After getting exclusive terrestrial rights for the India-Pakistan series, public broadcaster Prasar Bharati said there is "no question" of it providing special match highlights to any broadcaster.
"We are not planning to do this, nor are we bound by any obligation to do so," Prasar Bharati CEO K S Sarma said on Thursday.
Asked to comment on ESPN-Star Sports' (ESS) demand that they be given one-hour-long highlights as per an existing contract, he said, "It can't be done."
"We have a one-way contract which provides for Prasar Bharati getting live feed for one-day matches and highlights for Test matches in case ESS gets rights. However, we are not obliged to share any highlights with them," he added.
Earlier, ESS India Managing Director R C Venkatesh said they would ask the public broadcaster for hour-long highlights for every day of India's six one-day and three Test matches.
"We will be writing to Prasar Bharati to honour their side of the commitment as laid down in our agreement," he had said.
Elaborating on the "two-way" agreement with the public broadcaster, he said ESS is obliged to give Prasar Bharati live feed for one-day matches and highlights for test matches in case it got the telecast rights.
"However, in case they get the rights, as is the situation now, we are entitled for a one-hour package of the day's highlight in case of both Test and one-day matches," he said.
According to industry estimates, the private sports broadcaster will have to shell out about Rs 500,000 for each one-hour highlight package it receives from Prasar Bharati.
