Star India loses battle in Supreme Court: Private broadcasters have to share clean feed with Prasar Bharti [Read judgment]

The Supreme Court today dismissed an appeal filed by Star India limited against a judgment of the Delhi High Court in a dispute regarding nuances of feed sharing with Prasar Bharti..The judgment was delivered by Justices AK Sikri and PC Pant. Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi had represented Star along with advocate Saikrishna Rajagopal..The dispute has its genesis in the compulsory feed sharing requirement with national broadcaster Prasar Bharti as mandated by the Sports Broadcast Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Rules, 2007. As per the said Rules, private broadcasters have to share feed of sporting events of national importance with Prasar Bharti..Prasar Bharti had demanded such feed given to them by broadcasters like Star India, should be free from any advertisements or logos. Star, however, contended that they can only remove the advertisement inserted by them and not the logos etc which organisers like ICC or BCCI inserts or embeds..The Court had made ICC also a party to the proceedings and considered its arguments before delivering its judgment..With this judgment, private broadcasters will now have to share raw/ clean feed with Prasar Bharti free from all commercials and other logos..Image taken from here.