BCCI gets green signal for telecast bids

The Delhi High Court has allowed the Indian board to open technical bids to grant telecast rights in India for the next four years after Zee Telefilms, one of the bidders, said it had no objection to it.

A division bench, comprising Justice BA Khan and MB Lokur, allowed the board to open technical bids to decide the eligibility of the bidders, including Zee Telefilms, and asked the board not to disclose the outcome. The BCCI has been asked to inform the outcome to the court on October 19, when the matters comes up for further hearing.

On behalf of the BCCI, senior counsel Soli Sorabji and AM Singhvi requested the bench to allow opening of the bids, saying that there was not much time left to decide the issue ahead of the home series against Sri Lanka, scheduled to begin on October 25.

Zee had moved the court on August 22 seeking direction to the BCCI to consider it for the bid of telecasting matches between October 2005 and September 2009. It also alleged that the tender favoured only ESPN Star Sports. The BCCI had asked bids from channels having experience in telecasting live matches in the last three years, as opposed to the two-year qualification it has asked for in the past. The last date for submission of the bids was September 26.

However, the BCCI maintained that it only wanted bids from channels which had a three-year experience as a direct original licensee from any event owner of telecasting live international matches in each of the three years - 2002, 2003 and 2004 - to bid for the telecast rights.