Will Zee be ineligible for telecast rights?

Zee Television, the channel that won the rights to broadcast cricket in India for four years before the bidding process was scrapped, will almost certainly be barred from participating in the new tender which will be announced by the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) next week. PTI reported that the board's marketing committee included a clause which states that channels require three years of experience in cricket broadcasting to bid for the new rights.

Under this provision, given the high stakes, it seems inevitable that ESPN-Star Sports (ESS) will be front-runners for Indian cricket's television rights for the next four years, for no other prominent broadcaster - neither Sony Entertainment Television nor Ten Sports - have their deep pockets.

Although the three-year clause is perceived to be retaliation against Zee, who dragged the BCCI to court for a protracted public battle, an anonymous board member said that it was "just to ensure that the channel had the expertise to cover cricket tournaments". The contents of the new tender will be awaited with interest because the last tender was open to interpretation, and this, it is believed, led to the showdown between Zee and ESS, with the board caught in the middle and later chastised by India's Supreme Court.

This time, the board has noted the court's views, according to Ranbir Singh Mahendra, the president of the BCCI, who said, "We will abide by the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court. Actually there are no guidelines, but only observations, and we have taken into account all that."

The new bid is also unprecedented because it is expected that the rights for telephone, broadband, broadcast and the internet will be sold separately. The TV rights alone commanded $308million in the cancelled bid. However, the value of the rights, especially television, could be diluted because moves are afoot within the government to make mandatory the sharing of broadcast signals with Doordarshan, the state-run broadcaster.

Cricket coverage has been described as a sporting event of national importance by successive governments, though the idea of sharing rights has not appealed to private broadcasters. ESS, Zee, Sony and Ten Sports met the broadcast minister to oppose the move. Incidentally, Doordarshan wanted Ten Sports to share the broadcast of the ongoing IndianOil Cup with it. This was the second time, after last year's Indian tour of Pakistan, that the two faced off over the matter.

The BCCI's new tender will be published in newspapers next week.