Still in the dark

NOT A SINGLE Caribbean station has reached an agreement with the American company that holds the rights for the 2003 World Cup.

With the region facing a potential blackout of cricket's most prestigious event, the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) has summoned some of its clients to an emergency meeting in Antigua today.

After CMC's negotiations with rights holders EchoStar Communications recently broke down, the Barbados-based company advised regional stations to enter into their own negotiations with EchoStar.

When contacted, Mark Lumpkin, a spokesman for EchoStar, said they were yet to make a deal with any station in the region.

"The folks we have been negotiating with for carriage of cricket in the Caribbean have not been responsive.

"They have been delaying the process," Lumpkin told the SUNSPORT from his office in Colorado.

"We would like to offer cricket in the Caribbean and we are pursuing discussions with individual broadcasters."

Large audience

Lumpkin did not disclose how many Caribbean stations were involved in the negotiations, but the SUNDAY SUN understands about a dozen stations had approached EchoStar following the withdrawal of CMC.

"We know there is a large audience in the Caribbean that would like to watch World Cup cricket and we are working as hard as we can to deliver that service to them through local broadcasters," Lumpkin said.

EchoStar, which acquired exclusive television, radio and Internet distribution rights for North, Central and South America and the Caribbean, offered them to the region at a cost of US$1 million, the CMC said in a statement.

"When the [North American] corporation indicated that they expected US$1 million from the Caribbean region, and CMC pointed out that their expectation exceeded our mandate - it exceeded what was paid the last time by 100 per cent and exceeded reasonable expectations three weeks before the World Cup starts - we were asked for our best and final offer," the CMC said.

Three requests

"It was provided in writing three times following three requests."

CMC has been subsequently advised that in some markets some stations have made offers exceeding the offer they mandated the CMC to make, while in others, demands are being made at three to four times higher than the CMC offer.

It was what the CMC had predicted in a protest in November to the International Cricket Council and former international rights holders World Sports Group.

"We made the point that notwithstanding the fact that while the West Indies have been a cricket superpower, the Caribbean is a small free-radio and TV marketplace, burdened by high technical costs to get cricket to small economies," the CMC said.

EchoStar was not willing to discuss details of the negotiations, but Lumpkin said the rights for world cricket could run into "hundreds of millions of dollars".