News channels want more match coverage passes for their crews...
The Indian Premier League (IPL) has sought a meeting with the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) after the umbrella body for major national news channels decided to put its coverage of the IPL on hold from Tuesday midnight until there is a resolution to problems related to coverage it had raised with league officials.
"The IPL officials have asked for a meeting to discuss the issue and we are doing that late on Wednesday night," Chintamani Rao, the spokesman for NBA, told Cricinfo.
Rao, the chief executive of Times Now channel, said two main issues need to be addressed by the IPL and they relate to accreditation guidelines and access to footage. "Unless practical considerations are taken care of, it's not possible for us to cover the IPL," he said.
It's understood that the channels are unhappy about the exorbitant rates that are being charged for news clips and also the stipulation that footage can't be used in archival form. They also want more match coverage passes for their crew after the IPL specified on Tuesday that only one pair [journalist and cameraman] representing an electronic media group would be given accreditation at each venue for the Twenty20 tournament starting April 18.
"The fundamental issue is that our relationship with the event organisers is naturally symbiotic," Rao said. "The sporting event needs TV coverage; it's not as if we live off sporting events. It's not as if TV channels are hungry for coverage. The event owners should be hungry for coverage. I don't see how the IPL and its sponsors can get proper value if they don't get TV coverage. We are not doing anybody any favours."
A statement released by the NBA on Tuesday night said it sought clarifications from the IPL but, instead of receiving a response from either Lalit Modi, the IPL's chairman and commissioner, or any of the other members of the IPL's governing council, it instead received a reply from an official of the Sony Network, which along with World Sports Group had bought the TV rights for the IPL.
| The sporting event needs TV coverage; it's not as if we live off sporting events. It's not as if TV channels are hungry for coverage. The event owners should be hungry for coverage. NBA spokesman | |||
The statement said the NBA's questions didn't fetch a satisfactory response as Sony was "not in a position to discuss matters other than access to footage, and that any offer Sony could make in that regard was limited within the framework of its contract with IPL."
"As Sony was by its own admission neither authorised nor competent to deal with the subject comprehensively, and moreover may reasonably be assumed to have a direct conflict of interest in extending use rights to television news channels, it is unacceptable to us to deal with them in this matter," the NBA said.
The NBA, based in New Delhi, includes leading the news broadcasters such as TV Today, NDTV, Times Global Broadcasting Company, TV18, Global Broadcast News Limited and Zee News.
Indian Premeir League
Posts
