Govt asks private broadcasters to share signals of cricket matches with Doordarshan

New Delhi: In a fan-friendly move, the Central Government has directed all private broadcasters to share signals with Doordarshan of all One-Day International (ODI) and Twenty-20 International (T20I) matches played by the national men's cricket team.

The directive also advised rights holders to share the signals of "those test matches which are considered of high public interest by the Centre" with the public broadcaster. This is in addition to the semi-finals and finals of Men’s World Cup and ICC Championship Trophy.

The notification has been issued by the Government under Section 2 (1) of the Act read with Rule 6(1) of the Sports Broadcast Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Rules 2007.

And a Gazette notification has been issued on October 22, and the same has been placed in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry website.

It further stated that the new directive is in supersession of a earlier notification made on August 22, 2012.

According to reports, the government issued the notification in view of some cases filed earlier in the different courts and to avoid further litigation with regard to sharing the feed with All India Radio and Doordarshan with regard to cricket.

India are currently playing New Zealand in a bilateral series with the last and final match scheduled to play at Visakhapatnam on Saturday.

It will be followed by series against England, Bangladesh and Australia in what would be a long home cricket season.