Zee stumps BCCI, walks out of broadcast deal

MUMBAI: BCCI seems to be faced with yet another dilemma. Zee Sports said this afternoon that the terms and conditions of the five-year broadcast deal with BCCI covering India’s matches at neutral venues, was not acceptable to them.

This has led to the BCCI being left high-and-dry, scrambling last minute to get a broadcaster on board to showcase the upcoming ODI series against South Africa.

“We have been in discussions with the BCCI to look at giving us some kind of discount, and reducing our burden for the losses that is incurred due to non-encryption. Moreover, the reduction is more pertinent to us than Nimbus, as we have only ODIs and no test matches. But, despite several reminders, BCCI has not made us a proposal,” Himanshu Mody, CEO, Zee Sports said.

“In fact, we had written to the BCCI in March 2007, intimating them that we could not go ahead with the Ireland-Scotland series on account of less time coupled with the fact that the negotiation had not gone anywhere,” Mr. Mody added. India was to play three one-dayers against South Africa from June 26 to July 1 in Belfast besides another against host Ireland.

The matches were part of 25 games to be telecast by Zee under a $200,000 contract announced last year. While Zee has not totally backed out of the contract, the broadcaster had made it clear that they will not broadcast any of the matches unless the contract price is re-visited and BCCI considers a rebate in the rights amount.

“The fall-out has occurred due to partial treatment and double standards adopted by the BCCI. While Nimbus (who hold the telecast rights for matches played in India till 2008-09) is being considered for a hefty rebate on the renegotiated price, they have not even bothered to discuss the issue with us,” said Aashish Kaul, senior vice-president, Zee Group.

Both Lalit Modi, vice-president, BCCI and Niranjan Shah, BCCI board secretary could not be reached for their comments. The broadcasters have been concerned over falling revenue ever since the government passed the sports broadcasting signal bill.

According to the new Act on sports broadcasting, it is mandatory for every broadcaster to share live feed without advertisements for all ties involving India with national broadcaster Doordarshan.

All sports channels in the country want encryption of the live feeds because un-encrypted signals of Doordarshan are also received in Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Malaysia and may result in loss of over Rs 10 billion for sports broadcasters. Zee sources revealed that the BCCI step motherly treatment towards them was probably due to the launch of Zee’s Indian Cricket League, which will operate independently.