Private sports broadcasters in India are headed towards an uncertain future thanks to the governmental pressure due to which they are mandated to share sporting events of national importance with Prasar Bharati.
This isn’t all. The introduction of the “mustcarry” provision mandating that all Doordarshan channels be carried bycable operators and DTH operators has made life tougher. If this continues,broadcasters will be forced to think twice before bidding for exclusive rightsof sporting events.
All private Distribution Platform Operators (DPOs) such asTata Sky, Dish TV, Hathway etc. are forced to show the 24 DD channels after theInformation and Broadcasting Ministry issued a notification in 2013 askingcable operators to “must carry” those channels. In 2014, it furtherasked the DTH plaforms to compulsorily carry the Doordarshan channels.
But sadly, this isn’t the idea behind the whole Sports Actthat was passed in 2007. According to that, the idea was to provide access tomaximum viewers and listeners of sporting events of national importance so thateven those who don’t have access to cable television aren’t deprived of suchevents.
In the present scenario, the viewer can actually pay for thebasic cable service and get to witness the exclusive sporting events as privatebroadcasters like Star, Sony and DSports must share their content with DD as itis of national interest. So, with DD being shown for free by the cableoperators, the viewers don’t need to pay extra for the different Star or Sonypackages which come for a price and aren’t free to air.
While Prasar Bharati doesn’t bid for any of the sportingevents, this act of getting the private sports broadcasters to share theircontent has created a scenario which indirectly affects the economics of sportsbroadcasting in the country.
To make things simple, if the private broadcasters stopbidding and investing in sporting events, it is the common man who will facethe brunt and the future of sports and sportsperson in the country will beunder threat.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry wanted to amendthe Sports Broadcasting Signals Bill in 2018 and the amendment said: “Nocontent rights owner or holder and no television or radio broadcasting serviceprovider shall carry a live television broadcast on any cable and/ordirect-to-home network and/or IPTV and/or terrestrial network or radiocommentary broadcast in lndia of sporting events of national importance, unlessit simultaneously shares the live broadcasting signal, without its advertisements,with the Prasar Bharati to enable them to re-transmit the same on its ownterrestrial network and Direct-to-Home network and on other televisiondistribution in such manner and on such terms and conditions as may bespecified.”But the move didn’t get the backing of sportsfederations while boxing champion Mary Kom provided a fair idea on how it wouldbe detrimental for sports and sportspersons in the country.