Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is maintaining a status quo on amending the sports sharing guidelines that lists the sporting events to be shared with national broadcaster Prasar Bharati as the case is pending a final order at the Delhi High Court.

Prasar Bharati owns and operates Doordarshan and All India Radio.

“The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had initiated a proposal to amend Section 3(1) of the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act, 2007 in consultation with various stakeholders so as to enable Prasar Bharati to retransmit the live broadcasting signals on its own terrestrial network and DTH network, and on other television distribution platforms/networks where it is mandatory to broadcast mandatory channels notified by the Union Government under Section 8 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.
“A writ petition challenging provisions of the Act is pending before Hon’ble High Court of Delhi. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has decided to maintain status-quo in the matter,” MIB minister Prakash Javadekar said in Lok Sabha yesterday. 

The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act, 2007 was enacted to provide access to the largest number of listeners and viewers, on a free to air basis, of sporting events of national importance through mandatory sharing of sports broadcasting signals (by private TV channels or any other platform that holds the broadcasting rights) with Prasar Bharati.

Keeping in view the enabling provisions of the Act, MIB has been notifying national or international sporting events, held in India or abroad, as ‘sporting events of national importance’ for the purpose of sharing of the live broadcasting signal, without its advertisements, of these sporting events with Prasar Bharati by the content rights owner or holder. The aim: to make content available to largest number of listeners and viewers, on a free to air basis through Prasar Bharati.