Mumbai: You won’t need to spend any expensive sport packages to view the upcoming cricket World Cup 2015 as now, according to a Supreme Court order on Tuesday, World Cup matches will be telecast free on public broadcaster channel, Doordarshan.
This news means that viewers in India will get to watch their team’s World Cup opening match at the Adelaide Oval against arch-nemesis Pakistan on February 15 absolutely free of cost on DD. However, the World Cup starts on February 14 with hosts New Zealand and Australia up against Sri Lanka and England respectively.
The Supreme Court stayed a Delhi High Court order restraining Doordarshan from sharing the feed free with cable operators. "This arrangement that DD showing free feed had been there for the last seven years. Let it continue," a Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose said in an order.
The Delhi High Court barred Doordarshan from sharing the World Cup live feed with cable operators and had declined the plea to quash Prasar Bharti's 2000 notification making it mandatory for cable operators to carry DD National and DD News channels.
The order was passed on the plea of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), ESPN and STAR who had contended that cable TV operators were getting live feeds through DD channels free of cost, resulting in loss of revenue for them.
The Supreme Court has asked ESPN and STAR Sports to submit their suggestions and will take up the case on February 17.
