New Delhi, March 18: The Centre wants Doordarshan to reach an out-of-court deal with Ten Sports after the Supreme Court in an interim order yesterday asked the latter to provide it signals for the remaining India-Pakistan matches.

Senior sources in the government are uneasy about the cavalier manner in which an international deal — between the Pakistan Cricket Board and Ten Sports — has been made infructous due to what they term Doordarshan’s incompetence and refusal to come to an agreement with the Dubai-based channel.

“There is the larger question of intellectual property rights, which should be honoured. With the government committed to reforms and free enterprise, it is essential to give out the right signals,” a senior official said. Most of the blame for the current mess is being heaped on Prasar Bharati CEO K.S. Sarma.

But Sarma insists he was merely trying to look after his organisation’s interests. He said the Prasar Bharati board, which met in Mumbai last week, had authorised Doordarshan to offer up to $15 million to Ten Sports, but Sarma had wanted to stick to $10 million at the start of negotiations. At the onset, the Prasar chief offered just $4 to 5 million to the channel, causing talks to break down.

Sarma today said he might approach Ten Sports soon for an out-of-court deal which he believes the latter will be more agreeable to now that it has failed to renegotiate contracts with its advertisers.