Ten Sports trying to make a kill: Prasar Bharti

Prasar Bharati Chief Executive K S Sarma has accused Ten Sports, which holds the overseas telecast rights for the India – Pakistan Test and One-Day International series, of making unreasonable demands and trying to make a kill by forcing Doordarshan to part with three times the amount it invested to obtain the rights.

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"Ten Sports has paid the Pakistan Cricket Board eight million US dollars to secure the telecast rights, but they are asking Doordarshan to cough up $25 million to share these rights along with them. I offered to go up to $6 million. Our original offer was $4 million," Sarma told rediff.com in New Delhi on Thursday.

Sarma said he met Ten Sports CEO Chris McDonald on Sunday in Mumbai and offered to run the same advertisements they will run during the series provided they agreed to part with some of the revenue.

"This was a very lucrative offer, but they turned it down. They could have charged their clients more because our combined reach would have been much more," Sarma explained, adding he hopes to make $10 million from advertisements.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that McDonald is in Delhi in a last-ditch attempt to reach an understanding with Prasar Bharti after the Madras high court indicated, while hearing a Public Interest Litigation, that the Government of India should consider invoking an ordinance in case two television companies fail to reach an agreement.

Sarma said he is awaiting the high court ruling.

"If the high court directs the government to issue an ordinance and force Ten Sports to share telecast signals with Prasar Bharti then I will not be paying anything to Ten Sports," he said.