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A fresh row broke out over the issue of telecast rights of the Indian Premier League with Sony Entertainment dragging the Board of Control for Cricket in India to the Bombay High Court which restrained the Cricket Board from entering into any further agreement related to the Twenty20 tournament.
Sony moved the High Court against BCCI's move to enter into a contract with World Sports Group (WSG) after terminating its agreement with Sony on broadcasting rights in the country.
The court on Sunday granted the injunction to Sony restraining BCCI from entering into any further agreements related to the IPL.
When the petition came up for further hearing before Justice S J Kathawala on Monday, the BCCI lawyer sought time to take instructions and produce the relevant documents.
The court said till the matter is heard, BCCI shall not grant any approval to WSG under the newly entered contract.
According to the BCCI counsel, the agreement with Sony was terminated on the evening of March 14 and the new one with WSG was signed on the morning of March 15 and the court's injunction came only in the afternoon on that day.
Sony with Singapore-based sports marketing and management agency WSG had won the telecast rights of the IPL for ten years for approximately US $1 billion.
Sony has alleged that BCCI terminated the original contract and signed a new one with WSG without giving any notice to them.
According to the original agreement, WSG has the rights for broadcasting content related to the IPL abroad while Sony held them for India.
Earlier, the IPL governing council had sought clarifications from Sony over allegations by Reliance ADAG firm, Big TV, of not giving it first right to on-air sponsorship.
Big TV which had signed up with IPL for on-ground sponsorship of Rs 137 crore had pulled out from the Twenty20 tournament after Sony signed an exclusive Rs 30 crore deal with its rival Airtel Digital.