Zee rejects plan for fresh bids, demands rights for $260m

Zee TV has refused to accept the Bombay High Court’s suggestion to call for fresh bids for cricket telecast rights, setting the stage f...

Zee TV has refused to accept the Bombay High Court’s suggestion to call for fresh bids for cricket telecast rights, setting the stage for a legal battle.

Zee has instead demanded that the court grant it the telecast rights for international cricket in India for $260 million, which was its original bid instead of the re-negotiated price of $308 million.

‘‘Zee Telefilms board firmly decided against rebidding…we have served copies of our affidavit on the parties to the writ petition pending before the divisional bench,’’ said a company release today.

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Zee filed an affidavit late in the day on Monday to inform the high court and ESPN-Star Sports (ESS) of its position. The matter will come up for hearing on Thursday. Two other respondents — the Union Sports Ministry and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) — also submitted affidavits today. While the Ministry said it had no role in the dispute, the BCCI through joint-secretary Ratnakar Shetty replied to allegations made by ESS in the last hearing.

ESS took the dispute to court on September 6 after BCCI awarded the rights conditionally to Zee. The court had then asked Zee to communicate its decision on the issue of having fresh bids on September 14. If Zee was agreeable to fresh bids, the judges had said they would open them the next day (September 15) and award rights to the highest bidder. If Zee did not agree for re-bidding, the arguments would come up on September 16.

The latest turn of events could leave the BCCI in a tight spot. In just 20 days from now, the first Test against Australia is scheduled to begin on October 6 and there is still no official broadcaster.

The Zee affidavit listed three areas of contention in the dispute over telecast rights: the role of BCCI, role of the auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and the writ petition filed by ESS.

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Zee claims BCCI violated guidelines in the tender process formulated by the CVC in 2001. Zee had emerged the highest bidder and say they ought to have been given right of refusal. Instead, it says, BCCI dealt with ESS as well.

Quoting from a letter from PwC director Deepak Kapoor to ESS, Zee says it shows the auditors in poor light. PwC wrote on September 6 it had only tabulated ‘‘the financial prices’’ in the bids. “We were not required to and we did not evaluate whether the entities were qualified to participate or not.”

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