According to the Supreme Court ruling that got passed on Friday, Prasar Bharati will get ‘clean’ feed — free from all embedded commercial advertisements and such similar elements— from all private broadcasters. A bench of Justices A K Sikri and P C Pant dismissed an appeal that was previously filed by broadcaster Star India Ltd against sharing ad-free feed with Prasar Bharati, which the court said, has the maximum reach.

The bench said that the purposive interpretation of the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act mandated that all broadcasters were required to supply clean feed to the public broadcaster by removing sponsor logos and on-screen credits for telecast on Doordarshan.

The Act and the rules under it said the court, amply clarified that the signals shared with Prasar Bharati by the content rights owner(s) must be the best feed provided and also has to be free from all sorts of commercial advertisements.