Channels off air, ESPN to take Tata Sky to court

Fri, Jun 6 02:44 AM

ESPN Software India on Thursday said it would drag direct-to-home service provider Tata Sky to court for switching off its sports channels ESPN, Star Sports and Star Cricket from its most popular bouquet of 110-channel Super Saver pack, for a subscription fee of Rs 300 per month. Tata Sky was ready to fight the broadcaster in the court, a spokesperson said.

Following the expiry of a July 2006 agreement between ESPN and Tata Sky on telecast of uninterrupted signals of the sports channels for a fixed fee in March, the two companies failed to wrap up a deal even after two months of negotiations on commercial terms for extending the pact.

As per the terms of the original deal, Tata Sky paid a fixed fee to ESPN for airing its channels in the Super Saver scheme. However, since the inception of the agreement Tata Sky's subscriber base has grown multifold to touch the 2 million mark and it is now seeking a better deal from ESPN.

ESPN Software India Managing Director R C Venkateish said, "To extract more money from subscribers, Tata Sky has blacked us out." The DTH player recently removed eight channels from its Super Saver scheme, including those of ESPN, Ten Sports and BBC, which together cost Rs 85. In doing so, it reduced the price of its Super Saver scheme to Rs 260. The Tata Sky move comes in time for the Euro 2008 that is kicking off on Saturday.

Tata Sky CEO Vikram Kaushik said it was offering ESPN's sports channels if subscribers wanted them for a price over the above Rs 260 it charged for the Super Saver scheme. "It was unfair that 95 per cent of subscribers who do not watch sports subsidise the remaining 5 per cent of subscribers interested in niche western channels. The idea is to give consumers a wide choice," he said.

Venkateish said Tata Sky could have offered subscribers an option to unsubscribe the sports channels if they did not want them, instead of removing the channels from the bouquet. "The manner in which the company cut us off violates the norms of good business practice and several other laws."

Kaushik said all broadcasters had agreed to TRAI's guidelines on offering customers a-la-carte choice of channels. "ESPN had been dragging its feet on the issue for far too long," he said, referring to the two-month long negotiation. "Nevertheless, we discussed giving consumers the option to unsubscribe, as suggested by ESPN," he said.

While ESPN claimed that it was willing to give "significant discounts" to Tata Sky for keeping its channels in the Super Saver scheme, the latter said that the broadcaster's offer was conditional. "ESPN put a clause stating that discounts will be available only if our subscriber base crossed 2.5 million. The demand was thrice the amount we paid during the period when the agreement was on," said Kaushik.

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