NEW DELHI, Jan 23: Private Indian broadcaster Nimbus Communications Ltd agreed in court on Tuesday to share advert-free feed of the remaining games in the India versus West Indies cricket series, but with a seven-minute delay.

The government ordered Nimbus on Jan 19 to share its live feed with state-run Prasar Bharati, saying the one-day matches were a matter of national interest in cricket-mad India.

Nimbus had offered Prasar Bharati a so-called ‘dirty feed’ – live footage as shown on its Neo Sports channel, including adverts.

But Prasar Bharati, which broadcasts into millions of homes across rural India where Neo Sports is unavailable, told the Delhi High Court it would only accept a live ‘clean feed’ – uninterrupted and advertisement-free.

Nimbus also agreed to share live commentary with public broadcaster All India Radio.

The court said this was an interim arrangement and would last until further hearings scheduled for Feb 8.The ruling meant that Prasar Bharati would also get to telecast in a similar fashion the first one-dayer of the four-match series between India and Sri Lanka at Pune on Feb 8.

The remaining three matches in the current four-match series against the West Indies will be played in Cuttack on Wednesday, Chennai (Jan 27) and Baroda (Jan 31).

The hosts won the opening match by 14 runs on Sunday.

Nimbus in February last year paid $612 million for the rights to broadcast all international cricket played in India – under the auspices of the Board of Cricket Control in India – until 2010 after an intense bidding war with rival broadcasters.

Nimbus Communications Ltd CEO Harish Thawani said the firm had asked for an 80 per cent share of advertisement revenue from the feed, as against the 75 per cent suggested by Prasar Bharati.

“We have asked the court to adjudicate on this,” he said.

The broadcasting ministry is planning to pass a law making it mandatory for private broadcasters to share feeds of national events with Prasar Bharati.—Reuters