Olympics Only For SLRC

 

• Report by The Sunday Leader seals decision

By Indika Sri Aravinda

The Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) has decided not to transfer the telecast rights of the upcoming Olympic Games in London to the Carlton Sports Network (CSN), SLRC Chairman Mohan Samaranayake said.
He said that the decision was arrived at in light of a news report appearing in The Sunday Leader newspaper last month.
Samaranayake also said that the Asian Broadcast Union (ABU) has informed SLRC that the exclusive telecast rights for the upcoming Olympic Games in London cannot be transferred.
Accordingly, he said that, the London Olympic Games will be telecast on SLRC from July 27 as scheduled.
Meanwhile an official in the sports unit of SLRC told The Sunday Leader that the state broadcaster will begin advertising the event from April 17.
However he also said that other networks can broadcast 3 minutes of the event during their news bulletins.
CSN had earlier sought the exclusive broadcasting rights of the 2012 London Olympics despite SLRC paying for the telecast.
SLRC had obtained the rights as a member of the ABU which is under the International Broadcasting Union (IBU), the broadcast rights holder for the Olympics.
The state television broadcaster had obtained the television broadcast rights for the 2012 Olympics through a deal signed with the ABU in 2008. When The Sunday Leader had contacted the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CSN Nishantha Ranathunga last month he had confirmed that CSN had sought the broadcast rights for the 2012 Olympics.