Nimbus moves court against feed share

Nimbus Communication Ltd on Monday approached the Delhi high court challenging the government's uplinking guidelines that makes it mandatory to share its feed with public broadcaster Prasar Bharati.

The matter was mentioned by Nimbus' counsel Gopal Jain before a bench, headed by Chief Justice M K Sharma, seeking stay of the uplinking guidelines. However, the bench fixed the hearing for Tuesday.

Nimbus, which bought telecast rights from the Board of Control for Cricket in India for all matches played in India, prayed that the government should be restrained from taking any coercive measures against it for sharing the feed of ongoing India-West Indies cricket series.

In the petition, filed through Raian Karanjawala, Nimbus submitted that imposing conditions for sharing feed with Prasar Bharti, are "arbitrary", "whimsical" and also "overreaches the Supreme Court order".

Contending that the uplinking guidelines are not only contrary to law but also had no statutory value, Nimbus said that these norms also violate its fundamental rights under Article 14 (right to equality) and 19 (right to trade).

The sports broadcaster further submitted that the government's guidelines are an "arm-twisting" method being used to favour Prasar Bharati.

The sports channel said it had offered Prasar Bharati dirty feed (with all its commercials) but the public broadcaster wanted clean feed (without advertisements).