It seems that Indian cricket always believes in the philosophy that change is good and adheres to this adage under all circumstances. If it is not about the Indian team performing, then it is not about who will be the chief of BCCI or the return of old warhorses like Saurav Ganguly. The latest controversy to hit Indian cricket is not on-field or off-field but ethereal, if I may use the term in not the regular English way.
The controversy revolves about the broadcast rights for the India-West Indies four match series for which Nimbus Sports has obtained exclusive rights from Board of Cricket Control for India (BCCI). Nobody thought twice about the fact that Nimbus Sports had obtained the rights for broadcast. The issue arose when Nimbus Sports refused to share the Cricket feed with Doordarshan (DD) for the first one day international. Consequently, millions of people in India were unable to watch the cricket match. Nimbus offered DD fifteen minutes delayed advertisement free broadcast, which DD refused. Eventually the feed given to DD is seven minutes delayed.
DD says that this is an “unpatriotic” act by Nimbus since cricket is a religion in India and therefore public interest is at stake. Nimbus says this is business and they have bought the rights for broadcast for several millions and beating stiff competition from ESPN-Star Sports and Ten Sports.
BCCI realized that there is a huge amount of money to be made out of the broadcast rights. Therefore it sold the rights to build on it’s already cash heavy coffers without taking into consideration if the buyer has the ability i.e. infrastructure to broadcast the matches to the masses. BCCI, obviously, does not care as long is its gets the money.
As for Nimbus, it rightly bought the rights for a large sum of money and therefore rightly has reasons to recover the money in this commercial venture. However, Nimbus by not providing the telecast to millions has also provoked public ire. It seems that Nimbus had forgotten that in India a lot of things work differently and public outcry can result in tremendous political pressure. After all the politicians have to keep their vote banks happy with small pleasures of life if not the basic amenities. Maybe Nimbus think tank will keep this as a lesson learnt in time and not repeat its mistake.
DD, in the guise of public interest has attempted to free load the Nimbus party. Let us not forget for one moment there is a lot of money to be made by way of advertisements. Clearly, DD did not think it was necessary for it to bid for the rights as it would anyways get the rights. While, public interest would demand that DD has the right to telecast this mass game as DD has the infrastructure to bring it to the masses, however public interest does not demand that DD make money out of this.
In fact Nimbus appears to be getting the rawest deal because as per the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 requires that the cable operator has to provide two DD channels free of cost to the consumers. In effect, if DD gets the free feed without any conditions, then the whole purpose of buying the exclusive rights by Nimbus is defeated. The cable operator, therefore, need to not get a license from Nimbus as the telecast is free in any case. In effect, Nimbus after investing millions of Dollars does not get to make any money out it.
As the situation now stands Nimbus appears to be making every effort to amicably settle the matter by providing DD the seven minutes delayed feed. DD in all fairness should accept this as the right solution after all merely being government agency does not mean it can coerce Nimbus into any deal it wants.
As a last word, much awaited Broadcasting Act desperately requires to come into force.
