Media group Discovery has secured an interim injunction from the Delhi High Court restraining Lex Sportel Vision from using “DSport”, the brand name of their formerly jointly-operated sports pay-television channel.
Welcoming the injunction, Discovery said it would help put to bed “false accusations” that it was acting wrongfully in recent moves to take control of DSport.
LSV has been fighting Discovery’s efforts to take control of the channel, claiming it has ownership rights that are being undermined. Discovery has terminated agreements with LSV and begun working with Indian pay-television broadcasters to change the content and branding on DSport.
This week, LSV launched a new channel, 1Sports, to carry what was previously DSport content. It also sent a communication to pay-television operators reiterating earlier claims that Discovery was acting wrongfully.
Indian media news website Televisionpost.com reported that the injunction was ordered in Discovery’s favour because LSV had issued communications “causing confusion within the market and industry on the ownership of DSport”.
Vijay Rajput, Discovery’s head of sports business in South Asia, said: “Discovery has carried out business in this country for the past 25 years with utmost credibility and business ethics. We followed all processes despite multiple false accusations and are delighted that finally truth has prevailed. The interim injunction proves that prima facie case was made out in our favour that we own the brand DSport.”
The two companies ran DSport in a partnership that began in 2014, and saw the channel launch in 2017. The channel is a minor player in the Indian sports television market, which is dominated by the much larger pay-television broadcasters Star and Sony Pictures Networks.