Nandy pulls strings, can't stop DD its Rs 7.5 crore

Nandy pulls strings, can't stop DD its Rs 7.5 crore
HARISH GUPTA

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20: Doordarshan put its foot down today. It encashed the Rs 7.5-crore worth bank guarantees that Shiv Sena MP Pritish Nandy had given to secure the Rs 15-crore Olympics marketing contract.

DD officials quietly flew this morning to Mumbai and when they presented the guarantees at the ANZ Grindlays Bank this morning, Nandy tried hard, even getting his chief Bal Thackeray to speak to I&B Minister Arun Jaitley and Prasar Bharati CEO Rajiv Rattan Shah.

Nandy claimed that he didn't have exclusive marketing rights since cable operators in Calcutta, Chennai and in some other parts of the country were downloading the event from other satellites. Prasar Bharaticountered by saying that DD-I is showing the event for seven hours while DD-II for eight hours and their reach is 70 million and 50million homes respectively. DD Sports is the cable channel which has been converted into a pay channel. If there are operators who aredownloading the event without DD's permission, they would be prosecutedunder the law. Nandy is said to have threatened to sue DD.