The Delhi high court has ruled that Indian internet service providers must immediately move to shut down any websites or platforms illegally broadcasting action from the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Yesterday's ruling, which came in the form of an interim order in place until 29 September, was passed as the result of a plea from Sony Pictures Networks, which is the exclusive authorised Indian broadcaster of the games, set to run from 23 Jul to 8 August.
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The order also includes a request that the Indian government pass the necessary legislation to have illegal streaming sites and pirate broadcasters taken down as soon as possible.
In SPN’s plea, it listed a total of 40 websites and 30 cable operators across India which were known to have illegally streamed premium SPN sporting content before (and were therefore considered likely to do so again), including top-tier international cricket matches.
The court has now ruled that it falls upon the ISPs involved to protect SPN’s broadcast rights by shutting down rogue websites and other operators.
SPN secured multi-platform rights to the Tokyo games in India and the rest of the subcontinent in March 2019 through a deal with the International Olympic Committee, with all the action to be streamed on SonyLIV, the network’s digital platform.
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By GlobalDataMeanwhile, Advanced Info Service (AIS), a prominent mobile network in Thailand, has secured live streaming rights to the Tokyo games.
The provider will broadcast live action via its over-the-top mobile app, AIS Play, plus extended highlights and replays.
The carrier has said it will broadcast over 4,800 hours of live action from 50 sports, and that talks around carriage deals and sub-licensing agreements are ongoing with other media outlets in Thailand.
The carrier will turn 16 AIS Play channels into exclusive Olympics channels, with three to be made freely available and the other 13 to be for paying AIS subscribers only.
Pratthana Leelapanang, chief consumer business officer at AIS, said: “We are lucky to have acquired broadcast rights and to have become the country's representative in bringing this type of content to Thai viewers."
AIS also broadcast live action from the Rio 2016 Olympics.
In November last year, six free-to-air Thai broadcasters – Thai PBS, PPTV, News18, TrueVisions, GMM TV and NBT – secured joint broadcast rights to the Tokyo games. This group is known as the 'TV Pool', and also held rights to action from Rio 2016.
Dentsu, the Japanese advertising giant heavily involved in sports marketing, is responsible for selling media rights to the Olympics in Thailand and 16 other Asian territories.
