UNI

New Delhi, Jul 10: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre, Information and Broadcasting Ministry and Prasar Bharati on a petition filed by a reputed sports channel.

The channel sought directions to the respondents to not to interfere with its exclusive rights to telecast the forthcoming cricket tri-series featuring India, Sri Lanka and South Africa.

The tri-series is to be played in Sri Lanka from August 14 to 29.

In addition the channel has sought the court's directions for ensuring non-interference of the respondents in the telecast of Champions Trophy Hockey-Women (July 8 to 16), Champions Trophy Hockey-Men (July 22 to 30), US Open Tennis (August 28 to September 10), World Cup Hockey-Men (September 6 to 17) and World Cup Hockey-Women (September 27 to October 8).

A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhan and Markandey Katju directed the respondents to file their reply by July 31, which is the next date of hearing.

According to the petitioner, it acquired four years exclusive live telecast rights from the Sri Lankan Cricket Board last year at a cost of about Rs 218.60 crores.

The petitioners have also challenged the validity of the administrative order dated November 11, 2005 and April 5, 2006 laying down linking guidelines which made it compulsory to share the match feed with Doordarshan.

According to the petitioner, it will have to suffer a loss of Rs 8 crore per day in terms of advertisments during the cricket Tri-series if the feed was shared with the national broadcaster.