IPL against post-match usage of footage by channels: Modi

Mumbai:

Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi on Thursday spelt out the reasons for the cash-awash League's stand-off with television news channels and major news agencies who are boycotting the third season of the T20 event starting on March 12.

"We have no issues relating to the news coverage and have come to an agreement on this with the news channels. The area of disagreement is over the usage of IPL footage in post-match packages whose rights are with our broadcast partner (Sony)," he said at a news conference on Thursday.

"As far as news agencies are concerned the conditions are that they cannot sell these photos commercially or give them to cricket-related websites (even though they are their subscribers)," he said.

"There have been many instances in the past when these photos were used for commercial purposes. You cannot use them to sell shampoo," Modi declared.

The IPL chief claimed these restrictions on usage of video footage and still images by non-rights holders were nothing new in international sports events and existed in the Olympic Games, World Cups and major leagues like NBA.

"We have taken these line by line, improved on each and every aspect and made our guidelines more friendly," Modi asserted.