The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Doordarshan not to air its programme 'Fourth Umpire' during lunch breaks of the on-going One-Day International cricket series between India and Pakistan and carry "uninterrupted feed" of the matches received from Ten Sports.
The direction came from a Bench of Justice Ashok Bhan and Justice Arun Kumar after Ten Sports counsel P H Parikh complained to the court that Prasar Bharti was violating the January 30 order directing the public broadcaster to carry the "uninterrupted feed" from beginning to the end.
Appearing for the Prasar Bharti, Solicitor General G E Vahanvati submitted that Doordarshan was carrying the uninterrupted feed and its programme 'Fourth Empire' was aired during the lunch break when there was no live coverage of the match.
However, the Bench said "uninterrupted means from the beginning till the end" and asked Doordarshan not to insert its own programme during lunch hours.
Prasar Bharti CEO K S Sarma and Vahanvati had tried to sort out the issue with Ten Sports outside the court on Tuesday, but the efforts failed and Ten Sports took up the matter before the Court on Wednesday.
Ten Sports, which has the exclusive telecast rights of the series, and Doordarshan had reached on an agreement on January 30 under which the public broadcaster was allowed to share "uninterrupted feed" from Ten Sports.
A division bench had directed Prasar Bharati to deposit with the Court a sum of Rs 15 crore by February 9 which Ten Sports shall receive as full and final settlement for sharing the "uninterrupted feed" of the five one-dayers.
