Prasar Bharati, Cricket and a Free Lunch - Not!

Expecting Prasar Bharti to screen test matches on Doordarshan; is it our way of seeking refuge in socialistic benefits, when being chased by capitalistic behemoths? I would nod my head in agreement and say, “yes it is.”

After all whether we like it or not, Doordarshan is a free lunch, where unlike the BBC in Britain, we don’t pay a license fee to the public broadcaster. In England, every citizen possessing a radio or television is expected to pay a license fee to the BBC. But aren’t we doing the same in our telecom sector, each of the private players pays an Access Deficit Fee to the state carrier – BSNL, for provision of rural connectivity. It is common knowledge that this is passed on to the end user, who probably doesn’t complain much, thanks to the cut-throat competition that has resulted in a geography which boasts of the lowest telecom tariffs. Worthy of mention here is the strategy adopted by Virgin Mobile, a new player in the telecom space. They claim to pay you one tenth of a rupee for every minute of an incoming call. And to think, when you are in Big Brother’s land you would wonder why you are having to pay for an incoming call – The merits of a fledgling market!

Back to the rant. The same Prasar Bharati that would fight in Madras High Court with some of these broadcasting companies, the same Prasar Bharati that would push the parliament for legislations about what it called “Sporting events of National Interest,” this time folded without giving a fight. This time it is not fighting with the Nimbus promoted Neo Sports, for broadcasting the India South Africa series.

The socialist in me is crying foul.

One, I feel the broadcasting rights in our country are extremely overrated. I don’t have any numbers with me, but the amount that broadcasting rights for these matches fetch can be only described as vulgarly excessive.

Two, the way every inch of the television space is littered with advertisements in an effort to monetize every pixel, can just be described as obscene. I didn’t complain, when advertisements between overs overshot the available time. I didn’t complain when a logo of a sponsor was embedded into the on-screen graphics. I didn’t complain when another graphics appeared for a replay, cutting off one corner of the screen. And then another one appeared, and then one more.

Today when I see a ticker/advertisement ticking over the top end of the screen taking along with it a good amount of the players’ faces, I want to look away from the game. The game doesn’t deserve me anymore.

The only way, this overrated broadcasting bubble would have been deflated to a more manageable size would have been if Prasar Bharati had put in a fight for the free signal. The companies would realize that it is not so profitable, if they were to share the signal with the state broadcaster.

Before I get onto how the bubble is only being inflated further by the emergence of the two cricketing leagues, I think I should stop and ask – Does your cable operator provide Neo Sports? Maybe he says it's overpriced. Maybe he says you would have to pay some amount more by way of monthly subscription. Maybe he is the sort who pilfers a signal and ensures that you get to watch the game. Maybe I dream of a day when I can get to see a cricket match, with fences for boundaries unlike advertising hoardings, where the ground is of green grass not painted with the motifs of some corporation and maybe a telecast sans that annoying commercial.

But alas! Like that cliché goes – There ain't nothing called a free lunch!