Sony,IPL fail to break deadlock

Attempts to reach an out of court settlement between the Indian Premier League and Sony after the T20 league terminated...

Attempts to reach an out of court settlement between the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Sony after the T20 league terminated the broadcasters contract last week have failed,sources in both parties confirmed on Friday.

Yes,we havent been able to reach a settlement. It seems now that the IPL will be shown on a different channel, an IPL source told The Indian Express. A source in Multi Screen Media Pvt Ltd (MSM),which has the IPL contract under the Sony umbrella,said that the dispute was over a termination clause in the contract.

Were asking for the termination clause to be removed,and are even willing to pay 50-60 per cent more for that,but its not working out, the MSM official said.

We had agreed on various commercial terms but if we agree to a non-terminable contract we cannot terminate the arrangement even in case of a serious breach. No one can accept that, IPL commissioner Lalit Modi was quoted as saying by cricinfo.com.

Sony had leased the IPLs subcontinent broadcast rights last year from World Sports Group (India),who had won the ten-year bid for $1.02 billion. But their contract was terminated last week by IPL,citing contractual violations in broadcast. The IPL then gave the rights to the World Sports Group (Mauritius). Sony challenged the decision in the Bombay High Court,which had reserved judgment on the matter on March 17,after which the two parties decided to try to settle it out of court.