New Delhi, March 16
Ten Sports today said it was not averse to an out-of-court settlement to end the commercial row with Prasar Bharati (Doordarshan) for the telecast of cricket matches between India and Pakistan.
“At any time, we will be too happy for an out-of-court settlement, but at the moment we have to wait for the Supreme Court ruling,” Ten Sports chief Abdul Rehman Bukhatir told reporters here, soon after arriving in the Capital from Dubai.
He, however, expressed concern that the organisation’s rights investment had been damaged over the recent past and it had been “unilaterally compelled” to share its exclusive rights with third parties without any pre-determined agreements or adequate compensation.
“If it becomes a precedent, it can reflect badly on other events like in Sharjah,” he said, voicing concern that lack of exclusivity could have serious repercussions for the channel’s viewership, which accounted for major income source.
The Supreme Court had yesterday asked Ten Sports to provide signals to Doordarshan to telecast the second one-day cricket match between India and Pakistan.
The apex court had earlier asked the channel to provide live signals of the first match at Karachi on March 13.
He said “The ad revenue is there where there is a major event like the India-Pakistan series....main revenue comes from subscription.”
Mr Bukhatir said Ten Sports was getting upwards of Rs 200 crore as subscription revenue from the country.
The head of the channel said, “To acquire rights for exclusive line broadcast of cricket, as well as other content we have on the channel, it costs huge sums of money....We have invested non-stop in Ten Sports for the past two years and now the product is truly head and shoulders above all other sports channels.”
Ten Sports Indian distributor Modi Enterprises’ President Lalit Modi said the impact of what had happened in India could hurt the channel significantly.
Mr Bukhatir said the channel was interested in the Indian cricket board’s television rights to be auctioned next month.
“But, the BCCI is yet to come out with the tender documents,” he said, adding that his organisation would like to see the terms of the tender first.
