A Lahore sessions court has put a stay on Pakistan Cricket Board’s new tender to find a new broadcaster for the Pakistan Super League as well as its domestic tournaments and home international series.
The stay has been put on the account of Pakistan Television Network (PTV)’s request as it has appealed to the court that the PCB has arbitrarily cancelled the $200 Million deal inked between the two parties in 2020 which allowed PTV the right to broadcast PSL and Pakistan’s domestic cricket for three years.
The state-owned broadcaster PTV and the PCB deal was signed in the presence of Imran Khan, the Pakistan Prime Minister, who is also PCB's patron-in-chief.
Along with PTV, the PCB also signed a deal with I-Media Communications Services, to ensure the PCB's broadcast content is not redistributed illegally by cable operators.
However, as has come to light after the PCB unanimous cancellation of the deal that I-Media was not able to meet the required standards that PCB had set. Also, PTV was broadcasting the matches on Standard Definition and PCB wanted it to be broadcast on High Definition and thus the decision was taken to cancel the deal.
A Sports, launched by ARY group is one of the few HD channels in Pakistan and it also broadcasted the recent T20 World Cup. Hence it seems like the PCB is inclined towards getting the PSL broadcast in HD in the domestic market as well and thus this cancellation has come. The international rights of the tournament are sold separately.