New Delhi, Jan. 24: Doordarshan doesn’t want “stale” bread but Nimbus has got what it wanted.

The Mumbai-based company was awarded marketing rights for ads to be shown on Doordarshan during the India-West Indies one-dayers.

Delhi High Court judge Sanjay Kaul — who yesterday asked Doordarshan to beam the matches, but with a seven-minute gap with Neo Sports’ live telecast — gave the go-ahead after Nimbus said it could earn Rs 22 crore in ad revenue during the matches on DD.

Nimbus, which runs Neo Sports, had earlier contended that sharing live feed with the national channel would result in financial loss.

The telecast tussle reached a larger bench today as public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, which runs the national channel, challenged Justice Kaul’s order before a division bench of the same court. The two-judge bench will hear Prasar Bharati’s plea tomorrow.

Earlier, before the interim order came, Prasar Bharati CEO B.S. Lalli had said a deferred feed would be like offering people stale bread.

Yesterday, both Nimbus and Prasar Bharati had guardedly welcomed the interim order that allowed Doordarshan to telecast the match seven minutes after Neo Sports. The order came when information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi was in Calcutta.

Das Munshi, who had taken a combative stand on the tussle, has already indicated that a draft bill, or even an ordinance, is on its way to give more legal teeth to the government view that sports telecasts must be shared live with DD.

On his return to Delhi last night, the Congress leader is understood to have discussed the issue with ministry officials.

This morning, Prasar Bharati approached the two-judge bench headed by high court Chief Justice M.K. Sharma.

In the court of Justice Kaul, Prasar Bharati was directed not to sell the deferred feed to private direct-to-home (DTH) services like Tata Sky and Dish TV. DD’s own DTH — DD Direct Plus — would, of course, carry the delayed live feed.

The judge asked Nimbus to deposit Rs 5.5 crore, the Doordarshan share of the ad revenue which has to be split in a 75:25 ratio. The bigger chunk would go to the private broadcaster, which holds the rights to all matches in India organised by the cricket board till 2010.

Nimbus paid the BCCI $612 million for the exclusive rights.

The government’s uplink guidelines, however, say the rights holder has to share with Doordarshan live feed of sports events of “national” importance. But Nimbus contended that imposing conditions for sharing feed amounted to violating its right to trade.