New Delhi, Jan 19: Uncertainty remains over telecast of India-West Indies cricket series in millions of non-cable homes, with rights holder Nimbus and public broadcaster Prasar Bharati failing to reach an agreement over sharing of signals.
According to sources, officials of both the broadcasters have been locked in meetings for the last two days, but talks have not led to a favourable result. The matter has now reached the office of Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi, they said.
India and West Indies will play four one-day matches during January 21-31. The series will be followed by Sri Lanka's tour of India in February.
"Nimbus is refusing to share live feed with Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan and insisting the shared feed should be deferred by at least 15 minutes. Also, it is insisting the feed should not be shared on DD's free-to-air DTH platform, DD DirectPlus," sources said.
The sources said Nimbus has said if at all it shares feed, the signals have to be encrypted so that it reaches houses only on terrestrial network and not those that get DD signals through cable TV.
"However, Prasar Bharati officials, citing previous government orders and court rulings, are demanding that they should get live feed of the cricket series, without any conditions, and that it also be shared on DD's DTH platform," the sources said.
There are also differences with regard to marketing of the series. "Nimbus insists there should be open bidding between the two with regard to marketing collections while DD says closed bids should be invited," the sources added. (Agencies)
