Yoshitha Rajapaksa’s Carlton Sports Network (CSN) is fixing transmitters on the Sri Lanka Navy’s transmission tower at Piduruthalagala inorder to broadcast the matches between Sri Lanka and Australia to be played next month, an official from Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) said.
It has been decided to fix transmitters on the Navy tower after the media reported that CSN was trying put up transmitters on Rupavahini and ITN transmission towers. The main aim is to get Navy protection as well as to prevent secrets from leaking.
We have already exposed how the President eldest son and parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa put pressure on SLRC in order to get CSN the broadcasting rights of the Sri Lanka-Australia tour. The latest information received by us state that CSN has secured the broadcasting rights after bidding Rs. 27 million.
The announcement was to be made last evening.
The SLRC has lost out on millions of rupees in revenue as a result. The SLRC earned the broadcasting rights of the last Cricket World Cup matches after bidding Rs. 143 million and managed to earn a revenue of Rs. 556 million through advertising. The SLRC earned a net profit of Rs. 413 million from the matches.
The SLRC secured the broadcasting rights of the Sri Lanka-England matches played in England after bidding Rs. 40 million and earned Rs. 60 million through advertising. The Corporation earned a net profit of Rs. 20 million.
Former SLRC Chairman Sarath Kongahage had approved a bid of Rs. 30 million to secure the broadcasting rights of the Sri Lanka-Australia tour. However, following pressure from Namal, the current chairman of the Corporation, veteran media personality Mohan Samaranayake had agreed to reduce the bid to Rs. 17 million.
CSN had finally secured the broadcasting rights after bidding Rs. 27 million and the Rajapaksa sons have made the necessary arrangements to earn millions in revenue through the matches.
The President had directly intervened and asked several heads of state institutions to give sponsorships for the event. Sri Lanka Telecom has agreed to give Rs. 8 million, Mobitel Rs. 6 million, Bank of Ceylon Rs. 9 million and Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation Rs. 5 million as sponsorship.
More information will be revealed later.