UK Parliamentarian Gerry Sutcliffe has raised Rs 246 crore dispute involving a dutch broadcaster and authorities here related to 2010 Commonwealth Games in UK Parliament and impressed upon the need of sending a ‘strong message that the firm has been treated badly’.
British broadcaster SIS Live, which had inked a deal with Prasar Bharati to provide outside broadcast services during the mega sporting event, had come under the scrutiny of investigating agencies here for alleged corruption.
Sutcliffe, former British sports minister and an MP, had on 11 September led a debate on the difficulties faced by the firm following its work in the Games.
Opening the debate, Sutcliffe said in October 2010, under notoriously difficult conditions, SIS successfully delivered widely praised world-class broadcast coverage of the Delhi Commonwealth Games for the global television market, on behalf of the Indian public service broadcaster, Prasar Bharati.
‘The decision to host the Games in India was made when I was minister for sports, and that is where my involvement comes from. I was involved in ensuring that we did our best to help the Indian government to have a successful Games. I believe India was very successful, but events that unfolded were perhaps a bit disappointing,’ he said.
The SIS Live had provided outside broadcast services to Doordarshan ‘under difficult circumstance’ delivering global high definition coverage of the sporting events as well as the Queen’s Baton Relay in London and the opening and closing ceremonies of the sporting extravaganza.
One result of the situation has been that although SIS received partial advance payment, not a single
payment has been made since the games concluded, and the company is still seeking in excess of $28 million (at present about Rs 280 crore) in unpaid charges, costs and liquidated damages, he said.
The content of the debate is based on the transcript put up on UK Parliament’s website. ‘This is a sorry story, which has overshadowed the Games, sadly damaged India’s global reputation and seriously affected a company that has done nothing wrong, and everything right,’ the member of UK
Parliament said.