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TWI
to bid for DD’s cricket production rights
Vandana
Gombar in New Delhi
Sports software production house TWI has said that it would
be one of the participants at the bids invited by Doordarshan
(DD) for live television production of cricket matches to
be played in India during the period February 2002-October
2004.
| The catch: Successful
bid will entail training DD staff |
One of the most onerous tasks set forth
for the successful bidder is to provide on-the-job training
to DD staff so that in the first year, a minimum of 50
per cent of the production team would comprise of DD officials
(programme and engineering). The number of DD professionals
are to be increased in the subsequent year.
“It will be ensured that after two years at least two
DD teams will be fully trained to man each of the positions
in the production team, to produce programmes which will
be globally acceptable,” as per the tender documents.
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DD had sought bids from Indian and foreign
production houses for live television production of these
cricket matches to be conducted under the aegis of the Board
of Control for Cricket in India.
Eligibility criteria for the prospective bidders include,
at least three years’ experience in production of live television
signals of world-class standard for one-day international
cricket and test matches and experience of producing programming,
including sports programming (preferable cricket events) for
at least three major international sports, according to the
tender documents.
The successful bidder will have to provide a minimum of 17-camera
coverage and provide a computer scoring system.
Industry experts said that these conditions ensure that only
the likes of WorldTel, BBC’s Channel 4 and Kerry Packer’s
Channel 9, in addition to TWI, remain in the fray for the
TV production rights.
The last date for submission of bids (pre-qualification and
financial) is November 11, 2001. The pre-qualification bids
shall be opened on the same day and qualified bidders will
be announced.
Bids have also been invited from producers for programmes
to be telecast on the new edutainment channel from the DD
stable—DD Bharati—scheduled for launch on January 26, 2002.
The channel will air four hours of health programming, six
hours of children’s programming and four hours of music, dance
and fine arts related programming.
Bids, along with pilot episodes, are to be submitted by November
9, 2001.
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