Sri Lankan radio resumes commentary after court intervention

Sri Lanka's national radio broadcaster resumed its ball-by-ball commentary of the ICC Champions Trophy on Friday after intervention from the Supreme Court.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is trying to stop Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) from producing audio commentary without broadcasting rights.

SLBC were offered official radio rights by the rights holder, a company called Freschia that has acquired Sri Lankan and Pakistan radio rights for the ICC Champions Trophy and the ICC World Cup.

But instead SLBC produced an "off-tube" broadcast, creating the commentary from a television feed in their studio and refusing to purchase official rights, claiming they were acting in the public's interest.

ICC lawyers, flown out from England and India, argued that SLBC was making illegal profits from the live commentaries and demanded US $ 70,000 as compensation.

The ICC sought and won an injunction in the Commercial High Court on Thursday afternoon, forcing the SLBC to halt the commentary mid-way through Australia-Bangladesh game.

However, SLBC took the issue up with the Supreme Court, which suspended the earlier injunction pending a full inquiry on September 23. SLBC were forced to lodge a USD $ 10,000 bond with the court.

SLBC Director General Nimal Lakshapathiarachchi immediately informed the media that the commentaries would resume during South Africa's clash against Kenya on Friday.

In the 2000 European Championships the BBC, the official rights holder, were unable to obtain an injunction against TalkSport who produced a similar off-tube broadcast.

The matter was settled out of court before a full trial. Press reports at the time suggested that TalkSport had agreed to label all future off-tube broadcasts as such, producing disclaimers at specified intervals in the action.