Indian news broadcasters lift IPL boycott

Indian news broadcasters will cover the IPL after all, with the tournament organisers and the News Broadcasters' Association (NBA) resolving the dispute regarding tournament footage. Lalit Modi confirmed the development on the eve of the third season of the IPL in his Twitter page. Further details on the compromise are still awaited.

"NBA issue resolved. News broadcasters will carry IPL news," Modi wrote. "Both us moved forward to ensure all fans don't miss the IPL. My sincere thanks to the NBA members for making it happen."

The NBA, which has 34-member channels, had last month decided to boycott the tournament in protest against what it called "arbitrary" guidelines and contentious clauses regarding tournament footage. The decision followed a meeting between the NBA and officials of the IPL and Set Max, the tournament rights holder. The media coverage guidelines for 2010 had reduced the duration of match footage that news channels could carry -- 30 seconds per bulletin and seven minutes a day. Repeats would be allowed three times a day, as against four previously, and while match footage could earlier be telecast with a five-minute delay from the end of the live telecast, it had been expanded to a half-hour delay.

The first IPL season was boycotted by the international news agencies over several contentious clauses in the media accreditation guidelines, including a bar on supplying photographs to cricket-specific websites such as Cricinfo.

The second season witnessed a repeat after News Media Coalition, the umbrella body that includes global news and photograph agencies Reuters, AP, AFP and Getty Images, objected over the same clause. However, the boycott was lifted after the IPL removed the clause from the terms of coverage.