LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board is still corresponding with its global media rights partner to seek a satisfactory reply for breaching one of the key clauses of the contract, by not taking PCB’s approval before sublicensing HBL Pakistan Super League 2020 live streaming rights to a UK-based betting company.
The PCB had signed a three-year contract with an internationally based media partner from 2019 to 2021 for live streaming of HBL PSL matches. One of the clauses of the contract was that the partner will seek a formal approval from the PCB before sublicensing live streaming rights.
The media right partner, however, violated the agreement by sublicensing live streaming rights to a UK-based betting company without seeking prior clearance or permission of the PCB.
It may be mentioned here that the list of broadcasters and live streaming partners was shown regularly in graphics, during the matches on TV, where the name of the betting company was not included.
After the matter came into PCB’s attention, it approached its global media rights partner on Feb 24, and strongly objected over the contractual breach and highlighted that it (media rights partner) had no authority to directly sublicense live streaming rights, Dawn has learnt.
After failing to get any response from the media rights partner for a week, the PCB approached the betting company directly, highlighting that the procedure required to acquire live streaming rights had not been followed by the said media rights partner and demanded an immediate halt to live streaming.
The PCB had further warned the UK-based company if live streaming of HBL PSL matches was not stopped, it would explore all legal options available to it.
Though the PCB succeeded in its attempt to stop the UK-based company from live streaming PSL matches on its portal, the discussions between the PCB and its global media rights partner are ongoing, Dawn has further learnt.
It is not clear, what is the penalty the media partner will have to pay to the PCB in case of failing to defend its act.
Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2020
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