Adding to the controversies surrounding the third season of Indian Premier League (IPL), the news broadcasters on Tuesday said they will not cover the event in the light of the stringent media policy that the IPL authorities have come up with this year.

The broadcasters, under the aegis of the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), have issued a statement saying they have taken this decision after their meeting on Tuesday with IPL authorities and SET MAX, the official partner channel for the live broadcast of the matches.

“In 2008, the IPL/SETMAX had drawn up a set of norms for use of cricket footage of IPL matches, in negotiation and agreement with the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), which has been followed ever since. However, the NBA regrets that at a meeting held on February 16, 2010, the IPL/SETMAX arbitrarily refused to abide by their commitment as contained in the 2008 norms,” NBA Secretary General Annie Joseph said in a statement. The IPL authorities have specified stiff timelimits for the live coverage of the matches as well as archival footage.

The NBA has said, “In view of this position unilaterally taken by IPL/SETMAX, members of the NBA are unable to offer to their viewers any coverage in relation to IPL or its proposed matches.”

Incidentally, the Indian Broadcasting Federation had also last week called for immediate intervention by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to resolve the situation. They had recalled that while a similar situation had erupted in 2008 as well, the Ministry had then intervened to help effect a compromise and help develop media guidelines. The broadcasters are saying that unless the IPL authorities revert to the 2008 media guidelines, they will not cover the IPL series.