Barely a year after signing a telecast deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India for a whopping $ 612 m, Nimbus issued a notice to the BCCI threatening to pull out of the deal on Tuesday.
Nimbus' decision to withdraw from the deal, covering matches in India till 2010 March, comes after the Government issued on an Ordinance making it mandatory for private broadcasters to share with Prasar Bharti the live feed of sports events of national importance.
The sudden development prompted the BCCI to go into an emergency meeting at Board President Sharad Pawar's official residence here to discuss the issue.
"We have received a notice from Nimbus threatening to pull out of the deal," a top BCCI official said.
Nimbus apparently has told the BCCI in it's notice to sort out the 'encryption' issue with Prasar Bharti.
The encryption of live match feed has emerged as a bone of contention with the private broadcaster insisting that PB should take initiatives to encrypt the signals.
The recent cricket tournaments featuring India have invariably led to long-drawn court room battles on the telecast issue.
The series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka had also suffered a similar fate before the Delhi High Court first ordered Nimbus to share the feed with a seven-minute delay and then a simultaneous telecast with Doordarshan.
The Government then came up with an ordinance making it mandatory for private broadcasters to share the live feed with DD of all sporting events of national importance.
The Mumbai-based Nimbus acquired the Board's telecast rights pipping ESPN-Star Sports and Zee Sports when the rights were awarded in 2006 February.
Nimbus, which did not have a channel of its own, then launched 'Neo Sports' in the middle of last year and the Challenger Series domestic limited overs tournament in August was the first tournament it beamed.