Nimbus will share 145;live146; feed now

The impasseacute; is over. Nimbus Communications has offered to share live feed of Saturday8217;s ODI versus Sri Lanka and 8216;national sporting events8217; with national broadcaster Doordarshan.

The impasseacute; is over. Nimbus Communications has offered to share live feed of Saturday8217;s ODI versus Sri Lanka and 8216;national sporting events8217; with national broadcaster Doordarshan.

This has come about following threats in the form of an ordinance, a possible show-cause notice to be sent by Prasar Bharti, authorised by the I038;B ministry threatening to cancel its licence, and now a Delhi High Court order.

The tough posturing of Information 038; Broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi has finally paid off.

So what about that notice to Nimbus threatening to cancel its uplinking-downlinking licence and a fine of Rs 1 crore in line with the ordinance? 8220;It would be kept in abeyance till such time that Parliament can pass the bill,8221; the order said.

The court has asked the government to keep the showcause notice hanging till the next hearing on March 9, by which time Dasmunsi is confident that 8220;the bill will be passed, making sharing of live feed of any sporting event, considered to be of national importance by the government, mandatory in an Act of Parliament.8221;

Earlier in the day, Nimbus sought the court8217;s protection from the showcause notice threatening to cancel operating licence. The private broadcaster bought

the cricket telecast rights from the BCCI for a whopping sum.

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After deferring the hearing during the last Indo-Sri Lankan match, today the Delhi High Court directed Nimbus to 8220;share live feed8221; of the last match of the Indo-Sri Lankan series with the public broadcaster.

Despite promulgation of the ordinance, Nimbus had been providing a seven-minute delayed feed of the previous ODI matches, putting the government in an embarrassing fix.

8220;We could have taken tougher action against them Nimbus. Instead, we sought their reply before taking any action8221;, said the minister. 8220;We did everything for the benefit of the DD viewers,8217;8217; he added.