Free feed

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Monday evening speech at a Dubai cricket stadium got a huge response not only from the Indian community in the United Arab Emirates, but also from Pakistani nationals and that country's TV channels. A Pakistani channel enquired if it could get live 'clean feed' of the speech. It was told it would get the feed free of cost. The channel later decided to air excerpts of the speech, recorded by its own crew, in its news bulletins. In recent months, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) foreign policy cell has issued instructions to local organisers of the PM's events overseas to not charge money for 'clean feed' to local channels. The decision to spell out the telecast rules was taken after organisers demanded $5,000 from TV channels that wanted to telecast Modi's speech at the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto in April. At that time, BJP leaders had to step in and convince the organisers to provide the feed free.