Greed gets the better of BCCI
Apr 9th, 2008 | By Aditya | Category: International Cricket, Top Stories
The BCCI has done a lot of new and cool things with the IPL, and that has brought a lot of innovation in the game. It is no secret that money has been the primary motivating factor for the BCCI so far, and they’ve done a lot of weird things to raise obscene amounts of money. The player auctions, selling franchises, TV and stadium rights have all been auctioned, and a lot of money has been made everywhere. Making money in itself is not bad, because everyone benefitted from all these money-making schemes.
But yesterday, the BCCI, in its infinite greed went too far. Last week, the BCCI had come out with draconian restrictions over the use of pictures and images taken at the matches. They effectively banned all websites, even newspaper’s online editions from covering the games. It predictably caused a lot of uproar, and eventually the BCCI let the rules relax a bit.
But what is left of the rules are also ridiculous. Newspapers will get to use six - and only six - images per match, on their online editions. But that also means that only newspapers and their online editions will be allowed to cover the matches. But this completely leaves out online websites and blogs. No CricInfo, no Google News no nothing. And Bloggers will not get to cover any actual matches since they are not allowed to use any pictures. But, they’ll be allowed to cover the post-match conferences.
Oh, Brilliant!
And all these stupid rules stem from the pathetic attempt to save their friends to who they gave the $50 million contract to build the official website. This “official website” is trying to be the only online website covering the IPL games. How pathetic can they get? A monopoly for their website because they’re scared of the competition?
This ridiculous attempt at banning the most influencial media of today - websites and blogs - from covering the IPL tournament is only going to hurt BCCI. The entire IPL edifice is built today on the hype, and the hype is what will sustain it. The IPL is largely appealing to the city audiences, who, ironically, are the most likely to read the blogs and websites. If the online media doesn’t cover it, it is going to be that much less hype for the BCCI.
And anyway, does the BCCI really think that people are going to follow the rules? Piracy is so big in India, the land where entire Bollywood movies are sold on pirated DVDs. If people can take video cameras to theaters and record entire movies, does the BCCI really think its pictures and videos are not going to end up on YouTube and all over the internet? These rules have caused nothing but resentment. Its a very bad move for the BCCI. All for $50 million, which is nothing but a small drop in the $1 Billion IPL tournament!
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[...] company for $50 million. And, ostensibly, in an attempt to please their new website owners, the BCCI has issued draconian restrictions on the ability of websites to cover the IPL league [...]
I see nothing wrong in bcci imposing whatever restrictions they feel right. It is their event, after all.
As for cracking down on piracy, they will just go after the big guys. As long as Cricinfo, Rediff, etc. don’t have access to photos, they will be fine. They probably won’t mind small bloggers using pirated snaps. Or they will just have one person who does a google search and sends a list to Blogger, Wordpress, Youtube etc and these platforms will remove the pirated material. Cracking down on piracy in internet is much easier than in real world.
Don’t U think the IPL hype is similar to the Internet Bubble hype in 2001.
Lets see how far it goes,
No, I agree with you Mohan, that the BCCI can do whatever it feels like, since after all, it is their event.
My crib is that this stone-age thinking is going to hurt BCCI in the long run. Sort of like shooting yourself in the foot. It’s their foot, after all, but not a good idea
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