MUMBAI: The World Series Hockey got a major boost as the Delhi High Court Monday directed International Hockey Federation and its recognised body Hockey India to allow Indian players to participate in the league since it does not clash with their national duties.

The two-member bench comprising acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw were hearing a petition filed by former India hockey captain and coach Joacquim Carvalho seeking to restrain HI from banning players, who participate in the league.

Co-promoted by Nimbus Sport and Indian Hockey Federation, the WSH has been facing continuous onslaught from the FIH and HI, who have been threatening players of ban if they participate in the ?unsanctioned? tournament.

"We are of the opinion that the matter can be placed before the International Hockey Federation (FIH) in the same prospective as narrated by us in the judgment. Clarification can be sought from the FIH. At this time, the FIH can be impressed upon to sanction the event (WSH) if it is still required, more so, when the new dates to be fixed by the organisers are not in any way clashing with the schedule fixed by FIH for international events," the bench said.

It further added, "Domestic events can be arranged in such a manner that it does not come in conflict with preparatory camps or the period when the international events are going to be held."

The bench also ruled that regulations of HI restraining players? participation in WSH would apply "in respect of the commitments made after 31 March 2011", which was agreed by FIH as the cut-off date for all players to participate in the league.

The franchise-based league will be held from 29 February to 2 April featuring eight teams. The organisers, who have finalised owners of five franchises, are yet to announce the owners of three more teams namely Punjab, Chandigarh and Bhopal.
The tournament was originally scheduled to kick off from 17 December to 22 January but had to be reworked to avoid a clash with Hockey Olympic qualifiers, which will be held from 18-26 February in Delhi involving six teams each in men?s and women?s category.

Boasting of a total prize money of $2 million, the WSH will be telecast on Neo Sports.

MUMBAI: For founder-promoter Harish Thawani, fresh trouble is brewing. TheOneAlliance, the brand of the joint venture company between Multi Screen Media (MSM) and Discovery, has terminated the distribution contract of Neo Sports Broadcast?s two sports channels.

Already weakened by the scrapping of BCCI?s rights to India cricket, Neo Sports Broadcast will suffer a huge revenue loss. Sources familiar with the deal said Sony Entertainment Television India (now called MSM) had agreed to pay a minimum guarantee of Rs 2.7 billion net for the three-year distribution of Neo Cricket and Neo Sports.In 2009, Nimbus had renewed through to 2014 its contract with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for Rs 20 billion. After the exit of Colors and the other Viacome18 channels MTV, Vh1 and Nick in mid-2010, Sony found an opportunity and signed up Neo Sports Broadcast?s channels.

For Neo Sports Broadcast, which was tossed out by Star India on review of the high price it had agreed to pay for distribution of the two channels, TheOneAlliance?s decision to end the contract has come as a huge setback. Neo had set up its own distribution team but could not kick in substantial pay revenues. TheOneAlliance came as a blessing as the MG (minimum guarantee) price was high and Neo also kept the digital part of the distribution business.

"We terminated the contract with Neo Broadcast on 3 January. We had specifically mentioned in the contract that the deal would be valid if Neo had the BCCI rights. We have communicated to them about the scrapping of the contract," MSM Discovery president Rajesh Kaul told Indiantelevision.com, without disclosing the size of the contract.

Neo Sports Broadcast COO Prasanna Krishnan declined to comment on the issue.

The BCCI cancelled the deal after Nimbus repeatedly defaulted on payments. India?s cricket board, which has time till mid this year when India plays a home series, is expected to come out with fresh tenders for the remaining tenure of the contract. Nimbus, however, is saved by the courts so far as the BCCI has not been able to encash the Rs 20 billion bank guarantee.

The termination of the contracts with BCCI and TheOneAlliance means that Neo will find bargaining hard if it wants to sell its broadcasting buiness. Indication is that Sony wouldn?t weigh the option of buying out Neo.

"After deciding to end the distribution contract, it is highly unlikely that Sony will look at buying Neo. The Times of India Group may be a contender. Or even Mukesh Ambani via Network18. These are entities who could be looking at entering the sports broadcasting market. But the big debate could be valuation," said a media analyst.

Nimbus Communications had filed, late 2010, the draft offer document with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to raise Rs 3.50 billion via an initial public offering (IPO). Out of the issue proceedings, the company intended to use Rs 1.29 billion for launching of new channels (Neo Cinema and Neo Zindagi) and Rs 132.45 million towards the geographic expansion of Neo Cricket. It also stated that it would use Rs 1.16 billion to obtain bank guarantee and provide security deposit for sports rights. It further intended to use Rs 349.87 million and Rs 500 million of the net issue proceedings for upgradation of Neo infrastructure and acquisition of new broadcasting rights respectively.

For the fiscal ended 31 March 2010, Nimbus Communications had posted an income of Rs 7.33 billion from sales and services, while net loss stood at Rs 1.42 billion. As of March 2010, Nimbus had accumulated loss of Rs 4.98 billion.

"Nimbus is in a tight corner so far as its proposed IPO goes. The stock market has tumbled and it is no season for fresh IPOs," said an analyst at a local broking firm.

So how will the exit of Neo impact MSM? MSM?s gameplan could be to bid aggressively for the BCCI rights and launch a sports channel with the lucrative Indian Premium League (IPL) forming the fulcrum. They already have rights to New Zealand Cricket, FA Cup and NBA.

Some multi-system operators (MSOs) said on condition of anonymity that the payout to TheOneAlliance would fall a bit as they would be left without the sports channels. "But they would be better off as the MG they were paying to Neo was on the higher side. Without the BCCI rights, it doesn?t make sense for them to continue. They will save on the payout while incurring a smaller loss in revenues," said the chief executive of a leading MSO.

Counters Kaul. "All our channels are doing exceedingly well. And with the impending IPL in April-May, the strength of our bouquet will not be impacted with the Neo exit."

MSM will have time to stitch together a strategy with or without a sports channel as the IPL telecast rights will be a big driver for subscription revenues till May-end. "They can get the BCCI rights and launch a sports channel. Alternately, they can add more channels and strengthen their third bouquet," said a media analyst.

(With inputs from ASHWIN PINTO)

NEW DELHI: Neo Cricket and Prasar Bharati have run into a row and blamed each other for the delayed telecast of the first one day international between India and England on Doordarshan.

Neo Cricket, the telecast rights holder, accused Prasar Bharati for delay in giving uplinking clearance, because of which viewers missed the first few balls of the match.

Neo Cricket said they were given the clearance after 2.30 pm only, after they submitted the bank guarantee by 12.37 pm as demanded by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

Neo Cricket said it is "deeply disappointed" by what it believes could be construed to be unreasonable behaviour by Prasar Bharati and intends to approach the Government after consultation with industry bodies with a request that appropriate rules be framed to govern future events such that the process and rules governing the sharing of events with Prasar Bharati are equitable and reasonable.

However, DD sources told indiantelevision.com that the Neo application was not in accordance with the Sports Broadcast Signal (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act 2007. The sources said application was made by Nimbus on 30 August, 45 days before the match in accordance with the Act, but Nimbus had mid-way changed the channel to Neo Cricket and, thus, the mandatory period of 45 days was not met.

Explaining its reasons for the late start of the live telecast of the match, Neo Cricket in a statement late in the evening blamed Doordarshan and the Government for its unreasonable demand of asking for the bank guarantee of Rs 40 million nine days before it was actually due. 

Neo Cricket said that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had sent a letter to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after office hours yesterday stating that "uplink permission would be granted to BCCI only if Neo would submit a bank guarantee by the morning of today that is, in a few business hours to Prasar Bharati."

The statement added that this was despite the fact that Prasar Bharati?s own draft agreement stated that the bank guarantee was required to be furnished five days after the agreement was signed. It said Neo was given no choice but to accede to the demand of Prasar Bharat to ensure that the cricket loving public in India would get to see the cricket match.

Despite submitting the bank guarantee, Neo said, the uplink license to BCCI and Neo Cricket was issued past the match start time of 2:30 pm resulting in no coverage for the first few balls of the match.

Relating the sequence of events, Neo said despite repeated follow ups from Neo Cricket after 30 August, including three letter reminders and multiple phone calls, Prasar Bharati refused to confirm whether it wanted to share the live broadcast of the event. Finally on 9 October, a mere five days before the first match and a whole 40 days after receiving the original notification letter, Prasar Bharati wrote an email to Neo confirming that it wanted to share the live feed of the match and asking for a meeting on the next day to appoint the Revenue Management Company (RMC) for the match.

It may be noted that the RMC is the company responsible for selling advertising on the broadcast of the match on Doordarshan and is appointed by a process in which both Neo and Prasar Bharati are required to make sealed bids.

The RMC meet was held on the evening of 10 October, and awarded to Neo following the sealed bid process. On 12 October, Prasar Bharati submitted a draft agreement to Neo for comments and signature. This draft clearly stated that it wanted Neo to submit the bank guarantee of Rs 40 million within five days of signing of the agreement.

Neo was hoping the agreement would be signed by 13 or 14 October and the guarantee would be submitted on 19 or 20 October. Therefore when the Ministry sent its letter to BCCI, Neo said it "was obviously taken aback by this unreasonable demand of Prasar Bharati and requested a meeting to discuss the issue, and the meeting was held this morning".