NEW DELHI, SEPT 27: What is Rs 15 crore between two countries which share a bloody relationship? When it comes to securing the rights to the grandest sporting spectacle of all times, this amount demanded by the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union could have either allowed or debarred countries from telecasting the Olympic events - live.While it is learnt that member countries Pakistan and Sri Lanka expressed their inability to pay up, India, after registering a token protest at Pakistan's action, went ahead and deposited the amount. In doing so, India has actually ended up bailing out Pakistan Television by enabling its viewers to see the event.``We realised it would have looked extremely churlish on our part to have refused to pay up,'' said a senior official of the Prasar Bharati Corporation.The Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union, which comprises national broadcasters, acts as a facilitator in securing rights to various sports events from authorities, including the International Olympic Committee which has the rights over the Olympic event. The Union had fixed the telecast amount at Rs 15 crore, up nearly Rs 10 crore from the last Olympic telecast fee.At a meeting held in Sydney in October, member countries Pakistan and Sri Lanka, citing economic reasons, had expressed their inability to pay up.India, represented by senior members of the Prasar Bharati Corporation, after raising objections to being unfairly taxed for other members' faults, decided to pay up, secure in the knowledge that they would recover the money from advertisers and its newly encrypted Sports channel. ``The amount is fixed on the basis of the viewership commanded by public broadcasters,'' a senior official said. ``As a public broadcaster, we wanted to reach our audience through a judicious mix of pay and free channel,'' another official said.While officials acknowledge that they secured the rights to the event by virtue of being a national broadcaster, claiming a viewership of nearly 70 million homes, a major chunk of their viewership falling in Delhi and neighbouring areas has been denied the right to see the events following a three-day blackout call by cable operators.
