No Doordarshan or radio coverage of India-South Africa series

Test cricket in India, already under threat from the game's limited-overs versions, will take another knock in the India-South Africa series. The first Test, which begins in Chennai on Wednesday, will not be aired on Doordarshan (DD), nor on All India Radio (AIR), leaving several hundred million fans without access to the game.

Followers of the game have been left in the lurch as the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry decided not to term the series a "event of a national importance", which means Nimbus, a private broadcaster and the rights holder, won't have to share its live feed with public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, which controls both DD and AIR. In the past, the I&B ministry ensured private broadcasters shared the feed.

Confirming the news, Shankaran, the programme executive of AIR Chennai, said, "We won't have the live commentary of the series." Under the Sports Broadcasting Signals Act 2007, only events deemed of national importance are aired on DD and AIR. The Act, passed by the Lok Sabha on March 8 last year, was used by the I&B ministry to ensure rights holder Nimbus shared its feed of the last India-Pakistan series with DD and AIR.

However, in response to the Delhi High Court direction, on a petition seeking legal intervention to air the upcoming series by DD, the I&B ministry said this series does not fall in the list of the notified games that have to be compulsory aired. According to the clause 2 (I)(S) of the Act, "sporting events of national importance means such national or international sporting events, held in India or abroad, as may be notified by the Central Government in the Official Gazette to be of national importance."

The marketing relations manager of Neo Sports, Amrita Pai, told Cricinfo that DD does not generally carry live telecasts of Test Match cricket. "In the recently concluded India v Australia Test Match Series also DD did not carry live telecast. Our understanding is that this is due to the fact that DD has many other broadcast obligations and carrying 5 days of Test Match and multiple Tests in each Series would cause very significant disruptions of DD's regular programming and its obligations to many segments of the audience. Secondly, Test Matches do not attract the same degree of public interest as ODIs and Twenty20 matches."

Pai also pointed out that the subject of encryption continues to be debated upon and nothing final has been decided. "All constituents of the sports broadcasting industry have jointly represented to the Government on this subject as it has a significant impact on the industry."

DD, the terrestrial broadcaster, reaches 75% of the Indian population in the urban region and has 38% of the rural population. While the viewers will be the worst hit by the move, the decision would help the private broadcasters net the maximum revenue out of their rights. The Act had also noted that the advertisement revenue sharing between the content rights owner and the Prasar Bharati shall be in the ratio of not less than 75:25 in case of television coverage and 50:50 in case of radio coverage.