The decision was taken last week and Star attributed it to discrimination and breach of contract.
It was the five-year IHF-Doordarshan agreement whereby the national broadcaster was also given telecast rights if hockey matches in India and abroad where IHF was involved that led Star to snap the deal.
Star TV tied up for a period of 10 years with the Indian football and hockey federations last year, for a huge undisclosed sum, to promote the games on its sports channel by telecasting the national league and other tournaments.
The DD-IHF deal was signed earlier this year before the commencement of the Olympic games.
We had to pull out of the deal as IHF has breached the contract by signing an agreement with Doordarshan for telecast of hockey matches while we were under the impression Star had exclusive rights, Star's managing director in India Gene Swinstead told Business Standard.
Telecast of international sporting events in India has been a contentious issue with uplinking facilities a major bone of contention. Doordarshan has been insisting that only it can uplink from India as per laws. Most sports federations like the IHF, football associations and the Board for Control of Cricket in India have signed agreements with foreign broadcasters by giving them exclusive telecast rights for events to be held under their aegis. Most of these cases have finally landed in courtrooms.
The differences between IHF and Star TV is also apparent from the fact that the foreign satellite channel is unaware of the details of the IHF-DD deal, which states that the national broadcaster will have terrestrial telecast rights. IHF president K P S Gill, however, was not available for comments.
We are not aware that DD has only terrestrial telecast rights, Swinstead said. Moreover, IHF did not consult us before going ahead with the deal with DD. However, Star is not averse to renegoting the deal as long as IHF takes the initiative.
Star's move, media analysts say, can affect its attempts to mend fences with Doordarshan.
Till earlier this year, Star had evinced keen interest to come to an understanding with DD for jointly working to facilitate live telecast of Indian soccer and hockey tournaments on the satellite channel. The Indian football season begins in June and will last till September.
Star had also made DD an offer to share the rights of the Indian football league which will be telecast live on Star Sports. However, nothing concrete has come out of those negotiations, according to Mandi House sources.