This time, Prasar Bharati has set off a controversy by announcing an annual licence fee of Rs 25 lakh for granting non-exclusive Internet rights of the BCCI cricket events for this calendar year. Say officials working with Internet sites that the scheme to award Internet rights for a hefty fee of Rs 25 lakh will be a non-starter.

Prasar Bharati, which acquired its rights from the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI), has decided to sell these further to Internet companies on a non-exclusive basis.

According to Mr Gulu Ezekiel, head of sports, Indya.com, the Prasar Bharati decision to grant Internet rights is meaningless for several reasons. First, since most Internet sites of India are not broadband-enabled, they can't show a live Webcast of the cricket matches. So, it won't make any sense for these dotcoms to buy coverage rights for Rs 25 lakh and still not show the event live. Second, granting of non-exclusive rights is illogical, he says. Finally, Rs 25 lakh is a hefty sum for the kind of rights that are being allotted to these dotcoms. According to Mr Ezekiel, Internet companies won't be willing to pay even Re 1 for non-exclusive rights.

Agrees another dotcom journalist working with Wahindia.com. He says that no Website would pay Rs 25 lakh for non-exclusive rights. Continued on Page IILicence fee for Net rights of BCCI events too steep at Rs 25 lakh: DotcomsHe says: ``Our correspondent will anyway cover the matches. Since our reports our mostly text-based, it doesn't make sense to buy packages relating to score-board, analysis and stills for Rs 25 lakh.''

Mr G Rajaraman, Editor, Cricketnext.com, says that it's not the first time that Prasar Bharati is offering this deal. Last year also it had offered to sell BCCI rights to Internet companies, but there were no takers, he says. However, Mr Rajaraman says that the pricing by Prasar Bharati would not have appeared steep if it was series by series, instead of making it a package for all the matches in a year. ``Looking at the way the dotcom economy is now, I'm not sure that any Internet company would invest Rs 25 lakh for these rights.''

Mr Rajaraman points out that Indian Websites cover sport events, including cricket matches, like newspapers. ``There's no ball-by-ball coverage as in television.'' The dotcom coverage of cricket matches includes only text and still pictures, he says, and that can be done without buying Internet rights.According to Prasar Bharati, the Internet rights would be for 27 days of international cricket and 21 days of national cricket matches played in India and organised by the BCCI. These rights will be available on a yearly basis on an annual licence fee of Rs 25 lakh. This non-exclusive licence is for score-board, analysis, graphics, stills up to 30 frames per minute from the live signal, and live audio interviews. But, if the licence-holder wants to have live/delayed streaming of audio/video after obtaining the rights from Prasar Bharati, he would have to approach the multimedia right-holder for the same.