The commencement of the 11th edition of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) is just three days away and according to the latest reports of TOI, and there is a cloud of uncertainty over broadcasting IPL matches on television. Till late Wednesday evening, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and IPL’s producer-broadcasters Star India had not got the permission to uplink the matches.
A full broadcast trial for events of such magnitude is a norm, and that is just 24 hours away. In this situation of panic, the concerned BCCI official has written a letter to Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday about the continued delay.
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Amitabh Choudhary, acting secretary, BCCI, wrote in his letter to Irani: “We’re given to understand that the permission has not been granted yet. Given that we’re close to the event, we request your kind intervention in ensuring that the permission is granted urgently to ensure that our Indian audiences are able to view and enjoy the event and to prevent significant commercial losses to the parties involved.”
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The letter adds: “The Event is scheduled to commence on April 17, 2018, and we understand Star India Private Limited has made a compliant application to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for permission for temporary live uplinking of the Event from 06 April 2018.”
BCCI’s letter is a follow-up of a compliant application that was filed by Star India Pvt Ltd earlier this year. The earlier application was for permission to temporarily live uplink the cash-rich league’s 11th edition that gets underway this weekend.
Last India, Star India bagged the IPL broadcasting rights for a whopping price of ₹16,325 crores, are also the producers of the IPL. Generally, the producer takes care of getting all the permissions for broadcasting matches. As per the reports in Mumbai Mirror, A text message to Irani remained unanswered, but her PA, however, said one should contact the ministry office on Thursday morning.
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Star officials, involved in the bidding war for the India cricket rights, could not be contacted for a comment. The IPL bidding had attracted bids from various parties in India and abroad. Even, Facebook had made an extraordinary bid of ₹3900 cr bid for the digital rights.
