When the rest of the world has seen everything of soccer that is to be seen, DD will wake up close to midnight on May 31 to redeem its pledge as a Public Service Broadcaster and show select matches of the World Cup soccer for the benefit of its viewers. There will be highlights of the matches later at night.Pushed by the Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj’s assurances in Parliament, egged on by members of Parliament who wanted to know whether they would get to see the matches, Doordarshan has finally said yes to Ten Sports for a deferred telecast of four matches - deferred by six hours that is. “We tried to negotiate with Ten Sports for a live telecast but that did not materialise,” officials in DD said adding it was a no-win deal.Said Chris McDonald CEO Taj Television, “We paid a significant amount to bag the telecast rights and we wanted to keep the exclusivity.” Negotiations are currently on between Ten Sports and DD for telecast fee that the former has to pay to the national broadcaster. The Sharjah-based Abdul Rehman Bukhatir promoted Ten Sports had bagged the telecast rights of the World Cup.
