NEW DELHI: Indian pubcaster Prasar Bharati has obtained an interim injunction from a Delhi court against TV channels using more than the set limit of cricket footage from the ongoing cricket series being telecast on its network.

The Delhi High Court, in an interim order today, restrained five TV channels, including ETV, Asianet, Telegu channel TV 9 and Sahara News from using excess cricket visuals per day.

Doordarshan has already circulated the parameters for footage usage amongst private TV channels.

According to an official of Prasar Bharati, which manages Doordarshan, the Delhi High Court was petitioned as it had been seen in the past that TV channels, especially news channels, openly flouted the prescribed norms without providing adequate compensation to DD.

The prescribed norms stipulate that no TV channel can use more than two minutes a day of cricket visuals from matches being aired on DD in any programme or news bulletin.

The DD-laid down conditions also bar a TV channel from mounting a cricket-related show using such footage from the ongoing Indo-Lanka series, the officials claimed. The conditions will hold good for the India-South Africa series after that.

Plagued by pending court cases related to telecast rights, the Indian cricket board had awarded DD the rights to telecast the India-Sri Lanka and India-South Africa series as a an interim measure earlier this month.

DD has also commissioned TAM to monitor TV channels vis-?-vis cricket footage used.

In the past also, DD has sent notices to TV channels, including most major news channels, requesting them not to flout the set norms for usage of footage from cricket series aired on the pubcaster’s network.

In the past, the pubcaster had also demanded compensation for excess footage used on pre-set conditions.