Prasar Bharti v. Stracon (India) Pvt. Ltd

RAJIV SAHAI ENDLAW, J. APRIL 28, 2017 "gsr" (Corrected & released on 31st May, 2017)

*IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI % DATE OF DECISION: 28 TH APRIL, 2017 + CS(OS) NO.320/2004 PRASAR BHARATI ..... Plaintiff Through: Mr. Rajeev Sharma & Ms. Radhalakshmi R., Advs. Versus STRACON (INDIA) PVT. LTD. ..... Defendant Through: Mr. Anish Dayal & Mr. Siddharth Vaid, Advs. CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJIV SAHAI ENDLAW 1. The plaintiff has instituted this suit for recovery of Rs.5,80,05,000/- with interest and for rendition of accounts pleading i) that from time to time there have been dealings between the plaintiff and the defendant regarding procuring of broadcasting rights in respect of various sports events; ii) that on 24th March, 1998 an agreement (Consortium Agreement) was executed between the plaintiff, the defendant and M/s Creative Eye Ltd. for setting out specific terms for acquiring the rights in respect of sporting events and exclusive marketing thereof on Doordarshan Network; the other parties to the agreement constituted an alliance / consortium and were to provide the plaintiff with telecast rights of sporting events; the agreement acknowledged certain existing relationships between ESPN-Star Sports and the defendant for cricketing rights; iii) that after execution of the Consortium Agreement, rights in respect of a number of sporting events were obtained by the defendant and were made available to the plaintiff for telecast on Doordarshan Network and in terms of the Consortium Agreement, the rights fee and other costs were paid by the defendant; iv) that one of the events for which rights were so obtained by the defendant at its cost and offered to the plaintiff was Coca Cola Cup which was played at Sharjah from 7th to 16th April, 1999 and in respect of which event an agreement dated 22nd January, 1999 was executed between the plaintiff and the defendant which inter alia provided that the defendant would pay the rights fee, production cost, uplink cost, opportunity cost, withholding tax and the balance revenue would be shared equally between the plaintiff and the defendant; v) that another cricketing event by the name of Pepsi Cup Triangular series between India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan was to be played in India from 19th March to 4th April, 1999; the rights in respect of the said event were held by ESPN-Star Sports who vide a letter dated 3rd February, 1999 offered the terrestrial rights for the same to the plaintiff; vi) that the defendant on coming to know of the said offer represented to the plaintiff that it had no objection to the plaintiff acquiring the rights for the said event directly from ESPN and that it would, as required by the plaintiff, pay either ESPN or the plaintiff, the license fee for the event; this proposal was also confirmed in writing by the defendant vide its letter dated 9th February, 1999 as under: "STRACON Stracon India Pvt. Ltd. A-1/120, Safdarjung Enclave New Delhi-110 020, INDIA Mr. Rakesh Bahadur Dy. Director General February 9, 1999 Doordarshan Fax: 338-4279. RE: India – Pakistan – Sri Lanka Triangular Series. Dear Mr. Bahadur, Our discussion on the matter of license fee for the above series refers. As you are aware in the Agreement of 24th March, 1998, ESPN is named as exclusive relationship of Stracon. However, we have no objection to DD acquiring the rights for the series directly from ESPN as long as the credit for this license is given to Stracon towards its obligation for providing rights under the proviso of the Agreement of 24th March, 1998. We are also happy to confirm that we shall be paying either ESPN or DD as may be required by DD for this series license fee. We suggest following parameters for the deal: (a) Four preliminary round India matches + Final for live telecast. (b) One hour highlight for all 7 matches. (c) Commentary position in the live matches for DD. (d) Customized feed (cost for customisation to Stracon account) (e) One ENG position in field for live matches. (f) 20 VIP ticket in each venue + Car park. For the above, we believe a pro-ra