Prime sports action out from most homes

Aug 26, 2012 - Rohit Raj |

Kochi

Tags:

A majority of Keralites are losing live coverage of the ongoing India-New Zealand cricket series, live football action from Barclays Premier League & Spanish La Liga.

Chances are they won’t also see the live telecast of ICC World Twenty20 next month and Champions League Twenty20. The reason: the continuing standoff between Asianet Cable Vision and ESPN-STAR.

For the third consecutive year, the stalemate between the two broadcasting giants has continued and it seems the negotiations have also reached a dead end. At present, ACV has a market share of more than 50 per cent in the state.

According to Mr T.S. Panesar, vice president, Affiliate sales, ESPN, “We have tried our best to resolve the situation, but Asianet Satellite Communication cable does not look really keen to arrive at a mutually acceptable situation.

The terms that Asianet is seeking are not reasonable, and hence do not make commercial sense for us, he added.

However, according to Asianet, negotiations are going on and they are expecting a positive result.
“What ESPN says is wrong, we hope that the issue will be settled in two days,” a top official said.

According to ESPN, ACV wanted the sports channels at a discount from the prevailing rate.
The monthly subscription fee offered by Asianet was much lower than the interim arrangement between the parties that expired in May 2011.

Both parties dragged the issue to the supreme court and subsequently to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT). ESPN is broadcasting Italian Serie A and FA cup as well.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/184036" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-09aed04d05ce33f97572316448085709" value="form-09aed04d05ce33f97572316448085709" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80503210" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>