NEW DELHI: Sports aficionados who tuned in to Doordarshan Sports on Tuesday morning probably missed all the action. Even as India notched medal after medal in shooting, Doordarshan -- in abject indifference -- continued to broadcast other events like wrestling, weight-lifting and even a hockey match with the result that the first visuals of Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra
Even as hapless viewers switched from DD Sports to DD Urdu and DD National hoping to catch a glimpse of the action on at least one channel, there was no respite. Incidentally, DD News and other news channels were running alerts indicating the win but there were no live visuals.
So viewers missed not just Gagan Narang and Abhinav Bindra's top notch performance in 10m rifle shooting (pairs) but also the medals won in 25m pistol (pairs) and 50m rifle (3 position).
Sources said that initially, there was a technical problem by which the feed could not be transmitted from the Karni Singh shooting range and later a decision was taken not to interrupt the ongoing competition to telecast the shooting event.
DD director general Aruna Sharma, however, denied that there was any delay in telecasting visuals. "There was no technical problem. DD was the first channel to break the news that Bindra and Gagan Narang had won gold," she added.
Sports historian Boria Majumdar said he was appalled by DD's indifference. "The country was deprived of watching the live visuals of Abhinav Bindra winning gold. There are no checks and balances. The I&B ministry cannot leave things in the hands of Prasar Bharati," he said.
He also questioned why so much money had been spent on high definition TV if basics of TV coverage were being ignored.
As the exclusive rights holding broadcaster in India, DD had come under severe criticism for the long commercial breaks. Former DD chief Bhaskar Ghose said whether it was commercial breaks or technical faults, viewers got irritated if transmission was delayed. "The Games are a complicated sporting event to cover and DD is experimenting with high definition for the first time. There are chances that things will go wrong on the crucial day. However, I think they will be able to smoothen the technical glitches in the next few days," Ghose said.
winning India's first gold medal in CWG 2010 were not telecast till over two hours later.
Even as hapless viewers switched from DD Sports to DD Urdu and DD National hoping to catch a glimpse of the action on at least one channel, there was no respite. Incidentally, DD News and other news channels were running alerts indicating the win but there were no live visuals.
So viewers missed not just Gagan Narang and Abhinav Bindra's top notch performance in 10m rifle shooting (pairs) but also the medals won in 25m pistol (pairs) and 50m rifle (3 position).
Sources said that initially, there was a technical problem by which the feed could not be transmitted from the Karni Singh shooting range and later a decision was taken not to interrupt the ongoing competition to telecast the shooting event.
DD director general Aruna Sharma, however, denied that there was any delay in telecasting visuals. "There was no technical problem. DD was the first channel to break the news that Bindra and Gagan Narang had won gold," she added.
Sports historian Boria Majumdar said he was appalled by DD's indifference. "The country was deprived of watching the live visuals of Abhinav Bindra winning gold. There are no checks and balances. The I&B ministry cannot leave things in the hands of Prasar Bharati," he said.
He also questioned why so much money had been spent on high definition TV if basics of TV coverage were being ignored.
As the exclusive rights holding broadcaster in India, DD had come under severe criticism for the long commercial breaks. Former DD chief Bhaskar Ghose said whether it was commercial breaks or technical faults, viewers got irritated if transmission was delayed. "The Games are a complicated sporting event to cover and DD is experimenting with high definition for the first time. There are chances that things will go wrong on the crucial day. However, I think they will be able to smoothen the technical glitches in the next few days," Ghose said.
winning India's first gold medal in CWG 2010 were not telecast till over two hours later.
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