MIB Directs MSOs, Cable Operators to flash Caption On DD Sports

Taking a stand for Doordarshan, India’s autonomous public service broadcaster, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has ordered all the Multi System Operators (MSOs) and Local Cable Operators (LCOs) to exhibit a caption on DD Sports channel during the live broadcast of all the sports events of national importance.

The MIB has said that the order is in force with immediate effect and asked the MSO/Cable operators to adhere to the instruction strictly. As per the MIB notice, all cable operators have been directed that the caption, “The match/game can be viewed in free-to-air mode on DD Sports Channel, on DD FreeDish and DD’s terrestrial network”, should be flashed during the sports event. MIB has also given the directions for the display of the caption in terms of its appropriate colour, font and size which should be prominently displayed from the beginning of the live broadcast till the end of it. This is especially applicable to the MSO/Cable Platforms.

The notice is with reference to a recent SC judgement vide 22 August 2017, wherein, the judgement was passed by the bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Navin Sinha, that under Section 3 of the Sports Act, 2007, the live feed received by Prasar Bharti from content rights owners or holders is only for the purpose of re-transmission of the said signals on its own terrestrial and DTH networks and not to cable operators.

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