struggling to make the $612 Million it paid to get the rights.
If the politicians entred in a boady like BCCI, what can we expect?. This is not at all in the interest of India. BCCI President should be punished for such acts of his personal interests.
No one can denied our DADA Sourav Ganguly's previous attractive records.He throwed back from the team since he was not not given enough chances to back form as Shewag had.After a long period,Chappel was forced to get back DADA into the team and DADA shows how important he is for the team.Like that the key players such as Shewag,Pathan and Kaif should come back with full of their potential to the upcoming world cup.
Pawar Saab YEH KYA HO RAHA HE AAAAPKE RAJ ME EK TARAF TO AAP HINDUSTAN KI BAAT KARTE HO AUR DOOSRI TARAF AAP HINDUSTANIO KO HI NARAAZ KAR RAHE HO. YEH ACCHI BAAT NAHI HAI.
I dont understand this terminology "leakage" here. When a TV channel is being broadcasted free to air through all possible means, its already available in public domain without any decryption. Question of leakage does not arise here at all.. Vinayak
RE:Leakage of signals by DD
by SAIANAND SRINIVASAN on Jan 24, 2007 02:22 AM
I think the "leakage" they are talking about is for foreign countries which have different providers who telecast the matches. If the people in other countries can easily get DD's signals and watch the games for free, the local telecasters lose money and indirectly Nimbus loses money because they have sold the rights to those country providers!
There are nearly 20,000 cricket academy in Australia and they explore new faces into Giant to the world even they are comparitively tiny in the population when compared to India.It is shame for Indians that we have only two Cricket Academies for the Whole Nation.Cricket Australia told that they prepare the talented youth well right from the beginning and thatsy the new faces glitters more in the Australian Cricket and the perfect examples are Nathen Bracken and Shaun Watson.When our BCCI thinks about this? If we bring our lot and lot of talented youth cricketers to the light,then only we can think about the triump over the World Cup
