Just ahead of 2018 Men's Hockey World Cup Tournament, the ministry of information & broadcasting (I&B) has notified that all matches as events of national importance, making it mandatory for Star India to share live feeds of the entire tournament with Doordarshan at no cost as mandated by the Sports Act, 2007.
This is the latest trigger in the battle between private broadcasters and the government over the controversial Sports Act, which the I&B ministry now seeks to amend to make sporting events accessible to larger set of people.
So why is the government's objective facing a backlash? How would the proposed amendment affect private broadcasters and the market for sporting events? CNBC-TV18's managing editor, Shereen Bhan, discusses the issue with Atul Pande, chief managing director, Sports & Live Media Entertainment; Nandan Kamath, principal lawyer at LawNK and Chintamani Rao, independent media consultant.