NEW DELHI: In a latest development, it is being learnt that Prasar Bharati which comprises Doordarshan and All India Radio, as the official broadcaster of the Beijing Olympics in India, has issued a letter to news channels for unauthorised use on Olympic footage from Doordarshan.

According to the footage sharing law, any channel is free to air 20 seconds of footage of any event borrowed from any other broadcaster.

The news comes in after Doordarshan made a clear announcement that it would not share the feed for Olympics with any other private broadcaster or news channel.

Says DD coordinator marketing and sport Sukhjinder Kaur, “We had decided earlier that we will not share the feed for Beijing Olympics this year with any other private broadcaster. We had got several enquires related to sharing of feed but we had made clear before the event had started.”

At the moment, DD has just issued a letter to all those news channels who have been found guilty of using the footage of Olympics and feels if the situation persist further action will be taken against the news channels.

Doordarshan deputy director general – sports Ashok Jailkhani adds, “At the moment we have just issued a polite letter to news channels asking them to stop the unauthorised use of Olympic footage as Doordarshan is the official broadcaster of the event. If this practice continues then we will not hesitate to take legal action against those news channels that will be found guilty.”