Why did the IPL face ban of its coverage by news channels?

Question

Why did the IPL face ban of its coverage by news channels?

Answer 1

IPL have entered into agreement with certain channels for telecasting their matches.  Only those channels have the right to telecast IPL matches.

The agreement made by IPL for telecast are with the following channels:

A consortium consisting of India's Sony Television network and Singapore-based World Sport Group secured the global broadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League.

Network Ten has bought the rights to show every game live in Australia on free-to-air television for the next five years at a cost of AU$10 - $15 million.

Setanta Sports have secured the television rights for UK and Ireland in a five-year deal. All 59 games will be shown on their subscription channels.]

Dubai-based Arab Digital Distribution bought the rights to broadcast the IPL in the Middle East by securing a 10 year deal. Games will be broadcasted on ADD's ART Prime Sport, and will be available to viewers in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan and Libya.

Willow TV, Inc. has acquired the broadcasting rights to distribute on television, radio, broadband and Internet, for the IPL in North America.

SuperSport will hold the broadcast rights in South Africa.

Answer 2

The News Broadcasters Association (NBA), is the umbrella body for major Indian television news channels.

The two main issues that were causing a shadow over the coverage was:

1. Accreditation; and

2. Access to match footage

NBA discussed these issues with IPL and IPL has climbed down significantly to assuage the NBA's concerns.

Now the IPL will now provide news channels with around four minutes of free match footage instead of the 30 seconds that was offered previously. Besides, the ban on channels using the footage in archival form has been lifted, with the IPL allowing an archival window of one year.

Each channel will now be given accreditation for one set of crew (journalist and cameraman) at each venue. The IPL had specified earlier that only one pair representing an entire electronic media group would be given accreditation at each venue.

The NBA, based in New Delhi, includes leading news broadcasters such as TV Today, NDTV, Times Global Broadcasting Company, TV18, Global Broadcast News Limited and Zee News.

A statement released by the NBA on Tuesday night had warned of a boycott. It said that the NBA had sought clarifications from the IPL but, instead of receiving a response from either Modi or any of the other members of the IPL's governing council, it received a reply from an official of the Sony Network, which along with World Sports Group, had bought the TV rights for the IPL.

The statement said the NBA's questions didn't fetch a satisfactory response as Sony was "not in a position to discuss matters other than access to footage, and that any offer Sony could make in that regard was limited within the framework of its contract with IPL." On Wednesday, Rao had said that "unless practical considerations are taken care of, it's not possible to cover the IPL".

Now, NBA has dropped its threat to boycott the Indian Premier League (IPL) after a "successful meeting" with Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, on Wednesday night