Doordarshan is unlikely to accept the ESPN-Star Sports offer to make programmes for it during the Cricket World Cup and might produce all programmes in-house.

ESPN-Star Sports had offered to produce pre- and post-match programming for Doordarshan with its own team of commentators.

These programmes were proposed to be telecast simultaneously on ESPN-Star Sports and Doordarshan.

"The deal is not acceptable to us. We have sent them our proposal. They are yet to respond. The Doordarshan team feels we can make programmes in-house. In all probability, we will do it ourselves," said K S Sarma, chief executive officer, Prasar Bharati.

However, the decision would be taken on Monday, he said. According to Sarma, ESPN-Star Sports wanted to buy slots for making pre-match programmes during the Cricket World Cup.

Reacting to this, an ESPN-Star Sports spokesperson said: "We had sent a proposal to Doordarshan on specifications it had given us. Our value proposition is our team of commentators and superior production quality. As far as we are concerned, the proposal is still under consideration."

Discussing the details of the ESPN-Star Sports deal, Sarma said: "It wanted to pay us by the normal rate of Rs 50,000. This was not acceptable to us. We wanted a higher fee. Also we do not want any branding of ESPN-Star Sports in the programmes."

Prasar Bharati is expecting to generate Rs 30 crore (Rs 300 million) revenue from the World Cup broadcast. It has rights to broadcast 16 matches live and deferred telecast rights for 27 matches.

"As per our agreement with Nimbus, we will get a minimum guarantee money of Rs 23 crore (Rs 230 million) and an additional Rs 7 crore (Rs 70 million) from revenue-sharing," Sarma said. Nimbus had already sold slots worth Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion), he added.

All India Radio, according to Sarma, has entered into an agreement with BBC Radio and Voice of America to barter airtime slots.

"As per the deal, we will get an equal amount of time on their networks to broadcast AIR programmes," he said.

AIR has already achieved the Rs 93 crore (Rs 930 million) revenue target for 2002-03.

Prasar Bharati will appoint an ombudsman to settle various arbitration cases it has with producers.

"We have a large number of arbitration cases. The Prasar Bharati Board has decided to appoint an ombudsman to settle these cases. A condition for this will be added to all the future agreements with producers," Sarma said.