Maldivians to lose free World Cup viewing privileges?

The football 'Eid' in Maldives arriving with the FIFA World Cup has always been screened for free by Maldivians. However, with the Broadcasting Commission (BroadCom) removing the World Cup from the list of sporting events that are screened free of cost, there is a possibility that this year's World Cup will have to be watched by paying. At the same time, tourism service providers also express concern over having to pay an additional price for streaming the World Cup.

Under the rebroadcasting regulations, it is mandatory for PSM to be granted broadcasting rights by whomever that attains the rights, since the event has special interest for the people. However, on 19 September, BroadCom brought changes to their listed events and removed all World Cup matches, except the opening and final matches.

As of now, PSM will have to pay MediaNet for the World Cup matches on a commercial basis, since they have bought the rights to it in the country.

According to BroadCom, the World Cup was dropped from listed events after much speculation. Vice president of the Broadcasting Commission Ahmed Gais said at the parliament's Regulation Review Committee last week that the lists were prepared after studying trends in regional countries and what was being done by others were taken into account.

Here are some of the points that BroadCom noted with the parliament’s regulation committee:

Regarding the manner in which the events on the list were selected, BroadCom member Ali Yusuf added that they had also sought comments from the Youth Ministry as it was related to the youth, in addition to looking at the way other countries were doing it. He also pointed out that even though the Youth Ministry had given its views in the discussion meetings, no written proposals were received regarding the matter.

BroadCom told the parliamentary panel that there was no mandatory event list provided free of cost earlier, but it had been prepared in the past. The list was released on 25 April 2012. The events included are:

In addition, another point made by BroadCom in the committee was that sports events like the Olympics were free of cost to public broadcasters without purchasing rights. This information is not accurate either. Like other such events, the screening rights of the Olympics are sold on a commercial basis by the International Olympic Committee.

Broadcom denied allegations that they were trying to favour a particular group of people in this case. Despite their statement, a resolution was moved in parliament alleging that Broadcom was taking decisions under duress. Members of the parliament’s regulations committee also made the allegations.

Mahibadhoo MP Ahmed Thorig, who sits on the parliamentary committee and represents the opposition PPM, questioned the procedures followed in selecting listed events. The question was not answered directly, but both Gais and Ali Yusuf of Broadcom reiterated the same point: it was done according to set regulations and no one had any influence in the decision.

According to sources, PSM tried to buy the rights for the World Cup. This did not happen because PSM could not match the price offered by Viacom.

Later, Medianet bought the World Cup rights because none of the channels that had rebroadcasting rights to the company screened the World Cup this time. According to BroadCom, MediaNet also tried to attain the rights jointly with three other parties.

MediaNet will broadcast the World Cup on its own channel, Ice TV, and Raajje TV, which operates independently. 

PSM is still trying to broadcast the matches, but they are still unable to meet the price. If PSM cannot get the funding, there's a high chance that Maldivians will have to pay an additional price to watch all the matches except the start and final of the World Cup.