December 1, 2003	Monday	Shawwal 6, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 30: The long-drawn row between Pakistan Television (PTV) and Dubai-based satellite channel Geo over telecasting rights of the New Zealand series was finally resolved on Sunday following President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s intervention.

According to the new arrangement worked out in a meeting attended by relevant officials, the state-run PTV will telecast the remaining four One-day Internationals on its terrestrial network with Geo showing the matches on cable.

The controversy involving the two channels had led to a blackout of the first one-dayer at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium which Pakistan won by three wickets on Saturday. The second game is again at the same venue on Monday.

Revealing details of the settlement, Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed said that private channel had also been directed to publicly apologise for the “malicious campaign” it had launched against PTV and officials of the Information Ministry.

“The president took a serious note of the matter and told his staff to investigate why such a situation had arisen,” Rashid said.

It was also decided in the meeting that PTV would not pay any rights fee either to Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) or the satellite channel as part of the new deal.

President Musharraf, who is also the patron of the PCB, directed them to hold open bidding for awarding telecasting rights in future to ensure transparency.

He stressed that terrestrial rights of PTV must also be protected so that cricket fans in the country could get to watch their favourite sport.

Trouble had been brewing long before the New Zealanders arrived in Pakistan but the matter appeared to have been resolved on Friday after an MoU between both parties had been signed.

However, the deal ended in fiasco on Saturday leaving millions of viewers angry on not being able to watch live pictures of the match.

It was for the first time in almost 36 years that a match in the home series could not be telecast live.

The PTV accused its rival of not honouring the MoU and withdrawing at the eleventh hour without intimating them. The private channel, on the other hand, blamed PTV for creating hurdles in their way.

The PCB had sold the telecasting rights for the series to the satellite channel for $500,000 last month. PTV objected to this claiming that being a terrestrial set-up it had more rights to show the matches than a channel with limited viewers.

As the tour loomed, the matter became more complicated and although an agreement was reached twice last week, it came to nothing.