Delhi HC rejects Amazon’s plea alleging intellectual property rights of India-New Zealand series

The Delhi High Court on Friday, November 25 dismissed Amazon Seller Services Pvt Ltd's petition against an order of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) regarding the alleged dilution of its exclusive media rights to broadcast the ongoing cricket series between hosts New Zealand and India.

The multi-billion dollar company owns the right to broadcast the ongoing New Zealand versus India series in the Indian subcontinent and thus, accused TDSAT of allowing private cable operators and other Direct To Home (DTH) operators to broadcast the matches without buying the official rights.

Amazon bought the rights from New Zealand Cricket (NZC) which allows them to broadcast all the home games of New Zealand until the 2025-26 season.

All the matches during this time frame are going to be broadcast on their Over The Top (OTT) platform, Prime Video. However, India’s recent tour to New Zealand is also being broadcast on the Prasar Bharti-owned DD Sports after Amazon licensed it to the government-owned channel.

Amazon furious with TDSAT

Now, Amazon eventually found out that Prasar Bharti has allowed the retransmission of the matches. As they were not only shown on the government-owned DTH platform – DD Free Dish but on other private platforms as well.

This eventually made Amazon furious as they appeared before the court complaining against TDSAT as their order diluted Amazon’s rights to solely broadcast the matches in the Indian subcontinent. However, Justice Yashwant Varma, who was hearing Amazon's petition dismissed the case on Friday.

“Completely misapplying the scope of Section 8 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, which is an obligation on private cable operators to carry Doordarshan channels, the Ld. TDSAT has exalted the obligation of cable operators into a right which they can seek and enforce against Prasar Bharati as well as impinge upon third party Intellectual Property Rights,” the plea argued in the court.

Meanwhile, having won the three-match T20I series against the hosts 1-0, India are now taking on the Black Caps in the ongoing three-match ODI series.