ITV

Category: Sports

  • Top notch Pro Kabaddi League auction commences; top player bid Rs 93 lakh

    MUMBAI: India’s second most watched sports  league – Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) – has begun the countdown to its fifth season. With Vivo fixed as the title sponsor for the next five seasons, the player auction got underway on 22 May and will end on 23 May. The 12 teams began bidding for players yesterday to constitute their teams who will battle over 130 matches and 13 weeks of matches for the title. Teams have been allowed to keep aside a team purse of Rs 4 crore each for the bidding, taking the 12 teams kitty to Rs 48 crore – 10 teams the scale it was when it commenced in the first season.

    Like earlier, the entire tournament – created by Mashal Sports in which Star India has a 74 per cent stake –  is to be telecast on the Stat Sports bouquet.

    With the older eight teams permitted  to retain only one player, the view was that the bidding would touch new highs. And the team owners did not disappoint. While the figures coughed up for the players have some way to go before they touch the cheques which are written out for the IPL, the numbers are only growing.

    Team Uttar Pradesh paid out Rs 93 lakh for Nitin Tomar, even as the Bengaluru Bulls signed up Rohit Kumar for Rs 81 lakh and the Jaipur Pink Panthers bid Rs 75.5 lakh for Manjeet Chillar.

    Surjeet Singh sold to Bengal Warriors for Rs 73 lakh

    Selvamani K sold to Jaipur Pink Panther for Rs 73 lakh

    Rajesh Narwal sold to team UP for Rs 69 lakh

    Sandeep Narwal sold to Puneri Paltan for Rs 66 lakh

    Amit Hooda sold to Tamil Nadu for Rs 63 Lakh

    Jeeva Kumar sold to UP for Rs 52 Lakh

    Kuldeep Singh sold to U-Mumba for Rs 51.5 lakh

    Ravinder Pahal sold to Bangluru for Rs 50 Lakh

    Abozar Mohajermighani sold to Team Gujarat for RS 50 lakh

    Ran Singh sold to Bengaluru Bulls for Rs 47.5 lakh

    Mohit chillar sold to Haryana for Rs 46.5 Lakh

    Dharamraj Cheralathan sold to Pune for Rs 46 Lakh

    Rakesh Kumar sold to Telugu Titans for Rs 45 lakh

    Sachin Shingade was sold to Patna Pirates for Rs 42.5 lakh

    Vishal Mane sold to Patna Pirates for Rs 36.5 lakh

    Nilesh Shinde sold to Delhi for Rs 35.5 Lakh

    Girish Ernak sold to Pune for Rs 33.5 Lakh

    Joginder Narwal sold to Mumbai for RS 32 Lakh

    AbuFazal sold to Dabang Delhi for Rs 31.8 lakh

    Farhad Rahimi sold to Telugu Titans for Rs 29 lakh

    Rohit Rana sold to Telugu for Rs 27.5 Lakh

    Anil Kumar sold to team Tamil Nadu for Rs 25.50 lakh

    Khomsan Thoingkam sold to team Haryana for Rs 20.4 lakh

    Dongiu Hong sold to U-Mumba for Rs 20 lakh

    Hadi Oshtorok sold to U-Mumba for Rs 18.6 lakh

    Ziaur Rehman sold to Puneri Paltan for Rs 16.6 lakh

    Suliema Kabir sold to team UP for Rs 12.6 lakh

    Yung Kono sold to U-Mumba for Rs 8.1 lakh

    Mohammad Maghsoudlou sold to Patna Pirates for Rs 8 lakh

    Takamitsu Kono sold to Puneri Paltan for Rs 8 lakh

    The auction is showcasing more than 400 players, including over 60 overseas players from Poland, Republic of Korea, England, Sri Lanka, Iran, Thailand, Japan, Pakistan, Mauritius, Malaysia, Bangladesh, China, Taipei, Kenya, Indonesia, Nepal and Oman. 

    PKL season 5 will start in the month of July till October with the new geographies for VIVO Pro Kabaddi – Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have been  chosen primarily for their high affinity towards Kabaddi.

    This expansion adds to an already impressive line-up of 8 franchises based out of the major kabaddi centres  in the country – Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Patna, Pune and Jaipur.

    The new franchises are:

    Team Tamil Nadu: Iquest Enterprises – a consortium) owned by N Prasad & Sachin Tendulkar

    Team Haryana: JSW Sports, JSW Group

    Team Uttar Pradesh: GMR League Games Pvt Ltd, GMR Group

    Team Gujarat: Adani Wilmar, Adani Group

    Star India chairman & CEO Uday Shankar said, “I am delighted to welcome some of India’s finest corporates to our Mission Kabaddi. We believe that with the support of existing and new partners we are well on our course to realizing a socially transformative sports agenda. The interest shown by these corporates is evidence of the immense potential of Kabaddi.”

    International Kabaddi Federation President Janardan Singh Gehlot said, “We laud Star India and Mashal Sports for uniquely transforming and renewing Kabaddi, and their relentless efforts to scale it even higher. The addition of 4 new teams to the ever-growing VIVO Pro Kabaddi League signifies a promising road ahead for the sport in India as well as over the world.”

  • IPL tendering process to commence 17 July; bidding to be fierce

    MUMBAI: The Mukesh Ambani-owned Mumbai Indians pulled of a wafer thin victory against the Rising Pune Supergiants in the final of the Vivo IPL 2017, possibly giving a super boost to the TV ratings that Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN India) will notch up for its telecast. The final match could also be the last time both SPN India and Hotstar could be telecasting the Vivo IPL as both their contracts with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have ended.

    Come 17 July, and the tendering process will start to bag the IPL telecast and rights – both national, international and streaming over the internet. The auction process was supposed to commence last year but was quashed by the Supreme Court appointed Justice Lodha committee.

    The IPL title sponsorship tender will commence earlier on 31 May 2017. Chinese smart phone maker Vivo’s title sponsorship contract too has ended with the latest edition of the IPL.

    The decision on the two dates was taken by the BCCI, the members of the IPL governing council, and the Supreme Court appointed committee of administration on Saturday 20 May.

    Industry experts expect the price for the five year rights – yes, the cycle of the IPL rights has been reduced to five years by the BCCI to further exploit its potential – to reach stratospheric heights. The expectation is that potential bidders like Star India, SPN India, Amazon India, and new player in the game the Discovery promoted D-Sports could end up writing cheque amounts close to double of what was paid for the previous cycle – on a like to like basis.

    For both Star India and SPN India, bagging the rights is crucial. Star India has targets to achieve $1billion EBIDTA by 2020 and one of the tools to help it get there is of course the spread of Hotstar. Over the last two years, it has launched a clutch of sports channels in its bouquet. SPN India too will want to retain the rights as it has been one of its cash cows over the past three to four years, notching up new records in advertising and viewership every year. It too has launched a clutch of channels and has even partnered with ESPN for a channel in India.

    Clearly, the side which bats and bowls well during the tendering process will win.

  • Dabur’s Amit Burman-backed Poker Sports League to launch on 24 May in Goa

    MUMBAI: So looking at sports these days we have a national league for each and every game let it be cricket, football, hockey, basketball, badminton, kabaddi and many more. Now you can add poker to that list. Come 24 May, the Deltin Royale, which is anchored in the Mandovi river in Goa, will see the launch of the Poker Sports League (PSL) – the first of its kind in India.

    The purpose of the PSL: “To promote the tournament aspect of poker across India and to provide every poker enthusiast an opportunity to play for the pride of winning. To promote responsible poker.”

    With a prize money of Rs 3.3  crore, 12 teams consisting of nine players each, the tournament will be held in the largest poker room on board the five storied Deltin Royale over five days. The  teams which were formed after a player draft include:   Bengaluru Jokers, Chennai Bulls, Delhi Panthers, Goan Nuts, Gujarat Acers, Haryana Hunters, Kings Hyderabad, Kolkata Royals, Mumbai Anchors, Pune Sharks, Punjab Bluffers and Rajasthan Tilters.

    The PSL – the brain child of Dabur scion and vice-chairman Amit Burman,  – has attracted a clutch of well known entrepreneur businessmen to become team owners: 

    Team Delhi: Rishi Kajaria, joint MD, Kajaria Ceramics and Ruchiransh Jaipuria of Jaipuria Group, Leela Jewels Abhishekh Jain, and Dhampur Sugars Gaurav Goel

    Team Mumbai: Mehul Shah, original promoter of Anchor Electrical;

    Team Bengaluru: Kunal Shah, cofounder of FreeCharge

    Team Hyderabad:  Amit Shah, Karan Bhagat and Yatin Shah of IIFL Wealth Management

    Team Gujarat: Harish Bahl,, Manish Vij and Gopikaa Davar of the Smile group and Mukesh Agarwal of VITWO.

    Team Kolkata: Ankkit Bahadur of Playboy, North India and Taarun V Jain of Legend Group

    Team Goa: Gaurav Mohan of Eventwala

    Team Chennai:  FreshDesk cofounder Girish Mathrubootam  and CaratLane cofounder  Mithun Sancheti

    Team Harayana:  Citrus Payment (PayU) cofounders Amrish Rau and Jiendra Gupta

    Team Pune: Rishabh Jhunjhunwala of Bhilwara Group, Shamit Khemka of Synapse India, Chetan Kajaria of Kajaria Ceramics and Sachin Goel  

    Team Rajasthan: Purrshottam Bhaggeria of Filatex

    “This will ensure that the league becomes a success going ahead,” Burman had said during the announcement of the league a few months back.

    Each team has a captain, or mentor, and two professional and four amateur players who were chosen from the thousands competing in online and offline events over the past five months.

    A gaggle of professionals have also decided to take part  Jaideep Sajwan, Zarvan Tumboli , Vidwath Shetty, Manoj Pentakota, Vinod, Megalmani, Aman Dhamija, Vivek ‘ik’ Rughani, Tarun Goyal, Abhinav Iyer. Bhavn Nainani, Pawan Bansal, Alok Ranjan, Madan Kumar, Sangeet Patni, Sahil, Mayank Agarwal Nishant Sharma, Karthik Ved, Deepak Batr, Sharad Rao, Sumit Sapra, Ratul Steves, SAhil Chutani and Siddharth Singvi.

    It has also attracted a handful of sponsors in year one: Jet Airways, Bira, Real Activ and John Jacobs.

    According to one of the team mentors Kunal Patni, the idea is to sportify the game in year one.  “We have the RFID tables and hole card cameras,” he told Radio One. “the idea is to have audiences know what’s going on and have them participate from the comfort of their homes.”

    All the matches are to be shot and filmed and a seven- part series is to be created, even as the matches are live streamed online on its facebook page. Sources indicate the series will also be telecast on a TV channels.

    Patni believes that the PSL will only grow from here and the sport which is taught in Harvard Business School will soon get the status it deserves, among India’s denizens.

  • Bigger & Better: IPL ’17 viewership on 5 May touched 386.3m surpassing entire IPL ’16 reach

    MUMBAI: The VIVO IPL continues to hit viewership, attendance and social media numbers out of the park, making the league’s landmark 10th season truly bigger and better than ever before. The latest numbers show TV viewership halfway through the league’s fifth week touched an all-time high, in both urban and rural markets. Stadium attendance so far, too, has grown by 25 per cent from last year.

    Moreover, the IPL continues to make a huge impact digitally, registering nearly 6 million tweets over the first five weeks. The IPL’s other digital properties crossed 750 million page views while the IPL Fantasy League, with participation from 950,000 fans, is well on its way to crossing the as yet unprecedented 1 million mark.

    BCCI CEO Rahul Johri said, “The phenomenal response we’re seeing from fans across various platforms is testimony to the IPL’s enduring and yet still-growing popularity. We have worked extremely hard to ensure the landmark 10th season of the IPL is bigger and better than any before. From the new records being set each week and the trend only set to accelerate heading into the playoffs, I am confident that IPL 10’s success will surpass that of any season that has come before.”

    Appended below are some of the key highlights on TV ratings:

    · The reach of IPL 2017 on television is 386.3 Million (Source: BARC) at the end of Match 43, which has already surpassed the reach IPL 2016 garnered for its entire season
    · Throughout this season, the IPL has remained the most-watched and top-rated product on Indian Television (Source: BARC)
    · As of week five, IPL matches occupied the top seven positions in the top-ten highest-rated TV programs on television (Source: BARC)

    The numbers so far barely scratch the surface of IPL 10’s full potential. With the play-offs just around the corner and the League approaching the ‘business-end’ of its season, viewership, attendance and digital numbers are only set to soar, putting the tenth season of the IPL on course to go down in history as the League’s biggest and best yet.

  • Cleaning up games: BCCI anti-corruption unit hunts down three

    MUMBAI: The Anti Corruption Unit of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been tracking activities of certain individuals, as a result of which, three suspects were arrested in Kanpur, on Thursday.

    Following this operation, the Uttar Pradesh Police Crime Branch could foil the alleged betting attempts of the accused. This was an outcome of the ACU of the BCCI, having worked closely with various law enforcement agencies, who will continue further investigations, in this matter.

    Betting and piracy are the two major challenges that plague games and telecast of sports events.

    As reported by indiantelevision.com earlier, even though the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has assigned the telecast rights for fat sums to broadcasters and streaming platforms in India and almost every major nation, the fact remains that piracy continues to dog the telecast of the IPL as well as most other major sport tournaments.

    Anti-piracy UK-based company Friends MTS kept a tab on the first weekend (7-9 April) of the ongoing IPL 2017 tournament. And, alarmingly, it discovered that more than 1,700 unique URLs were telecasting IPL — illegally. It also detected more than 211 unique servers, 122 pirate streams, 51 hosting sites,  and 23 infrastructure providers serving the 1,700 unique URLs.

    Also Read :

    Need to examine legalising sports betting, says Law Commission chairman

    IPL 2017: The Piracy Conundrum

    Inclined to stop watching pirated content, say 50% consumers: Irdeto

  • Mashal picks four teams for Vivo Pro-Kabaddi

    MUMBAI: Vivo Pro Kabaddi has become India’s biggest sports league with the inclusion of four new teams that will participate in the league from Season 5 onwards due to be played in July – October this year. The announcement of the four new team owners was made by Mashal Sports, organiser and administrator of the league and its parent organisation Star India.

    The four new franchises announced by Mashal Sports represent some of the leading corporate institutions in India, including prominent owners of teams in the ongoing Indian Premier League as well as the I-League. The new geographies for Vivo Pro Kabaddi Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have been primarily chosen for their high affinity towards Kabaddi with massive fan bases, significant on-ground presence of the sport, and potential commercial value to sponsors and advertisers, primarily Rs 300-crore title sponsorship by Vivo.

    The new geographies and franchises for Mashal Sports are as follows:

    City/State

    Name of the Franchise

    Name of the Owner/Promoter

    Chennai/Tamil Nadu

    Iquest Enterprises Private Limited (Consortium)

    N Prasad & Sachin Tendulkar

    Ahmedabad/Gujarat

    Adani Wilmar Limited

    Adani Group

    Lucknow/Uttar Pradesh

    GMR League Games Private Limited

    GMR Group

    Haryana

    JSW Sports Private Limited

    JSW Group

     

    With this, VIVO Pro Kabaddi is poised to surpass other Indian sports leagues in terms of geographical representation – 11 states, number of matches – 130+ matches and length of the tournament – 13 weeks. This is a reflection of Mashal Sports and Star India’s continuous endeavour to grow the sport from strength to strength every season.

    Uday Shankar, Chairman and CEO, Star India said, “I am delighted to welcome some of India’s finest corporates to our Mission Kabaddi. We believe that with the support of existing and new partners we are well on our course to realizing a socially transformative sports agenda. The interest shown by these corporates is evidence of the immense potential of Kabaddi.”

    Janardan Singh Gehlot, President, International Kabaddi Federation, said, “We laud Star India and Mashal Sports for uniquely transforming and renewing Kabaddi, and their relentless efforts to scale it even higher. The addition of 4 new teams to the ever-growing VIVO Pro Kabaddi League signifies a promising road ahead for the sport in India as well as over the world.”

    The announcement of the four new teams in the VIVO Pro Kabaddi League is a culmination of a detailed exercise carried out by AZB & Partners & PricewaterhouseCoopers India.

    This expansion adds to an already impressive line-up of 8 franchises based out of major metros in the country – Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Patna, Pune and Jaipur.

    Within a short span of 2 years, VIVO Pro Kabaddi has captured the imagination of Indian viewers and established itself as one of the highest impact television properties in key markets. VIVO Pro Kabaddi became an instant hit with Indian sports fans in its very first season in 2014 as 435 million* viewers tuned in. Names such as, Anup Kumar, Rahul Chaudhari, Ajay Thakur have become household names. Its cumulative viewership growth of 51%** over 4 seasons is the highest for any sports league in India. It has even surpassed IPL in Andhra Pradesh and also achieved primetime slot leadership in Mumbai#.

    Earlier this week, Star India announced a breakthrough deal with VIVO India, the global smartphone major — as the title sponsor of the league for five years.

  • Sony & WWE to host Superstars ‘The New Day’ from 10 May, Kingston & Big E on Extraaa Innings

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) and WWE are hosting the WWE Tag Team, ‘The New Day’ in India this week, to meet WWE’s incredible Indian fans and take part in an exclusive local sport event.

    The WWE Superstars, Kofi Kingston and Big E, will be in Mumbai from Wednesday, May 10 to Friday, May 12. As part of the three-day tour, the longest-reigning WWE Tag Team Champions of all time will appear on Extraaa Innings T20, bringing together the best of sports and entertainment culture. In addition, fans across the city will get a chance to meet and greet their heroes.

    Rajesh Kaul, President, Sports and Distribution, Sony Pictures Networks India: “We are excited to host the WWE Superstars, Kofi Kingston & Big E of The New Day in India. SPN’s partnership with WWE will give our viewers the opportunity to see The

    New Day on SPN’s flagship show. Our aim at the sports cluster of SPN is to present the appeal of WWE to a broader fan base. WWE continues to enthral viewers with its characters, storylines and its marquee events, and we are giving our viewers a first-hand experience of WWE with The New Day’s visit to India.”

    Sheetesh Srivastava, Vice President & General Manager, WWE India: “Indians are passionate about great sports and entertainment, from the thrilling, non-stop action of the Indian Premier League, to the dramatic storytelling and elaborate productions of Bollywood movies. We are sure that The New Day will experience the essence of Indian culture during this visit.

    Ed Wells, Executive Vice President, WWE International: WWE offers a unique combination of thrilling live action and physical stunts, woven into incredible dramatic storylines and performed by larger-than-life characters like WWE Superstars Kofi Kingston and Big E. WWE fans in India experience the unique combination of sports and entertainment, enjoying the very best of both worlds.”

    The New Day comprises WWE Superstars Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods, and the trio now performs as part of the SmackDown® brand. Fans can tune in to SmackDown locally every Wednesday at 5:30 AM on Ten 2, with additional airings later in the day at 5:00 PM on Ten 1 channel.

    The New Day are two-time WWE Tag Team Champions, with their second reign being the longest for any tag team champions in WWE history at 483 days.

  • Pro-Kabaddi and Vivo sign five-year title sponsorship deal

    MUMBAI: Pro-Kabaddi League has signed on Vivo as the title sponsor for five years. The upcoming fifth Pro-Kabaddi season will have contests with up to 12 teams and more than 130 matches spread across 13 weeks. Vivo Pro-Kabaddi Season 5 will kick off in July 2017 on Star Sports.

    Through this association, Vivo aims to strengthen its consumer connect with the audience across India as Pro-Kabaddi League is the second most followed sport after cricket. This will help in achieving a stronger brand recall and excellent visibility for the brand.

    Speaking about Vivo Pro-Kabaddi, Star India managing director Sanjay Gupta said, “Vivo happens to share a common vision with Star Sports to make Pro Kabaddi one of the finest leagues in the world. Vivo coming on board as the title sponsor is a significant milestone in the growth story of the league. Star Sports will continue its efforts to elevate the stature of the sport further.”

    Pro Kabaddi has seen a phenomenal growth over the last four seasons with packed stadia and record viewership numbers, emerging as a benchmark for sports leagues in India. Significantly, the high popularity of Pro Kabaddi has evoked continually surging sponsor interest. This fast-growing interest from across the ecosystem reflects the national appeal of the sport.

    Speaking on the occasion, Vivo India CEO Kent Cheng said, “This association is important for us as Pro Kabaddi League has reached incredible heights and now proudly stands as one of the most successful leagues in India.”

    Earlier seasons have shown that Kabaddi is a sport the popularity of which cuts across all audience. With this association, Vivo aims to target the right audience and capture the hearts of Indians.

  • DSPORT acquires tennis’ T20 equivalent ‘Tie Break Tens’, available to fans in India

    MUMBAI: DSPORT has become the first Indian sports channel to acquire the rights for the one of the hottest new international tennis properties Tie Break Tens. It will mark the first time an Indian sports channel will telecast this new format of tennis for sports fans.

    DSPORT has acquired the tennis’ equivalent of the T20 format now available to fans in India for the first time ever. DSPORT is available on DishTV channel 630, Videocon D2H channel 410 and Hathway channel 183, Fastway LCN number 314 amongst others.

    The third edition of the tournament is being held in Madrid on 4 May at 11:00 pm IST. This will be followed by broadcast of matches in London and Vienna.

    Tie Break Tens is a relatively new, fast-format of tennis which involves both men and women competing for the prize money of US$200,000 each. This quick-fire version sees some of the best and top-ranked professional tennis players in the world including Novak Djokovic, Maria Sharapova, Grigor Dimitrov, Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori, Eugenie Bouchard, Jo Konta , Simona Halep and Garbiñe Muguruza to name a few, compete in a round-robin style tournament where every point counts.

    Tie Break Tens features ten first to ten point tie-break matches. All matches are played and the champion crowned in a single session that lasts no more than three hours.

    Discovery Networks – SVP & GM – South Asia Karan Bajaj said, “We’re thrilled to add tennis to DSPORT’s growing catalogue of exciting sports properties in line with our commitment to super-serve passionate sports fans across and redefine sports entertainment in India.”

  • ESPN viewership plummets, rising costs result in mass lay-off

    MUMBAI: Trimming around 10 per cent of writers and on-air talent, plans to lay off around 100 ESPN employees is under way, including Len Elmore, Trent Dilfer and Danny Kanell, former athletes who worked as broadcasters — the aim being switching to a digital strategy.

    While longtime NFL reporter Ed Werder was among the first to state that he had been laid off, Kanell is among the newest wave of layoffs. In October 2015, ESPN, which employs 8,000, laid off around 300.

    The pruning, an ESPN decision as it recasts itself for the future and not a mandate from the parent — Disney, will affect “front-facing” employees. But, the people who have contracts will see those deals fully honoured.

    ESPN head John Skipper announced that it was beginning its next round of layoffs, a long-apprehended move. Skipper had said that it wanted to provide continuous distinctive content on multiple screens, with more personality-oriented ‘SportsCenter’ broadcasts.

    ESPN, which has a tie-up with Sony Pictures in India, is into its 36th year but it has been troubled by escalating fees to broadcast live events at the same time millions of cord-cutting television viewers who have been canceling their ESPN subscriptions. Over the past five years, the network lost around 12 million subscribers as the viewers sought cheaper entertainment avenues. At the same time, the money ESPN has paid to the professional sports leagues to acquire their live events steadily climbed.

    ESPN used to be in around 100 million houses, and now it’s in less than 87 million, according to Nielsen. And, ESPN commands around 7 per subscriber per month, so that loss ends up being a lot of money.

    Last year, the network’s new nine-year agreement with the NBA to telecast pro-basketball games cost around US$1.5 billion per year, a significant increase over the previous deal. The network also had paid NFL US$1.9 billion (annual), NCAA conferences and the College Football Playoff (well over US$1 billion), and Major League Baseball ($700 million). Some of those deals would be up for renewal in the near future.

    Dynamic change demands an increased focus on versatility and value, and as a result, we have been engaged in the challenging process of determining the talent necessary to meet those demands, Skipper said.

    ESPN’s corporate parent, the Walt Disney Co., in February 2017, blamed the network for an 11 per cent drop in operating income in its cable TV division during the final quarter of 2016.

    Also Read

    IPL Impression: Sony Six & ESPN double, Ten1 & 2 halve

    Sony Pix & ESPN to telecast Global Powerboat Racing live from 3-5 March

    Biswas new ESPN head – southeast Asia; Cooke expands role

    Pro-wrestling: SonyLiv, Max & ESPN to beam live from 2-19 Jan