MUMBAI: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has slapped a fine of Rs 522.4 million on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for abusing its dominant position as the cricket?s defacto governing body in India while allocating franchise rights and international media and sponsorship rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008.

The penalty amount has to be deposited within 90 days and directions contained in the CCI order also complied with within the same period.

The CCI had initiated the case on the basis of information filed by a Delhi resident Surinder Singh Barmi alleging irregularities in the grant of franchise rights, grant of media rights, award of sponsorship rights and other local contracts for the IPL.

The CCI had asked its Director General to investigate the allegations made by the complainant. Following a detailed investigation, the DG submitted the investigation report on 21 February last year.

The investigation report, the CCI said, was sent to both the parties seeking their responses on the same and full opportunity was given to both BCCI and the informant for perusal of all relevant records and making their submissions, both in writing and orally before the Commission.

The DG in his finding said that former IPL chairman Lalit Modi had used strong arm tactics to rig the bids for franchisee rights based on the show-cause notice issued by the BCCI to Modi after he was suspended from the cricket board on allegations of corruption.

The DG in his report also rejected BCCI?s submissions that Modi acted arbitrarily while taking these decisions by saying that the decisions were taken with the consent and approval of IPL governing council.

The report also found the base price of $50 million for the sale of franchises was prohibitory for other players. The BCCI, however, had contended that the decision was based on commercial expedience. It further submitted that bids were allowed by various companies as a consortium.

On the issue of grant of media rights to World Sport Group India (WSGI) and Multi Screen Media (MSM) aka Sony Entertainment Television (Set), the DG report noted that the first meeting of tender committee was postponed from 11 am to 1 pm in order to facilitate and allow WSG and Sony to form a consortium.

The DG report also said though Sony and WSGI had submitted the bids separately, they were facilitated to form a consortium and bid was entertained in the capacity of consortium. The CCI also felt that the 10-year period for media rights is very long and creates foreclosure of market.

The DG also questioned the BCCI?s decision to enter into a new agreement Sony within 11 days without any tender process and despite the fact that the agreement was terminated on very serious irremediable breaches. It also noted that a similar procedure was followed for granting new media rights and international broadcast rights for certain territories.

According to the DG, while the global title sponsorship rights were awarded to DLF for Rs 4.44 billion for five years through tender process the associate sponsorship rights were awarded to various companies for different period and amount without any tender process, based on discussions, negotiations and proposals.

The DG said that almost all the franchisees also admitted that BCCI has ?facilitated? the award of contracts to various vendors which was contravention of law.

"Thus, owing to regulatory role, monopoly status, control over infrastructure, control over players, ability to control entry of other leagues, historical evidences, BCCI is concluded to be in a dominant position in the market for organizing private professional league cricket events in India," the CCI concluded.

The Commission also held that competition is essentially for benefits to be widespread and the game of cricket and the monetary benefits of playing professional league matches must be spread out and not concentrated in a few hands or in a few franchisees.

"In a country of large young population more private professional leagues opens up more avenues for youngsters to play cricket, to earn a livelihood and to find champions where least expected. BCCI in its dual role of custodian of cricket and organizer of events has on account of role overlap restricted competition and the benefits of competition. The objective of BCCI to promote and develop the game of cricket has been compromised," the Order read.

The CCI also issued the following directions to BCCI:

i)to cease and desist from any practice in future denying market access to potential competitors, including inclusion of similar clauses in any agreement in future;

ii)to cease and desist from using its regulatory powers in any way in the process of considering and deciding on any matters relating to its commercial activities. To ensure this, BCCI will set up an effective internal control system to its own satisfaction, in good faith and after due diligence;

iii)to delete the violative clause 9.1(c)(i) in the Media Rights Agreement;

iii)The Commission considers that the abuse by BCCI was of a grave nature and the quantum of penalty that needs to be levied should be commensurate with the gravity of the violation. The Commission has to keep in mind the nature of barriers created and whether such barriers can be surmounted by the competitors and the type of hindrances by the dominant enterprise against entry of competitors into the market. The Commission has also to keep in mind the economic power of enterprise, which is normally leveraged to create such barriers and the impact of these barriers on the consumers and on the other persons affected by such barriers.

The BCCI had contended that it is a ?not-for profit? society for the promotion of the sport of cricket and its activities are outside the purview of the Competition Act. The Director General concluded in its report that though BCCI is a society and supposed to be a non-profit organization, its activities related to IPL where huge revenue is involved fall in the commercial sphere.

MUMBAI: After a lull, the battle between broadcasters and TAM has resumed with public broadcaster Prasar Bharati moving Competition Commission of India against the audience measurement agency for anti-competitive practices.

The pubcaster had filed the complaint against TAM on Friday alleging that the ratings agency has been using its dominant position in audience measurement by excluding markets where Doordarshan channels have strong presence.

The complaint was filed under section 4 of the Competition Act 2002, which pertains to abuse of dominant position by a market player.

"On Friday (November 16) we received information from Prasar Bharati alleging anti-competitive practice by TAM. We will consider the matter through the week and if prima facie it makes a case, we will ask the Director General (Investigations) to probe the allegations," newswire PTI quotes a senior CCI official as saying.

Prasar Bharati has alleged that TAM has installed peoplemeters in 8,000 homes and only covers towns and cities with 100,000 plus population, which keeps keeps rural as well as smaller towns out of audience measurement.

The pubcaster had decided to move the CCI after its board meeting in September. Prasar Bharati officials feel that the organisation should claim damages from the ratings agency due to defects in its rating system.

Earlier, the news broadcaster NDTV filed in July a law suit against Nielsen and Kantar Media, which jointly own Tam India, for manipulation of viewership data. NDTV has demanded $810 million as compensation for the loss in revenues it has suffered over the years and $580 million in penalty for negligence by Nielsen and Kantar officials.

Ever since NDTV has filed the lawsuit, calls for setting up Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) has grown louder with the broadcasters being in the forefront of the demand.

The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) have held several meetings on how to roll out Barc. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has also asked the industry to speed up the existence of Barc.

NEW DELHI: Star India-owned Malayalam television outfit Asianet has received a go-ahead from the Competition Commission of India for its merger with Tamil channel Vijay TV.

Both had approached the Commission for its approval on 22 October as a CCI nod is mandatory for mergers happening under Section 5 of the Competition Act. Both the companies are part of the Star Group.

"The Commission is of the opinion that the proposed combination is not likely to have an adverse impact on competition in India," CCI said.

Star India and Jupiter Entertainment Ventures, Rajeev Chandrasekhar?s media and entertainment development company, had formed a new joint venture called Star Jupiter in 2008. Under the agreement, Star India became the majority shareholder of Asianet Communications Ltd (ACL), which currently broadcasts channels in Kannada (Suvarna), Telugu (Sitara) and Malayalam (Asianet, Asianet Plus).

Vijay TV, the Tamil language general entertainment channel currently operated and owned by Star India, will also come under Star Jupiter.

Indiantelevision.com had earlier reported that Chandrasekhar would also have equity stake in Vijay TV. The clearance of CCI, thus, clears this regulatory hurdle.

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NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati is planning to soon move the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against Television Audience Measurement (TAM) for not covering markets where pubcaster Doordarshan had a strong reach.

The Prasar Bharati Board which met here yesterday approved the draft of the petition prepared earlier by the pubcaster?s national broadcaster.

Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar said, "Doordarshan?s reach and viewership is its strength. Even when the television industry wants to reach more viewers, they acknowledge it like in the case of programmes like Satyamev Jayate. This reach should be reflected in the ratings."

Sircar had earlier told Indiantelevision.com that it was astonishing that TAM had been side-stepping Doordarshan, which has the largest reach terrestrially through local cable operators and around 20 per cent of the market through various DTH platforms.

Sircar said it was astonishing that TAM had never attempted to give the ratings of DD viewership despite its being the largest broadcaster and the fact that every platform has to mandatorily show its channels.

Earlier this month, Doordarshan Director General Tripurari Sharan told Indiantelevision.com that the final draft had been prepared and cleared by legal counsel.

The Prasar Bharati Board had taken up the matter in its meeting on 6 August and given the go-ahead to DD to proceed with the matter, and approved the draft yesterday.

The Ministry had written a letter to TAM and its international partner Nielsen earlier, wanting to know the steps taken to improve the television rating measurement system and ordering for a third party audit to be conducted with an increased sample size.

The Ministry had also written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for suggestions on an accreditation mechanism for TV ratings in India to curb the monopoly and asked it to frame guidelines in context to cross holdings in companies that are involved in TV ratings system in India.

Trai had on 19 August 2008 issued Recommendations on the Policy Guidelines and Operational issues for Television Audience Measurement Television Rating Points (TRPs) suggesting Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), a suggestion which was later endorsed by the Amit Mitra Committee.

The action by Prasar Bharati comes on the heels of the case filed by NDTV in a New York court against The Nielsen Co and Kantar Media Research, equal partners in TAM Media, in this regard.