India’s national broadcaster Doordarshan is willing to share the revenue generated through the telecast of sporting events with sports federations after deducting the production cost, said Prasar Bharati chairman Navneet Kumar Sehgal yesterday in New Delhi.

Generating revenue is one of the most difficult tasks for National Sports Federations (NSFs) of lesser-known sports in India, and Prasar Bharati‘s (DD’s parent) initiative to telecast their events and share the proceeds could help the federations become self-sufficient to an extent.

“Our revenue model is like, whatever we earn out of showing these sports activities, we will first deduct our production cost. And then (we will) share the revenue with the sports association,” a PTI report quoted Sehgal (third from left in the picture) as saying.

“In this case, we will share the extra revenue with the Handball Association of India,” said Sehgal after signing the memorandum of understanding with the Handball Association of India (HAI) to telecast their events on Doordarshan.

“So, this way the sports association also gets some revenue. Otherwise, normally, what used to happen was that, except for a few sports, others used to be ignored. But now (we) have a commitment that whatever we earn out of that (telecast), we will first deduct our production cost and the remaining we will share with them (NSFs).

“But the thing is, the visibility of these (lesser-known) sports is not there in the rural areas, particularly rural and semi-urban areas. And Doordarshan has a very big presence in these areas.

“And to make these sports (popular), we have already signed an agreement with Hockey India and we are covering their national championships… and their (Hockey India) League also,” added Sehgal, according to the PTI report.

He added that Prasar Bharati is also in talks with the Badminton Association of India and the Professional Golf Tour of India  to telecast their events.

Meanwhile, a post yesterday on X by Doordarshan Sports stated that the agreement with HAI is for three years under which Prasar Bharati will produce and broadcast all international and national handball events organised by HAI on DD Sports, national broadcaster’s streaming platform WAVES OTT and others platforms managed by it.