The Delhi High Court on This Friday, November 25, disregarded Amazon’s plea to grab the exclusive media right to telecast the ongoing cricket matches between New Zealand and India.
Amazon has bought the broadcast rights of the New Zealand vs India series in the Indian subcontinent and they accused TDSAT of letting the private cable operators and Direct To Home (DTH) operators broadcast the matches without buying the official rights.
The company bought the rights from New Zealand Cricket (NZC) allowing them to telecast the home games of New Zealand till the 2025-26 season.
All the games are supposed to get broadcast on Amazon Prime. India’s recent tour is also getting broadcast on DD Sports. Amazon has licensed the broadcast to the government-owned channel.
Amazon went to court, claiming that the TDSAT judgment diminished its (Amazon’s) rights because all independent cable and DTH providers are permitted to retransmit the signal they jointly share with Prasar Bharti.
Prasar Bharti owns DD Sports which has eventually allowed the retransmission of the matches as the matches were shown on DD Free Dish and other private platforms too. This made the company very furious and they complained against TDSAT but Justice Yashwant Varma dismissed the case.
“Completely misapplying the scope of Section 8 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, which is an obligation on private cable operators to carry Doordarshan channels, the Ld. TDSAT has exalted the obligation of cable operators into a right which they can seek and enforce against Prasar Bharati as well as impinge upon third party Intellectual Property Rights.” the plea argued in the court.
It further stated that the ruling would essentially legalise infringement and theft of Amazon’s intellectual property.
The first match between New Zealand and India was won by the former by 7 wickets.
