B4U Networks and Doordarshan thrashed out an agreement today that clears the way for the deferred telecast on DD of four matches and a daily highlights capsule.

B4U‘s chief distribution officer Debashish Dey said this evening the contract had been signed and delivered. Queried as to the placement cost rate that had been thrashed out, Dey would only say that it was much, much lower that the Rs 250,000 per half hour that DD had reportedly sought.

The telecast schedule is as follows:
Opening ceremony and opening match - 31 May, 11:30 pm onwards .

First Semi-Final - 25 June, 11 pm onwards.

Second Semi-Final - 26 June, 11 pm.

Final and closing ceremony - 30 June, 11 pm.

One-hour daily capsules - 11 pm.

On Fridays the daily capsule will be telecast after the weekend feature film.

Queried as to what B4U hoped to get out of the deal, Dey said: This is a very big brand equity exercise for B4U.

Information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj set the ball rolling again today on the conditional access issue following her trip to Cannes.

Swaraj convened a meeting in the morning chaired by Rakesh Mohan, joint secretary I&B, which had a representation from broadcasters as well as the cable industry.

According to a senior government official, The government has instructed the cable industry to come up with an equitable pricing formula for the basic tier of free to air channels within a week.

One significant feature of the meeting was the heavy representation of the Star India team at the proceedings. CEO Peter Mukerjea, COO Sameer Nair, distribution head Tony D‘Silva and CFO Shankar Narayanan were in attendance.

Industry sources say that the Star team later went into a separate meeting with Mohan. There was no independent confirmation of this though.