The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Thursday said that the Sports Broadcasting Bill passed by the Lok Sabha is "detrimental" to its business and would affect the game in the country in the long run.
"The Act passed today is detrimental to BCCI and its partners, and Nimbus [BCCI's telecast rights holders] in particular due to DTH [direct to home] transmission and unencrypted signals," Board vice-president Lalit Modi told reporters in New Delhi.
Addressing the media after a three-hour meeting of the five-member BCCI Committee at Board member Arun Jaitley's residence, Modi said the BCCI and Nimbus are ready to provide technical and financial support to Prasar Bharti to encrypt the signals on its terrestrial channel.
"We are offering to pay for encryption and let not the burden fall on the state broadcaster. We want to ensure that the signals of the terrestrial channel on all the 1400 transmitters of Doordarshan around the country are encrypted," Modi said.
The Sports Broadcasting Signals Bill 2007 passed by the Lok Sabha makes it mandatory for private broadcasters to share live feed of major sports events with Doordarshan and All India Radio on a free to air basis.
The Bill provides for Doordarshan to retransmit the feed on its terrestrial networks and the DTH service.
Nimbus chairman Harish Thawani said the Bill would affect the sport in the long run.
"The DTH is a rich man's medium. Why should the poor subsidise for the rich," Thawani, who also attended the meeting, asked.
"There is also the case of piracy as Doordarshan's signals go to Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Korea. This will directly affect the income of the BCCI and also the associations, the players and even the pension schemes," he added.
Thawani said encryption is technically "an easy job" and it would also help other sports in the future.
"Encryption in 1400 transmitters would take 30 days, and at the most 60 days. It would cost about Rs 10 crore," he said.
"If we do the encryption now, it would also help other sports. Today it is cricket that is affected. Tomorrow it may be football or tennis. Encryption will help all sports in the future."
Both Modi and Thawani reiterated that they have no problems with Doordarshan telecasting the live feed on its terrestrial channel with encryption.
