The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an appeal filed by broadcaster Star India Ltd against sharing clean feed, free of embedded advertisements, with Prasar Bharti.
The dismissal means that Star India will have to remove sponsor logos and on-screen credits from the feed before sharing it with Prasar Bharti for telecast on Doordarshan.
Star India approached the apex court against a 2013 Delhi high court ruling which dismissed an ESPN Software Pvt. Ltd plea for a declaration that its responsibility was to share feed received from organizers, which would include advertisements, logos and other on-screen credits during the game.
According to a 2007 rule, private broadcasters such as Star India must share coverage of sports events of national importance with the state-owned Prasar Bharti, without advertisements.
A bench comprising justices A.K. Sikri and P.C. Pant dismissed Star’s appeal.
Prasar Bharti had earlier demanded clean feeds from Star India. Star India contended that this rule would impact not only cricket but other sporting events like tennis and hockey.
On this issue, Star India earlier argued that if a Wimbledon match had to be aired in the country whose official sponsor is Rolex SA, the present scheme would require Rolex names to be removed, which was unlikely.
At present, Star India holds the rights to broadcast cricket events organized under the International Cricket Council in India.
Forwarded by:- Jainendra Nigam PB NewsDesk news.prasarbharati@gmail.com