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Following yesterday‘s announcement made by B4U Networks that it had secured the terrestrial telecast rights for the FIFA soccer World Cup from Taj Sports, the promoter company of sports channel Ten Sports, there has been a clarification issued.
Peter Hutton, V-P Programming, Ten Sports, said today: "It would be incorrect to say that B4U has the terrestrial rights to the World Cup. Our discussions with them are limited to the airtime sales of highlights being shown after 11 pm on Doordarshan and there is no deal as yet with Doordarshan to show such highlights."
When contacted Debashish Dey, chief distribution officer, B4U, stated that "we have acquired the rights for a six-hour deferred terrestrial telecast on Doordarshan of four matches and the opening and closing ceremonies." The matches that will be shown in their entirety are the opening match, the two semi-finals and the finals. For the other 60 matches that will be played during the tournament, one-hour highlight capsules would be aired at 11 pm, Dey said. "In all probability we will be buying 11-12 pm slots on DD and telecasting the highlights," he added.
