royaltiger
BANNED
New Recruit
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2010
- Messages
- 27
- Reaction score
- 0
On Sunday morning, people in Afghanistan's 34 provinces tuned in to watch the Commonwealth Games cycling road race, taking in breathtaking visuals of New Delhi's Lutyens zone. Telecasting the CWG live is part of India's "television-sports" diplomacy in the conflict-ridden country, where New Delhi's stakes are quite high.
In taking this step, New Delhi was taking a leaf out of China's book. It had made arrangements to broadcast live the Beijing Olympics in 2008 in Afghanistan, as it negotiated lucrative deals for mineral resources in that country.
However, in Delhi's case, the decision ran into problems initially with the Organising Committee that holds the telecast rights demanding that Afghanistan National Television (ANTV) pay for the coverage.
South Block finally had to lean on the OC to allow Afghanistan's public broadcaster the rights at a nominal cost as a "goodwill gesture". China incidentally had charged a pittance for the Beijing Olympics to be shown to the Afghans.
Sources said that ANTV had approached the Indian government last month for CWG telecast. India is viewed with warmth in the country due to its development and reconstruction work there to the tune of US $1.3 billion, and Afghanistan has been keen on getting approval for telecasting the mega sports event.
Apart from serving the cause of "soft diplomacy", the move is also in tune with India's role in expanding the television network across Afghanistan. This involves an uplink from Kabul and downlinks in all 34 provincial capitals, and the signals are being transmitted via the Indian satellite INSAT 3A.
Says Doordarshan Director General Aruna Sharma: "It is because of our important diplomatic relations that the decision was taken to give the broadcasting rights to Afghanistan's public broadcaster. We have given them the technical code to unscramble the signals which are being transmitted via our satellite.
CWG diplomacy: Afghans tune in too - Yahoo! India News
In taking this step, New Delhi was taking a leaf out of China's book. It had made arrangements to broadcast live the Beijing Olympics in 2008 in Afghanistan, as it negotiated lucrative deals for mineral resources in that country.
However, in Delhi's case, the decision ran into problems initially with the Organising Committee that holds the telecast rights demanding that Afghanistan National Television (ANTV) pay for the coverage.
South Block finally had to lean on the OC to allow Afghanistan's public broadcaster the rights at a nominal cost as a "goodwill gesture". China incidentally had charged a pittance for the Beijing Olympics to be shown to the Afghans.
Sources said that ANTV had approached the Indian government last month for CWG telecast. India is viewed with warmth in the country due to its development and reconstruction work there to the tune of US $1.3 billion, and Afghanistan has been keen on getting approval for telecasting the mega sports event.
Apart from serving the cause of "soft diplomacy", the move is also in tune with India's role in expanding the television network across Afghanistan. This involves an uplink from Kabul and downlinks in all 34 provincial capitals, and the signals are being transmitted via the Indian satellite INSAT 3A.
Says Doordarshan Director General Aruna Sharma: "It is because of our important diplomatic relations that the decision was taken to give the broadcasting rights to Afghanistan's public broadcaster. We have given them the technical code to unscramble the signals which are being transmitted via our satellite.
CWG diplomacy: Afghans tune in too - Yahoo! India News
