NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati has proposed an amendment to a sports telecast Act that would give Doordarshan an equal revenue share, something that the private sports broadcasters are sure to oppose vehemently.

The Prasar Bharati board, which met today, came up with this proposal of amending the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act in a way that would lift their revenue share from the current 25 per cent to 50 per cent.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry will be requested for immediate implementation of this recommendation because of the heavy financial consequences being imposed on Doordarshan due to the unequal playing field provided under the present scheme under which DD gets 25 per cent of the commercial revenue despite handling the marketing on the channel.

In the present arrangement, the private broadcaster who shares the feed with Doordarshan under the mandatory clause gets to pocket 75 per cent of the revenue that Doordarshan earns from the telecast.

Indiantelevision.com, however, could not independently confirm a PTI report on whether the equal revenue share proposal would be confined to events held abroad. Quoting sources, PTI. reported that "the Board decided that the revenues of the events held abroad and telecast by Doordarshan be shared on a 50-50 percent basis with the foreign broadcast partner".