The Subhash Chandra-promoted Zee Telefilms may have won the four-year contract to telecast the Board of Control for Cricket in India organised cricket matches, but it is all set to lock horns with the state-owned broadcaster Prasar Bharati over sharing of telecast feed.
As per the initial formulae proposed by Prasar Bharati, the original rights holder would pay Prasar Bharati a bank guarantee and give it a free feed of the cricket match.
Besides, Prasar Bharati would also be given a chance to earn revenue, which would be shared with the original rights holder. This means, Prasar Bharati can sell advertisement spots as well as even get its own sponsors for the event.
However, Zee would prefer that Prasar Bharati does not air its own advertisements. Instead, it would prefer giving the state-owned broadcaster a complete feed with advertisements, which would be aired by Prasar Bharati along with the Zee logo. Zee would ideally want Prasar Bharati to use the Doordarshan platform to air the proposed sports channel.
It is of the view that, if Doordarshan is allowed to take its own advertisement, it would lead to a fall in the advertisement rates for Zee, as the advertisers would have an alternate option to look at.
Instead, if only Zee's advertisements are carried, it would give the channel a chance to charge a premium for advertisement spots as it can ensure a larger reach, riding on Prasar Bharati's terrestrial network.
In the case of the recently concluded, Asia Cup, the telecast right owner paid Prasar Bharati a bank guarantee depending on the importance of the game and it was allowed to earn advertisement revenues. Prasar Bharati, however, shared the advertisement revenue based on a prefixed formulae.
Prasar Bharati has also recently moved the government to set up a regulation, which will give it an automatic chance to get telecast rights of events of national importance.
As per the proposal, Prasar Bharati will be allowed to air its own advertisements.
Prasar Bharati originally mooted the proposal for a telecast right over any event of national importance in 2002 during the ICC Cricket World Cup, when it failed to reach a commercial understanding with Set Max.
It also reiterates the demand during its stand off with Abdul Rehman Bhukhatir's Ten Sports during the India - Pakistan cricket series.
Recently, in the event of the Board of Control for Cricket in India inviting bids for the cricket matches organised in India for the next four year, the Prasar Bharati board had passes a resolution asking the government to come out with a law to this effect.
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