In a "major relief to sports broadcasters," the Indian Supreme Court has accepted all of Lodha Committee’s recommendations "except for the one that required the Indian cricket board to revise broadcast rights contracts to ensure that ads are played only during breaks," according to TELEVISION POST. This one recommendation had the "potential to turn the sports broadcasters’ business models upside down as advertising revenue forms a big chunk of their revenue, which also includes subscription revenue." A bench comprising Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Ibrahim Kalifulla allowed the Board of Control for Cricket in India to "govern its broadcasting policy and existing contracts." In its recommendations to the apex court, the panel had "recommended that all existing contracts for International Test and One-Day matches be revised and new ones ensure that only breaks taken by both teams for drinks, lunch and tea are interrupted with advertisements, as is the practice internationally." The recommendation of airing ads only during breaks had become "a hot button issue with the BCCI vehemently opposed to it." Immediately after "taking charge as BCCI president, Anurag Thakur had voiced his concern with the Lodha panel’s recommendations on ad restrictions during live broadcast of cricket matches." Thakur said, "Look at the money paid one time or on a monthly basis to the ex-cricketers. Where does that money come from? They come from these [the ads] only." Broadcasters had "also sounded the alarm bells with Star India CEO Uday Shankar and Sony Pictures Networks India CEO NP Singh stating that the value of cricket rights would take a hit if the Lodha committee’s recommendations were to be accepted" (TELEVISION POST, 7/18).
