Giving a boost to the anti-piracy lobby, the Delhi High Court has passed an order in favour of ESPN Star Sports (ESS) in its suit for permanent injunction filed against 104 cable operators across the country against unauthorised broadcast of the ongoing India-England series cricket matches.
STAR Cricket, a new channel from ESPN-STAR Sports is exclusively broadcasting the Test series. Cable operators have essentially been restrained from showing unauthorised feeds of the matches through their networks.
ESS, in its suit claimed that it had the rights from the England and Wales Cricket Board to telecast the matches in India (and some other countries). Justice Sanjay Kishen Kaul of the Delhi High Court restrained the 104 named cable operators from transmitting and/or telecasting in any manner without license from ESPN. Armed with the order ESS warned operators of strict action on violation. ?We are stepping up our monitoring mechanism to tackle this issue so that the court order is followed and strict action is taken against operators who telecast cricket matches illegally,? ESPN Star Software vice-president Rajesh Kaul said.