Twenty 20 Cricket: NBA, IPL negotiate differences tonight

New Delhi, Apr 16 (UNI) Negotiations between the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) are taking place tonight to resolve the situation arising out of the latter's threat to put on hold the TV coverage of the League's Twenty 20 tournament starting April 18.

The NBA warning had come after it felt dissatisfied with the IPL response to the issues raised by it over the latter's restrictions on media coverage of the event.

The IPL restrictions had evoked outrage in the whole media world, following which the League had to remove some of the conditions, but still it was retaining some of the restrictions.

''We are holding the meeting with IPL officials on their request tonight to sort out the issue,'' an NBA spokesperson told UNI over phone from Mumbai.

Leading news broadcasters such as NDTV, TV Today, Times Global Broadcasting Company, TV18, Global Broadcast News Limited and Zee News etc are Members of NBA.

The TV channels' main objection is over the high rates being charged for news clips and also the condition that footage can't be used in archival form.

The NBA released a statement on Tuesday night in which it said it sought clarifications from the IPL but, instead of receiving a response from either IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi, or any of the other official, it received a reply from an official of the Sony Network, which along with World Sports Group had bought the TV rights for the IPL.

Sony was "not in a position to discuss matters other than access to footage, and that any offer Sony could make in that regard was limited within the framework of its contract with IPL," the broadcasters said.

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