THE World Cup of cricket is three weeks away, and although the deal has not been finalised, there is a good chance that it will be televised locally - possibly by either CVM or TVJ or by both.
According to a spokesman for CVM, they were, up to yesterday, 90 per cent sure of getting the rights to televise the World Cup, and if they do it will be exclusive to them.
According to a spokesman from TVJ, however, they are also negotiating the rights, and they are confident that they will get it - exclusively or not.
Both television companies are negotiating with a North American company which has the rights for the region.
The two companies, along with others around the region, have been negotiating with the North American company following a break down in talks between the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) and the North America over the cost.
According to CMC, the cost to the region was U$S1-m, and based on the response from the stations, that was prohibitive.
In a release on Wednesday, CMC outlined the problem and expressed their disappointment in the manner in which the rights were awarded and the attitude of the regional stations which they claim are now prepared to pay the North American company more for the rights than they were prepared to pay CMC.
The release stated that CMC started negotiations for broadcast rights to the 2003 World Cup in mid 2000 with the World Sports Group, that discussions included a package involving the ICC Championships trophy in September 2002, that they undertook the ICC Champions Trophy and continued discussions on the World Cup only to hear in November that the rights had been awarded to a North American corporation.
The release also stated that despite that, CMC advised their clients and entered negotiations on behalf of Caribbean broadcasters three weeks ago with the North American entity, that based on what the stations said they could pay they negotiated for two weeks, that at the point where they would have started exceeding the mandate from the stations, they consulted with them again and went back to the negotiating table with a slightly improved offer.
The North American company, however, insisted on one million US dollars from the Caribbean region and the CMC pointed out that their expectation exceeded the CMC mandate, exceeded what was paid last time by about 100 per cent, exceeded reasonable expectations three weeks before the World Cup starts, and told the stations that wanted to do so to puruse it on their own.
According to the CMC release, some regional stations have made offers exceeding the offer they mandated CMC to make and also what was paid for the last World Cup.
"What is more unfortunate are reports that some broadcasting stations are offering to pay more to the rights holders in the United States than they were prepared for CMC to offer as a part of a regional approach."
