The BCCI and Prasar Bharti have signed an agreement giving the terrestrial and satellite rights for the telecast of all the Test matches and one-day internationals in the coming months involving India, Australia, South Africa and Pakistan to the public broadcaster.
The agreement was signed on Sunday night, Prasar Bharti CEO K S Sarma said, adding that the development followed talks with BCCI officials, including Jagmohan Dalmiya
"I tried to convince BCCI that once they give (the telecast rights) to DD there is no need to giving (them) to any private channel in the country due to the reach of public broadcaster," he said.
As per the agreement, DD will pay Rs three crore per day for the Test matches and seven crore for one dayers. The overall agreement will be to the tune of 100 crore, Sarma said.
As soon as the immediate problem of these matches has been resolved there will be talks between the two for the telecast rights of matches spread over the next two years, he said.
The controversy over cricket rights was stirred up after ESPN-Star Sports filed an appeal against the BCCI's decision to grant telecast rights for all cricket matches played in India between 2004-2008 to Zee Telefilms Ltd, prompting the BCCI to cancel the entire tender process.
On September 30, the BCCI had announced that it would arrange for live coverage of the upcoming tournaments with the help of Ten Sports and Sony Entertainment Network.
Aggrieved over BCCI's decision, Prasar Bharti on Friday said it would challenge the decision in Supreme Court.
Asked whether Prasar Bharti has dropped plans to approach to approach the Supreme Court on the matter, Sarma said it will implead itself as a party in the telecast rights case on Monday so as to avoid any problems in the future.
He said the agreement was signed by BCCI Secretary S K Nair and DD's Additional Director General, Administration, Sanjeev Nanda.
Earlier, Sarma claimed that Prasar Bharti had bid higher than Sony in the initial bids invited by BCCI for telecast rights.
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