TV dispute will not affect coverage - PCB

The Pakistan Cricket Board has stressed that the ongoing dispute between the two companies who own joint rights to broadcast Pakistan's international cricket will not affect local viewers' ability to watch the upcoming tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, and the Test series against Sri Lanka that follows.

Reports in several newspapers yesterday suggested that the broadcast of the matches was in jeopardy after the Dubai-based Ten Sports initiated legal proceedings against ARY Digital. The two parties paid the PCB US$43million last year for a five-year contract to show all international matches. The Board expressed concern over the dispute, although it stressed that it remained a neutral party and was not cited for any violations of contractual obligations by either broadcaster, although it would be willing to act as a mediator.

But Abbas Zaidi, a PCB official, confirmed to Wisden Cricinfo that "There is no possibility that the matches will not be shown. The parties involved are all reasonable and I am sure they will come to a solution that pleases everybody."

Zaidi added: "We don't want to make any other comment on the nature of the dispute, it is a legal issue and it is a matter for the courts to decide." Some reports had alleged that the PCB might look for alternative broadcasters if the dispute threatened to go unresolved, but Zaidi said that he had been misquoted in some newspapers. "I said no such thing, and we are confident they will be able to sort this out."

The News, a Karachi-based daily, reported today that an official spokesman for one of the channels had also played down fears that the matches would not be broadcast. The newspaper quoted him as saying, "The broadcast will not be affected at all by our problems. All the matches would be telecast as per schedule. We are committed to abiding by our contract with the Pakistan Cricket Board. The dispute will now be decided in the court."

The nature of the dispute, it seems, lies in the agreement. ARY entered into the partnership with Ten Sports in order to benefit from their cricket expertise and financial muscle, in trying to establish a presence in the Asian market. Ten Sports, meanwhile, is setting its sights on the European market, where ARY is already well established.

An industry source explained: "The joint agreement covers basically those matches held in Pakistan, organised by the PCB. They are broadcast simultaneously off the same feed. But for the recent tri-nation tournament in Holland, Sony Setmax bought the rights and then sold them to ARY Digital. Setmax and Ten Sports are competitors in India, and Ten were not happy, after having failed to get the rights for the tri-nation tournament, that ARY bought them off their competitor. Their partnership is based on mutual trust - that Ten Sports will help ARY out in Asia and ARY will assist them in Europe - and Ten Sports feel that their trust has been breached to an extent, by ARY dealing with their competitor." The source added that while this doesn't form the central basis of the ensuing legal proceedings, it is the underlying reason for what has occurred.

This dispute is reminiscent of the broadcast-rights dispute between Pakistan TV (the state broadcaster) and GEO TV, a local cable channel, last November. That disagreement led to the first one-day international between Pakistan and New Zealand not being broadcast - the first time in Pakistan's television history that a home international was not shown live. At the time, the PCB was forced to bear the brunt of much of the criticism for the fiasco, and it was suggested by some at the time that the PCB's then-chairman Tauqir Zia was forced to step down due, in part, to the dispute.