The sticking point thus far on the negotiations has reportedly been that DD was quoting Rs 250,000 per half hour as placement cost, a figure B4U was attempting to mark down. According to industry sources, the two sides likely to sign the papers tomorrow.

The developments came even as Ten (Taj Entertainment Network) Sports, which holds the rights for India, finally made it official today that it had sold the terrestrial telecast rights to LMB Holdings (promoter of B4U Networks).

Pavithran said that after making its presence felt in all the main southern language channels (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada), Balaji was next looking to enter Malayalam language programming on the Sun Network‘s Surya channel.

The terrestrial rights allow for transmission of four games only. These are the opening game, two semifinals and the finals on a six-hour delayed telecast. They also include a daily highlights package, also on a six-hour delayed basis, an Ten Sports release said. There was no mention however, of the telecast of the opening and closing ceremonies, which was earlier mentioned as being part of the package.

As for Ten Sports, even as the clock counts down to the 31 May kick-off, there is still no clear indication of how many people will finally get to watch the sporting world‘s (not for India though) biggest mega event.

Financial daily Economic Times‘ website reported that in Delhi both the Star-controlled Wincable and the Hindujas? InCableNet, which together reach 65 per cent of cable & satellite homes in the capital, have signed up with Ten Sports while the Zee-controlled MSO Siticable had not. In Mumbai however, where the Star-controlled Hathway Cable and Datacom and InCableNet cover nearly 75 per cent of the city there is no word as yet of any deal. In the other three metros of Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore (all of which have one MSO dominating) there is reportedly still no accord in place either. In Kolkata it is RPG Netcom, in Bangalore Hathway and in Chennai Sumangali Cable Vision that rule the roost.

It is difficult to tell whether this is an article of faith or not considering how close at hand the tournament is, but the feeling in the industry seems to be that come 31 May, some agreement will be reached.

B4U Networks and Doordarshan thrashed out an agreement today that clears the way for the deferred telecast on DD of four matches and a daily highlights capsule.

B4U‘s chief distribution officer Debashish Dey said this evening the contract had been signed and delivered. Queried as to the placement cost rate that had been thrashed out, Dey would only say that it was much, much lower that the Rs 250,000 per half hour that DD had reportedly sought.

The telecast schedule is as follows:
Opening ceremony and opening match - 31 May, 11:30 pm onwards .

First Semi-Final - 25 June, 11 pm onwards.

Second Semi-Final - 26 June, 11 pm.

Final and closing ceremony - 30 June, 11 pm.

One-hour daily capsules - 11 pm.

On Fridays the daily capsule will be telecast after the weekend feature film.

Queried as to what B4U hoped to get out of the deal, Dey said: This is a very big brand equity exercise for B4U.

Information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj set the ball rolling again today on the conditional access issue following her trip to Cannes.

Swaraj convened a meeting in the morning chaired by Rakesh Mohan, joint secretary I&B, which had a representation from broadcasters as well as the cable industry.

According to a senior government official, The government has instructed the cable industry to come up with an equitable pricing formula for the basic tier of free to air channels within a week.

One significant feature of the meeting was the heavy representation of the Star India team at the proceedings. CEO Peter Mukerjea, COO Sameer Nair, distribution head Tony D‘Silva and CFO Shankar Narayanan were in attendance.

Industry sources say that the Star team later went into a separate meeting with Mohan. There was no independent confirmation of this though.