National exchequer robbed of billions of rupees to benefit ARY

ISLAMABAD: The insider story of the controversial and alleged illegal partnership between Pakistan Television (PTV) and the private TV channel ARY has come to light.

Details obtained by Geo News reveal that the national exchequer was robbed of billions of rupees to benefit the private news channel, which had no sports channel when it was made a partner in the ICC broadcasting rights. The whole game started in August 2021, when PTV released a tender for partnership in the ICC broadcasting rights, which did not mention the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

It is worth noting that the ARY consortium was involved in the ICC broadcasting when its sports channel "A Sports" had no existence and no licence. The PTV board of directors also remained unaware of the issue. The PSL was not mentioned in the August 2021 ICC broadcasting rights tender and PTV Sports kept the PTV Board of Directors in the dark, obtained its approval for partnership with Ten Sports but then quietly partnered with A Sports.

Under the “expression of interest” of August 2021, an attempt was made to favour ARY as the PTV contract was with the consortium of Group M and ARY. But for the PSL, the party was changed and a consortium was made only with ARY. PTV, which runs on public money, has not yet provided details of the August 2021 agreement, which cost Pakistan’s state-owned channel and national exchequer billions of rupees.