superdudebuddy
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Indian broadcasters and the Pak conundrum
The scrap between Geo TV and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) once again outlines the fragility of the sports broadcasting business in Pakistan and how it continues to be dependent on the Indian broadcasting milieu. For the past eight-odd years, global cricket broadcasting rights in Pakistan have been held by Ten Sports, and they have done a stellar job with producing and distributing cricket across the world.
The contract got over in the middle of last year, and since then series contracts have been allotted on a specific basis, as the PCB has had legal issues to contend with and do not have the authority to enter into long-term deals. Consequently, after the contract got over, the two series were awarded to Ten Sports and Geo TV respectively.
It appears that Geo has been unable to honour the financial terms of the deal, leading to the fracas between them and PCB with the bank guarantee being called and the usual recriminations one sees in the media on the other side of the border.
One of the primary reasons why broadcasters struggle to make local revenue in Pakistan is the overwhelming presence of Indian channels in that country.
No cable operator today can operate unless he puts the larger Indian bouquets on his network, and as of last count, there were more than five million Indian satellite dishes in Pakistan. Almost all of this business is pirated, and there is significant revenue loss to the broadcasters in the host country.
Read Full Here
The scrap between Geo TV and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) once again outlines the fragility of the sports broadcasting business in Pakistan and how it continues to be dependent on the Indian broadcasting milieu. For the past eight-odd years, global cricket broadcasting rights in Pakistan have been held by Ten Sports, and they have done a stellar job with producing and distributing cricket across the world.
The contract got over in the middle of last year, and since then series contracts have been allotted on a specific basis, as the PCB has had legal issues to contend with and do not have the authority to enter into long-term deals. Consequently, after the contract got over, the two series were awarded to Ten Sports and Geo TV respectively.
It appears that Geo has been unable to honour the financial terms of the deal, leading to the fracas between them and PCB with the bank guarantee being called and the usual recriminations one sees in the media on the other side of the border.
One of the primary reasons why broadcasters struggle to make local revenue in Pakistan is the overwhelming presence of Indian channels in that country.
No cable operator today can operate unless he puts the larger Indian bouquets on his network, and as of last count, there were more than five million Indian satellite dishes in Pakistan. Almost all of this business is pirated, and there is significant revenue loss to the broadcasters in the host country.
Read Full Here