Prasar Bharati moved the SC for World Cup 2015 telecast rights

Prasar Bharati along with the Central Government moved the Supreme Court on Monday demanding that the cricket World Cup rights holder Star Sports should share live feed of the tournament which starts this Saturday, February 14 in Australia and New Zealand with public broadcaster Doordarshan (DD).

The Delhi HC in February 2014 had restrained DD from sharing live feed of such matches with cable operators and DTH platforms. It was not allowed to telecast the matches on its network that caters to only a few million households. However, the court observed that though DD would share ad revenue received from the matches at a ratio of 75:25 with private broadcasters. 

Some of the cable operators which are required to air the DD News and DD National channels were told to be using its live cricket telecast feed to avoid payment of fees for the broadcast provided by the rights holders. The rights holders said that sharing live feed with Doordarshan meant losing subscription fees. They had paid a total of Rs 3,851 crore to the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) for exclusive access to content from April 2012 to March 2018, they said.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi moved twin petitions seeking the court's interference to direct Star to do so in the "public interest". A bench comprising Chief Justice HL Dattu and Justice AK Sikri were to hear the plea on Tuesday.