ITV

Category: Sports

  • MIB broadens the list of sports events of national importance

    MIB broadens the list of sports events of national importance

    Mumbai: The Ministry of Information And Broadcasting (MIB) has under the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act, 2007, broadened the list of sports events of national importance, according to a recent notification. These events will now be shared with Prasar Bharati as the broadcast rights holder.

    In terms of cricket, the good news for the Board Of Control For Cricket in India (BCCI) is that there is no mention of the Indian Premier League (IPL) whose media rights will be decided in an e-auction next month. All sports leagues have been kept out of the list. Under the sports act, all test matches played by India are covered. Earlier, only test matches deemed of high interest were covered.

    ODIs and Twenty20 matches played by India were already covered. Also, among other new things that have now come under the Act the semi-finals and finals of the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Test Championship will have to be shared. India playing matches, Semi-finals and finals of the Under-19 World Cup will now have to be shared. All Olympic Games including the Winter Olympics are now covered under the Act. The Commonwealth Games and Asian Games continue to be covered under the Act.

    These are all the events that will have to be shared with Prasar Bharati. Some were already covered under previous notifications. Some events in football, shooting and archery are deemed of national importance only if India is hosting those events. Following are the lists:

    Cricket

    (a) All official One-Day, Twenty-20 and Test matches played by the Indian Men’s and Women’s Cricket Team and all ICC Test matches featuring India

    (b) Semi-finals and finals of ICC Men’s and Women’s One-Day International World Cup

    (c) Semi-finals and finals of ICC Men’s and Women’s Twenty-20 World Cup

    (d) All Semi-finals and finals of ICC Champions Trophy (One Day)

    (e) All Semi-finals and finals of ICC World Test Championship

    (f) Semi-finals and finals of ICC Men’s and Women’s Asia Cup (Twenty -20 and One-Day International)

    (g) India playing matches, Semi-finals and finals of Under-19 World Cup.

    Tennis

    (a) Davis Cup-All matches featuring India

    (b) Grand Slam Tournaments – Finals of Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles and all matches featuring Indian players from quarter-finals onwards

    (c) Grand Slam Tournaments – All such matches featuring Indian players in men’s doubles, Women’s doubles or Mixed doubles from quarter-finals onwards.

    Hockey

    (a) World Cup – All matches featuring India and semi-finals and finals

    (b) Champions Trophy – All matches featuring India and finals

    (c) Indira Gandhi Gold Cup for Women-Semi-finals and finals

    (d) Hockey India Sub-Junior National Championship and Hockey India Academy National Championship

    (e) Hockey Men’s Junior Men World Cup*

    (f) Sultan Azlan Shah Cup- All matches featuring India, Semi-finals and finals;

    (g) International Hockey Federation (FIH) – Hockey Pro League matches.

    Football

    (a) World Cup – Opening match, quarterfinals, semi-finals and finals

    (b) Asia Cup – All matches featuring India and semi-finals and finals

    (c) Santosh Trophy – Semi-finals and finals

    (d) Asian Women’s Football Cup*

    (e) Under-17 Federation Internationale de Football Association Women’s World Cup*

    (f) World Cup (Under – 17) – Opening match, quarterfinals, semi-finals and finals.

    Badminton

    (a) All England Open Badminton Championship – All matches featuring Indian players, semifinals and finals

    (b) Badminton World Federation World Cup Championship – All matches featuring Indian players, semi-finals and finals.

    Kabaddi

    World Cup – All matches featuring India, semi-finals and finals.

    Khelo India Games

    (a) Khelo India Games

    (b) Khelo India School Games

    (c) Khelo India Youth Games

    (d) Khelo India University Games

    (e) Khelo India Games for differently abled persons

    (f) Khelo India Games for Indigenous Sports

    (g) Khelo India Winter Games.

    Other Events

    (a) International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup Event*

    (b) Commonwealth Shooting Championship*;

    (c) Commonwealth Archery Championship*

    (d) International events organised by National Sports Federations recognized by the Government of India.

  • Star Sports 1 Hindi leads in its viewership among male audience: Barc

    Star Sports 1 Hindi leads in its viewership among male audience: Barc

    Mumbai: Star Sports 1 Hindi was the most watched channel across India over the last five weeks among Males 15+ AB Urban, as per data by Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc). The data released was for week 13 to week 17 i.e., from 26 March to 29 April.

    The gain in viewership for Star Sports 1 Hindi coincides with the time it began airing the popular Tata IPL 2022 on 26 March. Star Sports 1 Hindi was the most watched channel among the core audience for sports programming i.e., Male 15+ AB Urban across India and Star Sports 1 English was the most watched channel for this target audience in the English genre.

    As per the data, Star Sports 1 Hindi garnered 480 (000) average minute audience (AMA) in Week 13 that increased to a high of 542 (000) AMA in Week 15 (TG: All India Male 15+ AB Urban). In the English genre, Star Sports 1 English garnered 52 (000) AMA in Week 13 that grew to a high of 59 (000) AMA in Week 15. (TG: Male 15+ AB Urban)

    [[{“fid”:”1074579″,”view_mode”:”default”,”fields”:{“format”:”default”,”alignment”:””,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:false},”type”:”media”,”field_deltas”:{“1”:{“format”:”default”,”alignment”:””,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:false}},”attributes”:{“height”:”666″,”width”:”700″,”class”:”media-element file-default”,”data-delta”:”1″}}]]

  • Sports media rights investments in India to grow by 10.1% over 2021-26: MPA report

    Sports media rights investments in India to grow by 10.1% over 2021-26: MPA report

    Mumbai: Sports media rights investments in India will grow at 10.1 per cent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) over 2021-26, bolstered by demand for cricket properties, led by the Indian Premier League (IPL), according to a report by Media Partners Asia (MPA) released on Friday.

    The report, which tracks the growth of sports rights and TV and online video sports revenues and subscribers across 14 markets in Asia Pacific (APAC), found that the market for sports rights and sports media revenues across APAC have recovered in 2021 after the damaging impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and is expected to grow at a sustainable rate over 2021-2026.

    Overview

    As per MPA, sports rights for APAC contracted by $1.2 billion in 2020 while sports media revenues fell by ~$0.9 billion in the same year. The rights values crashed in China in 2020 while revenue contraction was marked in Australia and Japan. The year 2021 saw significant recovery in rights values and revenue, which MPA expects will continue in 2022, ensuring that rights values return to pre-pandemic levels, surpassing the absolute value of rights registered in 2018.

    Sports media revenues

    Asia Pacific sports revenues in TV and online video will grow at a combined six per cent CAGR between 2021 to 2026. Sports revenues will grow from $6.7 billion in 2021 to $8.9 billion by 2026.

    Sports media revenues contracted by 15 per cent i.e., $0.9 billion in 2020, during the pandemic, and recovered by more than 30 per cent in 2021. They are projected to grow by 11 per cent in 2022.

    In 2021, sports media revenue growth was especially significant in Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia, led by Indonesia and Thailand.

    Australia, China, India and Japan will contribute more than 82 per cent to sports media revenues in 2022 that will increase to 83 per cent by 2026, stated the report.

    The contribution of online video in overall sports media revenues will increase from 28 per cent in 2021 to 33 per cent in 2022 further growing to 42 per cent by 2026. The major market drivers of sports media revenues via online video are Australia and New Zealand, China, India, Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan.

    TV will remain critical in India, Japan, Korea and Malaysia but its overall share of APAC sports revenues will fall from 72 per cent in 2021 to 58 per cent in 2026.

    Sports rights

    By 2022, sports rights across APAC markets will grow by 5.6 per cent to reach $6.5 billion. It will further grow at a CAGR of four per cent to reach $7.4 billion by 2026.

    Australia, China, India and Japan dominate when it comes to sports rights investment with 77 per cent share of total sports investments in 2022 that will grow to 79 per cent share of investments by 2026.

    Football leads the sports rights market in APAC with the Premier League topping the list of individual properties. Rights for the 2022-2025 Premier League have fallen by ~25 per cent to $1.4 billion because of substantial deterioration of the sports media rights in China. Excluding China, Premier League rights values for APAC grew by 10 per cent to $1.2 billion driven by healthy increases in Australia and New Zealand, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Thailand.

    The main driver for recovery in sports media revenues and sports rights across APAC will be consumer and advertiser demand for live sports across integrated streaming entertainment and sports platforms along with TV networks in key geographies, stated the report.

    “Sports remains vital in Asia Pacific as a tactical weapon to build brand and market share and in certain instances, pricing power,” said MPA executive director Vivek Couto. “However premium tier-1 rights generally remain loss leaders or break even bets, especially in the case of marquee football and cricket properties. TV platforms remain important for the value of sports rights and monetisation but the growth of online video as well as tighter consumer and advertising wallets have squeezed growth in key Asia Pacific markets with many players impacted by cord cutting as customers continue to churn to: (1) Integrated entertainment and sports streaming platforms; (2) Pure play sports streaming platforms; and (3) Piracy. TV reach and revenues will however grow at a robust rate in large scale markets such as India, which emerged as the second-largest TV sports market through the pandemic, after Japan.”

    Adding further, he said, “Meanwhile, the rapid growth of online video distribution has boosted sports rights and revenues through SVOD and ‘freemium’ windows, especially in markets such as Australia, India, Indonesia and Korea. The economics of pure play sports streaming remains challenging; integrated entertainment and sports platforms remain on a stronger path while TV and streaming bundles will continue to play an important part in unlocking the value of sports.”

  • Cricket South Africa to launch Twenty20 league competition in Jan 2023; enters deal with SuperSport

    Cricket South Africa to launch Twenty20 league competition in Jan 2023; enters deal with SuperSport

    MUMBAI: After making a failed attempt to launch a Twenty20 league back in 2017 and then running a short-lived league for two years, Cricket South Africa (CSA) is making another effort. It has signed an agreement with SuperSport to form a new company that will manage a new T20 competition.

    The plan is to hold the league in January 2023. It will then become the window for the league which will comprise six privately-owned franchises playing each other in a double round before the top three sides move to the play-off stages.

    SuperSport is CSA’s domestic broadcast partner. It is worth noting that due to a dispute between CSA and Supersport CSA was unable to launch a proposed Global T20 League in 2017 and had to abandon plans altogether.

    CSA then launched the Mzansi Super League in 2018. CSA bore the cost of the league. The broadcast rights fee it got from the SABC was minimal. The MSL featured eight teams and ran for two years.

    “We are excited by the formation of something this fresh and invigorating, which also offers the opportunity for private investment into the franchises. CSA has already received interest from several potential local and international investors” said CSA CEO Pholetsi Moseki.

    Moseki emphasised that this is an entirely new event, adding that South Africa has a rich crop of talent who would benefit from exposure through a franchise league. He said that a sustainable business model had been created for both the league and the teams, with a healthy salary bill to attract the very best local and international players.

    The league also represents a fresh injection of funds into the sport in SA which will help grow the game. Modelled along the lines of T20 events worldwide, the focus will be on all-action cricket sportainment.

    SuperSport CEO Marc Jury said, “We are delighted to invest in a product that will change the face of South African cricket. There is an early-year gap in the calendar, so the timing is ideal.”

    SuperSport has committed to live broadcast of all the matches and will also produce the world feed for the international television market.

  • SPNI bags broadcast media rights to Roland-Garros 2022-24

    SPNI bags broadcast media rights to Roland-Garros 2022-24

    Mumbai: Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) has bagged the exclusive media rights to broadcast Roland-Garros between 2022-24. The deal spanning over three years provides SPN with exclusive TV and digital rights of Roland-Garros.

    The broadcaster will televise the French Open on its sports channels across India and the subcontinent including, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives, and will also be available to live-stream on their premium OTT platform, SonyLiv.  

    The upcoming edition of the Grand Slam tournament is scheduled to be played between 22 May and 5 June. Sony Sports Network witnessed a viewership of 22 million for the previous Grand Slam, the Australian Open, the highest recorded viewership in recent years.

    “Following the successful broadcast of the Australian Open over the past years on our network, we are delighted to acquire the media rights of the prestigious Roland-Garros,” said SPNI chief revenue officer for distribution and head – sports business Rajesh Kaul. “The pedigree of the French Open will help us cater to the steadily growing tennis fanbase in India. With this acquisition, we reiterate our goal to position Sony Sports Network as the home to marquee global sports events.”

    “We are delighted with the signing of this Sony Pictures Networks India contract,” said French Tennis Federation president Gilles Moretton. “This new agreement ensures maximum exposure in India and its subcontinent. It means our tournament will be celebrated in this part of the world where tennis fans and Roland-Garros fans are increasingly numerous.”

  • 5*5 Elite Pro Basketball League to launch in August; targets three-year breakeven

    5*5 Elite Pro Basketball League to launch in August; targets three-year breakeven

    Mumbai: A 5×5 Pro Basketball League, featuring 12 teams is set to be launched in August. The Elite Pro Basketball League is being organised by Elite Sports India (ESI) and will feature players from across the country.

    Speaking to IndianTelevision.com, Elite Pro Basketball League CEO Sunny Bhandarkar said that 5×5 Basketball is a growing sport in India, with millions of children now playing Basketball from grade school through high school. “Our founding company ESI has been broadcasting the All-India University’s National Basketball Championship tournament since 2014; and having witnessed first-hand the growing popularity (and skills) of University Basketball, we believe the market is under-served and eager for the excitement and energy of professional-level basketball,” he added.

    Bhandarkar further stated that India as a whole has picked up a lot of interest in Basketball over the past few years. Much of the credit he explains goes to foreign companies pushing their content onto the Indian platforms. “While it’s great to see the youth of India follow foreign Basketball leagues, we feel that there are so many talented Indian basketball players who deserve an opportunity to play in a professional league in their country. This would also motivate the youth to practice harder and train themselves to someday become professional players for Elite Pro Basketball League. These will only and only take the level of basketball play in India to new heights,” he asserted.

    When queried about the investors Bhandarkar said that there are about a dozen US-based investors (some of the Indian descent) who provided all of the initial funding for the league, and each of those investors has an ownership interest in a particular team.

    “We estimate that the league will reach breakeven by year three after the league is launched in August of this year.  The league does have a large portfolio of other investors willing to provide additional league funding for several years beyond that three-year mark to spur additional growth. We have structured our teams around the key markets in the country. Eg: Mumbai, Jaipur, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and so on,”  Bhandarkar mentioned.

    In terms of revenue streams available for the promoters, he pointed to media rights, licensing and merchandise, pay-per-view, sponsorships, online stores, camps, ticket sales etc.

    Explaining the league’s structure he said that it is not a traditional franchise model. “As I mentioned earlier, the initial investors have already acquired the rights to own a particular team. The league is not a traditional franchise model, rather it mirrors the Major League Soccer model in the US whereby there are both team owners and league owners. FYI, some team owners have also acquired ownership in the League but there will be opportunities for new investors to invest in the league; and after three years there may even be opportunities to acquire a team from one of the initial team owners.”

    In terms of a broadcast partner, he said that the league is currently in talks and plans to announce its selection at a later date. On the marketing and promotional activities front, he noted that Elite Pro Basketball’s player sign-ups, drafts and selection tryouts have created a huge buzz on social media and will continue to go on as we unveil the next round of players.

    “We plan to keep many exhibition games of our selected roster in various cities. The EPB star players would make appearances in schools and colleges to give away basketballs as well as conduct one-day workshops. One of the most important things we are doing here is that we are going to conduct an entire University League with EUSAI (Elite Universal Sports Alliance India) which has already partnered with 80 top universities in India to draft the best talents from the collegiate level and give the students an opportunity to go professional in our league. This will be an essential part of our strategy for years to come,” he concluded.

  • ICC permits FairBreak Invitational 2022 to premiere Live on Eurosport India

    ICC permits FairBreak Invitational 2022 to premiere Live on Eurosport India

    Mumbai: With this development, viewers in India can tune-in to Eurosport India to catch all the live action from FairBreak Invitational 2022 T20 series, with Falcons taking on Warriors in the opening match on 4 May, scheduled at 9:30 p.m IST.

    Women’s T-20 tournament, sanctioned by ICC, is all set to be played in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The tournament will feature players from 35 countries like Heather Knight, Marizanne Kapp, Diana Baig, Stafanie Taylor, Nicola Carey, Suzie Bates, Danni Wyatt, Sana Mir and many others will feature in the T-20 tournament.

    The historic FairBreak Invitational 2022 tournament is the first privately funded tournament in women’s cricket history and is an ICC sanctioned competition that will take place from 4-15 May in Dubai in conjunction with Cricket Hong Kong.

    The tournament will include six teams with players from 35 countries across the world which include many from the top-20 ranked nations including Australia, England, New Zealand, West Indies, Pakistan, South Africa, Thailand and others.

    All the six teams will consist of 15 players each and 19 games will be played over ten match days. The six teams who will be a part of the inaugural edition are – Falcons, Warriors, Tornadoes, Sapphires, Barmy Army and Spirit.

    Announcing the broadcast partnership, Warner Bros Discovery head of distribution and Eurosport South Asia Ruchir Jain said, “FairBreak Invitational is the beginning of the next chapter in women’s cricket. We have seen tremendous growth in women’s cricket in the last five years and we believe it will only continue to grow from here.”

    “Eurosport India has been at the forefront of inclusivity in sport and the growth and popularity of top-level women’s professional sport is a credo that we live by passionately every day. We wish all the competing teams rip-roaring success in the FairBreak Invitational 2022,” added Jain.

    Eurosport India also broadcasts women’s tournaments from the LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association) and the Hero Indian Women’s League (Indian National Football League for Women). In the past Eurosport India have been the official broadcasters for AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2022 and W Series (Women’s Single Seater Racing Championship).

  • Legends League cricket in expansion mode; looks for franchise buyers

    Legends League cricket in expansion mode; looks for franchise buyers

    MUMBAI: Legends League Cricket (LLC), which is a Twenty20 cricket tournament comprised of former players had its first season this year in January in Oman. The league is now looking at the franchise model and will start with the sale of four franchises. On the broadcast front the first season aired in India on Sony and it is now looking at longer-term deals. 59 former cricketers took part in the first season.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com Absolute Legends Sports co-founder, CEO Raman Raheja said that the expectation is to achieve breakeven in the third year of operations. “We have invested more than $7 million into the business and will continue to invest more to develop and promote the eco-system of Legends Cricket. We would also see further investments coming from our Franchisee in the future to promote the space. LLC would not only provide more revenue making opportunities for retired cricketers but also create a unique fan engagement platform and Learning platforms for upcoming cricket talent. According to our business plan, the business is expected to breakeven in the third year of operation.”

    The plan he adds is to have four franchisees in season one of Club Series that would be hosted in September 2022. “We would add two more franchisees in Season two next September. The franchisees are expected to invest up to $15 million in acquisition costs over the next 10 years besides the players fees and operational costs.”

    Shedding light on the revenue streams available to franchises he said that like any other professional T20 League in the world, there will be a shared central pool for the franchisees. The central pool would have revenues from broadcast rights sales, league sponsorships and ticketing. The same would be appropriately distributed amongst all franchisees.

    “Given the business model, franchisees would break even from year two itself,” he confidently avers.

    In terms of the broadcast plans, he explains that the first season was broadcast on Sony Sports Network in India, Geo Sports in Pakistan, Supreme TV in Sri Lanka and Crictracker around the world. “Some of the deals are long term but India was single season. We are now going to be negotiating a longer term deal for the India territory. Also, we are in discussion with leading broadcasters in England, South Africa, Bangladesh, Australia and New Zealand after the success of season one.”

    Earlier there was a league comprising of retired cricketers. It folded up. Raheja cautions that business can’t be run just based on passion for cricket. He stresses the importance of having the right approach and opportunity to create a solid return on investment. “The previous such leagues were flawed in their business model. The cricket economy is primarily run by the Indian ecosystem. Thus, we are focused on that for the business model. We may be hosted outside India, but the primary target group is Indian fans thereby making for a relevant financial model. Our first season itself showed that. We became the most watched T20 League in India outside of the IPL thereby showing that the content has traction; thus the revenues also flow in.”

    Queried about how the idea of LLC came about he said that while cricket is as good as a religion in India with millions of followers the unfortunate fact is that cricket heroes fade into oblivion when they retire from active sports participation. They may have, he explains, some competitive cricket left in them but due to growing age and dropping fitness levels, they are unable to compete at the optimum level with younger players.

    Adds Raheja: “We don’t want them to fall off the cliff on announcing retirement. We want to taper off their exit with a gradual withdrawal over four to five years or more of playing competitive cricket amongst other legends of the game. Legends League Cricket is created to provide fans with an opportunity to see the legendary cricket heroes playing some competitive cricket and recreate the old rivalries on the cricket field.

    According to him, some of the key objectives behind LLC are: “We want to own the word “Legend” in the sports genre on social and digital platforms. We created and promoted our content accordingly across the world and the result was that we were trending on that keyword on Google. In season one, we had a direct fan base of more than 300 million followers with our 59 Cricket Legends (players) as their social media followers. That’s how we want to engage with fans as our core mission.”

    Now would you not call that a win-win strategy?

  • Sony Sports to broadcast ‘Badminton Asia Championships 2022’

    Sony Sports to broadcast ‘Badminton Asia Championships 2022’

    Mumbai: Sony Sports Network will broadcast the upcoming Badminton Asia Championships 2022. The tournament will take place between 26 April and 2 May 2022. The network will get exclusive TV and digital rights to the tournament. The event will be broadcasted in India and the subcontinent, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

    Badminton Asia Championships, rechristened version of the Asian Badminton Championships, will make its comeback in 2022, after being called off in 2020 and 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament will be held in Manila, Philippines.

    The tournament will be televised between 29 April 2022 and 1 May 2022 with matches starting from 1:30 pm on April 29 and 10:30 am on the remaining two days.

    The high-octane matches will be available on Sony TEN 2 channels, as well as live-streamed on Sony Picture’s Networks’ on-demand OTT platform SonyLIV.

    India will be represented by Kidambi Srikanth in the men’s singles events. The women’s singles will see PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal representing the country. The men’s doubles will have prominent Indian duos like Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty, Arjun M.R & Dhruv Kapila and Krishna Prasad Garaga & Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala. The women’s double will feature Simran Singhi with Ritika Thaker and the Mixed Doubles tournament will witness Indian participation with Ishaan Bhatnagar & Tanisha Crasto and Venkat Gaurav Prasad & Juhi Dewangan.   

    Sony Pictures Network’s Chief Revenue Officer and Distribution and Head – Sports Business, Rajesh Kaul said, “The following for badminton is steadily growing with strong performances by Indian players like PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and others in global marquee tournaments in the last few years.”

    “And badminton fans will once again get to see these players in action at the Badminton Asia Championship on Sony Sports Network. Broadcasting the Badminton Asia Championships will not only serve fans of the sport but also foster a multi-sport viewing culture in the country.”
     

  • Viacom18 announces the launch of Sports18 Khel on DD FreeDish

    Viacom18 announces the launch of Sports18 Khel on DD FreeDish

    Mumbai: Viacom18 on Monday announced the launch of Sports18 Khel – its free-to-air (FTA) Hindi channel, available on Prasar Bharati’s DTH service DD FreeDish. The announcement follows closely on the heels of the launch of its pay-TV channel Sports18.

    Sports18 Khel will allow fans to watch their favourite sports in Hindi, including the highlights of the 2021-22 NBA season, Abu Dhabi T10 League, Road Safety World Series, Santosh Trophy, glorious moments of Indian sports and other such offerings, said the statement.

    “Viacom18 secured a slot on DD FreeDish to make sports content easily accessible and expand the consumption of the genre across a wider audience,” says a Viacom18 Sports spokesperson. “Sports18 Khel will offer content relevant to the FTA subscribers across a range of sports in Hindi. This is also an opportunity to funnel a new audience to the pay-TV segment.”

    Effective 25 April, Sports18 Khel will be available on channel #25 on DD FreeDish. Meanwhile, Sports18 SD is available on channel #488 on Tata Play, channel #293 on Airtel Digital TV, on channel #262 on JioTV +, and Sports18 HD on channel #261 JioTV +. Viewers can continue to watch their preferred sports by downloading Viacom18’s premium video-on-demand platform Voot (iOS & Android) and JioTV (iOS & Android).