Nimbus and BCCI lock horns over telecast deal

Nimbus Communications, which bought the rights for all domestic and international cricket played in India, is on a collision course with the Board of Control for Cricket in India. On Tuesday Nimbus issued a notice to the BCCI asking them to either resolve the issues surrounding the encryption of the signal that they have been forced to share with Doordarshan, the state-owned broadcasting corporation, or consider a reduction in the fee that Nimbus is to pay the BCCI for their four-year telecast deal.

The BCCI reacted to this by convening an emergency meeting at the residence of Sharad Pawar, its president, but it was clarified that, in the notice issued by Nimbus, they did not threaten to pull out of the deal. "BCCI and Nimbus have both agreed that encryption is necessary, as it is impacting both DTH and outside India revenues," said Pawar in a release issued after the meeting. "BCCI has formed a four-member committee to work out the dateline of the encryption road map, and to quantify the loss of revenue suffered by Nimbus."

The committee comprises two vice-presidents of the board - Shashank Manohar and Lalit Modi, N Srinivasan, the treasurer, and IS Bindra, president of the Punjab Cricket Association. The committee is expected to figure out a road map for the encryption process in approximately fifteen days. Midway through the meeting, the members of the BCCI were joined by Harish Thawani, the Nimbus chief.

The problem began when the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had, in a showcause notice issued on February 13, directed Nimbus - which had bought the rights to telecast all cricket played in India till March 2010 for US$612 million - in compliance with a government ordinance which made it mandatory for all private broacasters to share the live feed of "all games of national importance" with Doordarshan.

It was argued that matches of importance should be telecast on Doordarshan, the terrestial channel, in order to reach the maximum number of people, with a pre-agreed revenue sharing ratio. Nimbus had no problems with this, but insisted that the signal broadcast by Doordarshan be encrypted so that it can only be received by those accessing the terrestial channel, and not Direct to Home or DTH users. However, Prasar Bharti, the parent company of Doordarshan, has claimed that they had no objection in keeping out DTH users, but lacked the wherewithal technically to put things in place at a short notice.

The BCCI, in its statement, said, "The board thinks that people should not be deprived [of live telecast] and the rights holders should not be affected. The BCCI understands its responsibility towards both the sides and it is better that a middle path is found."