Changes in Sports Act to accommodate Prasar Bharati’s OTT unlikely: Sources

New Delhi: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting officials on Thursday clarified that the apprehensions of the broadcasters around the ‘mandatory sharing’ of live sports feeds with Prasar Bharati’s upcoming OTT platform do not hold any grounds.

Broadcasters have expressed their fear that they will be forced to share live sports feeds with the pubcaster's OTT platform through certain amendments in the Sports Broadcasting Signals Act.

The Sports Broadcasting Signals Act of 2007, mandates that private broadcasters, having the rights to broadcasting sporting events of national importance, must share the live broadcasting signals of such events with the public broadcaster.

While the Sports Act is limited to broadcasting, private broadcasters accused Prasar Bharati of attempting to broaden the scope of the act in the past.

The addition of digital media in the sports act would further hurt broadcasters as content sharing would become mandatory even on over-the-top (OTT) platforms, streaming sports content.

The I&B ministry officials told BestMediaInfo.com that there would be no change in the Sports Act to accommodate Prasar Bharati’s OTT platform.

Recently, Prasar Bharati wrote broadcasters to carry their channels on Prasar Bharati’s OTT platform.

However, there was no clarity around the commercial arrangement between the private and public broadcaster.

The I&B officials further added that the proposal to private broadcasters to share content cannot be binding.

“Four to five years ago, there was an attempt to get the word ‘digital’ inserted in the Sports Act from Prasar Bharati,” claimed a senior broadcast executive.

Additionally, a couple of years ago, an unnamed broadcaster’s live sports content was put out on Prasar Bharati Sports YouTube channel which was eventually taken down.

A broadcaster has to pay approximately Rs 80-90 crore for a T20 match to cricket regulatory bodies, whereas, for a test match or one-day international (ODI) cricket match, the cost is approximately Rs 40-80 crore.

If made mandatory, content sharing would result in a huge loss for digital rights holders, said an industry veteran.

Broadcasters recoup the high investment made in acquiring media rights through subscription and advertising revenue.

The majority of revenue comes on the back of advertising revenue.

Over the past couple of years, two top OTT players – JioCinema and Hotstar – made cricket free for the consumer for advertising revenue.

“Mandatory sharing will lead to the loss of advertisers to the pubcaster’s OTT,” said the veteran.

The amendment was proposed under the garb of addressing the evolving media landscape by officially including DD's upcoming OTT platform.

The amendment was designed to clarify the roles and rights of various stakeholders in the sports media ecosystem, ensuring that the content distribution rules were up-to-date with contemporary media practices.

According to a report by YouGov, nearly half of the Indian urban population (45%) claim that they have subscribed to a sports platform or service to gain access to exclusive sports content, more than those who have not (39%).

Moreover, more than three-quarters of urban Indians (77%) report that the subscription has encouraged them to consume more sports content.