MUMBAI: Cricket legend Ricky Ponting will join Sky Sports for its coverage of this summer’s Investec Ashes, which will include a dedicated channel for the entire series.
As the most successful Test captain in history, Ponting will bring his insight to a BAFTA award-winning Ashes team, which includes analysis from Sir Ian Botham, David Gower, Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain, David Lloyd, Ian Ward and Michael Holding. He will also be beside former teammate Shane Warne in the commentary box.
Sky Sports 2 will become Sky Sports Ashes for two months of non-stop cricket television from 1 July, giving viewers a week of build up before the first Test. Fans can tune into the channel wherever they are via Sky Go, and online TV streaming service, Now TV, to watch without a contract.
The channel will show every ball live from the men’s and women’s series. In another important moment for the growth of female cricket, this includes showing an England Women’s Test match for the first time. Sky Sports Ashes will also show daily highlights and classic clashes between England and Australia from the archives, running throughout the summer until 1 September.
Ponting said, “I can’t wait to team up with Sky Sports for The Ashes in England this summer. It’s still the greatest event in cricket and I hope to give all the Sky viewers the latest insights as well as having some fun with Nasser, Bumble and the team.”
Sky Sports executive producer cricket Bryan Henderson added, “We’re excited to welcome Ricky to the line-up. Having captained Australia during some legendary Ashes series, he’ll provide some fascinating views and help strengthen our coverage even further. Giving The Ashes its own channel means our viewers know there’s only one place to enjoy all the build-up, live action and analysis as the great summer of sporting drama unfolds. The famous contest always promises to offer fans some special moments and a great battle. I’m sure this series will be no different.”
The Ashes forms part of Sky Sports’ biggest ever year of live cricket, including the ODI series against New Zealand and every ball of the Women’s Ashes. Alongside the international matches, Sky Sports will also show every county, with live coverage of all three domestic competitions – the NatWest T20 Blast, the Royal London One-Day Cup and the LV= County Championship.
This summer’s Ashes contest is the tenth shown exclusively live by Sky Sports. Ball by ball coverage begins with the first Test at the SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff on 8 July.
Fans will be able to watch the action live wherever they are on mobile, laptop and selected tablets via Sky Go. As well as daily live coverage, Charles Colvile and Bob Willis will be joined by a variety of guests in the studio on The Verdict show, giving their reaction to every day’s play.
The Ashes Event Centre on the Sky Sports for iPad app is back, offering live coverage and for the first time cricket fans can choose from up to 17 camera angles to watch the action. A dedicated microsite at www.skysports.com/ashes will offer all the news and analysis from our team of experts, as well as insight into the England squad.
MUMBAI: NBC Sports Group and The R&A have inked a long-term media partnership in the United States beginning with The Open from Royal Birkdale in 2017 and spanning 12 years.
NBC Sports Group chairman Mark Lazarus said, “The R&A is synonymous with the traditions and history of golf, and The Open is golf’s original championship. NBC Sports is proud to present The Open Championship, and to work with The R&A on their initiatives to grow the game around the globe. This partnership will allow NBC Sports, Golf Channel and NBC Universo to serve the legions of sports fans in the U.S. with complete coverage that reflects the prestige of The R&A’s championships.”
The R&A CEO Peter Dawson added, “We are delighted to announce that from 2017, The Open will be broadcast by NBC Sports Group. They have unparalleled experience in golf and have demonstrated a genuine desire to showcase and promote The Open and The R&A’s elite championships through their extensive range of channels and digital platforms. The United States is home to millions of fans of The Open and we know that through NBC Sports Group, they will enjoy world-class coverage of the Championship.”
The new partnership agreement includes coverage across all media of The Open, The Senior Open Championship, and The Amateur Championship, as well as the RICOH Women’s British Open, in partnership with the Ladies’ Golf Union. The agreement also includes coverage of the Walker Cup and Curtis Cup, in years when these international amateur team events are hosted by The R&A and Ladies’ Golf Union.
“As these events’ new home in the U.S., NBC Sports Group’s coverage of the RICOH Women’s British Open and Curtis Cup will further raise the profile of these world-class events. Adding broadcast coverage of the Women’s British Open will contribute to the momentum that the LPGA Tour and Golf Channel have generated in the United States, as the women’s game continues to grow stronger,” said Lazarus.
“This is fantastic news for the Women’s British Open and the Curtis Cup and for women’s golf generally. To have the full weight and breadth of the NBC Sports Group behind these two international events will be of tremendous benefit to their future growth,” said Ladies’ Golf Union chairman Trish Wilson.
NBC Sports Group’s promotional effort will feature The Open as one of the final marquee events within NBC Sports’ widely recognized Championship Season each spring and summer. In addition, the partnership will collaborate on showcasing golf’s oldest and most international championships, including Golf Channel’s coverage of The Open Qualifying Series events, documentaries from the Emmy-nominated Golf Channel Films unit and a U.S. promotional tour of the Claret Jug, one of sport’s most iconic trophies. Golf Channel and The R&A will also work together on efforts to showcase The R&A’s global youth initiatives, utilizing Golf Channel’s presence in more than 200 million households, 80 countries and 11 languages around the world.
MUMBAI: Canada’s South Asian broadcaster Asian Television Network International Limited (ATN) has acquired the exclusive broadcast rights for India vs Bangladesh Bilateral Cricket series, which is being held in Bangladesh.
India’s tour of Bangladesh, which starts today (10 June, 2015) features one Test match and three One Day Internationals (ODI). The last Test between both countries was played in 2010.
The series will air live on CBN & ATN Cricket Plus.
ATN serves Canada’s diverse cultural communities with 54 specialty television channels. ATN has programming alliances with broadcasters like Doordarshan, Star Network, Sony Entertainment Television, Viacom, Times Television Network, B4U Network, NDTV and Disney amongst others.
MUMBAI: Sports is a lucrative genre for broadcasters as advertisers fritter huge sums of money for both on-ground and on-air sponsorships. However, the bang for their buck is received only when the camera lens captures their brand. Moreover, viewers too expect an exquisite exhibition of imagery on their television screen for sporting events. All this and more is tirelessly taken care of by the sports production unit deployed on the field.
At a time when ‘sports’ in India is synonymous with ‘cricket’ as ‘photocopy’ is to ‘Xerox,’ Kolkata based Greymind Communications aspires to be the lenses covering all the football matches in the Indian sub-continent as well as in South East Asia.
Greymind Communications founded by Anilava Chatterjee and Aniruddha Goharoy kicked off its journey in 2006 by producing the live telecast of Sahara Kolkata Premier League. The matches were shown on the Bengali news channel 24 Ghanta for two consecutive years (2006 and 2007). Greymind also produced 33 live matches of Calcutta Football League (CFL) for Star Network and matches were shown on Jalsa Movies this year. Last year, the company produced 65 live matches for same network in CFL and IFA Shield.
Speaking exclusively to Indiantelevision.com, Chatterjee asserts, “We have traveled a long distance since our inception and there are miles to go as we have high aspirations. When we started our journey in 2006, the scenario was different in India. Now it’s getting better everyday, which is a huge encouragement for us. Last year we covered CFL for Star India and I must say Star has raised the bar with their quality conscious quotient. The experience with CFL 2014 – 15 was a morale booster for us. The matches had thrill and the crowd liked it. We managed to get highest ever television ratings for the sport.”
Having their share of covering big-ticket matches of international magnitude, Greymind also shot the Argentina VS Venezuela match featuring Lionel Messi in Salt Lake Stadium Kolkata. “The stadium had more than one lakh spectators screaming Messi’s name and there were billions across the globe sitting in front of television screens to see Messi dribbling and dodging. We covered the Argentina VS Venezuela match in 2011 in HD and it was indeed a great experience. We deployed 16 cameras with one fixed on Messi. The match was going to be covered worldwide and there was no room for a glitch. I am happy to say that we successfully covered the match,” Chaterjee adds.
While 16 cameras in a football match is not that big a figure as the UEFA Champions League, English Premier League and other important football tournament matches are covered by as many as 32 – 40 HD cameras with a camera fixed on each player. On the other hand, a few of them focus on the crowd, managers, staffs and officials. In that sense, there is a lot yet to be done in India. Greymind produced I League 2014-15 with 11 cameras whereas IMG covered Indian Super League (ISL) with 17 cameras.
Speaking on the difference in production quality, Chatterjee says, “The quality is directly proportional to the production investment, which is gradually increasing with time in India. This year I League’s production was better than previous year’s. Also, besides production investment, there are a few relevant factors too, on which the quality depends. For example, a match in Salt Lake stadium with lesser crowd will look bad on screen no matter what. So a Kolkata Derby with the same number of cameras in the same stadium looks way better than any other match because of the house full stadiums. In Europe or America. the stands are always full.”
Besides camera there are other technical aspects too which makes football look the way it does on screen feels Chatterjee sharing his experience he asserts, “I went to Brazil to see the world cup matches both how teams are playing as well as how it is produced, they use an analytical software called Deltatray which gives live analysis of how much a player ran and other individual statistics the cost of that software is more than the entire production cost in India.”
In India production cost for an I League, CFL or an international match is around Rs 7 lakhs for Standard Definition (SD) coverage and can go up to Rs 10 lakhs for High Definition (HD) coverage. IMG produced ISL’s production cost goes as high up as Rs 30 lakh per match.
“ISL has rejuvenated the entire football fraternity and I expect it to grow bigger and better with time. The tournament garnered huge viewership on television and the stadiums were also houseful. If football becomes big in India, production standards will also go up,” says Chatterjee.
Stepping up on their game, Greymind’s will be producing India’s World Cup qualifiers (four matches) on behalf of IMG this year. The first match is scheduled to be played against Oman on 11 June, 2015 in Bengaluru.
“This would be a huge challenge for us and we are really looking forward to this event. Getting to cover on behalf of IMG is a big achievement for us and it’s also an opportunity to make a mark on the international market. It will be a high definition coverage and will be aired on Sony Six,” informs Chatterjee.
When queried as to whether there was a gap in skill, which effects the execution, Chatterjee says, “I don’t think there is a huge difference in skill. It’s the investment that’s different. We deploy around 70 skilled technicians who have the potential to work on numerous systems and cameras. It’s the basic that matters. Technicians equipped with strong basic will be able to work on any system.”
Quality TV production in Indian Super League has already created a major impact on Indian football and the same stands true for I League and West Bengal State League (aka Sahara Kolkata Premier League). Last year, TVR for Kolkata Derby, which was produced for Star Sports and aired on Jalsa Movies, was higher than World Cup Football final in this market. Efforts are made to enhance the standard of TV production through innovations and expertise. This year, Greymind used super slow motion camera and drone camera to add more values in I League matches.
Looking ahead, the company aspires to emerge as a strong player in South East Asian market and is also looking to strengthen its digital production by launching a website and promote shows like Extra Time.
“Our goal is to make the sports competitive, widely watched, media and sponsor friendly through high quality TV production and build up stars who would be the iconic faces for football in India. Our primary target is to produce quality live football shows in South Asia. We firmly believe that quality and standard of football largely depends on quality of TV production. So the South Asian countries, who are not doing well in terms of FIFA ranking and domestic league, can be given best quality TV production,” Chatterjee concludes.
MUMBAI: With 7.4 per cent TVR, Indian Premier League (IPL) finale played between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) registered the highest viewership of the season.
On the other hand, the qualifier match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and CSK emerged as the second most viewed match of the season with 5.6 per cent TVRs, while with 5.5 per cent TVR the first qualifier between CSK and MI grabbed the third slot.
The eighth edition of the IPL witnessed a constant growth in each and every segment. While the money raised through advertisement was better than the previous edition, viewership and advertising also saw a significant growth this season.
Television rating auditor, TAM analytics shows that IPL 8 was sampled by 192 million unique viewers, and the time spent by the viewers fetched a nine per cent growth with 46 minutes and 17 seconds in 2015 as compared to 42 minutes and 24 seconds of 2014.
The average TVTs section saw 21 per cent growth while the TVRs saw 20 per cent growth as the tourney fetched 3.8 TVR this year compared to 2.9 TVRs last year. Seventy one per cent of the All India Universe tuned to watch IPL 8 matches, which is almost identical to the seventh edition.
Vodafone continued to be the most prominent brand on the basis of ad volumes purchased during live telecast. It should be noted that Vodafone occupied this spot in the last edition too. Amazon also successfully retained its berth at the second position, while other e-commerce ventures like PayTM and Snapdeal replaced Flipkart.com and Airtel Cellular Services at third and fourth place respectively. Vimal Pan Masala grabbed the fifth slot, which was occupied by Big Bazar in 2014.
MUMBAI: With the National Basketball Association (NBA) telecast rights for the season in its kitty; Sony Six is taking a distinctive approach towards the sports property.
While traditionally broadcasters chase brands to rake in ad sales revenue from its big-ticket sports franchises, Sony Six is looking at pulling in viewers for the game, which is telecast early morning on the channel.
The channel is all set to premiere the NBA Finals featuring the Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers and the Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors. The NBA Finals is the championship series of the 2014–15 season of the NBA and the conclusion of the season’s playoffs.
Speaking on the channel’s strategy to grow ‘breakfast viewership’ for the game in India, Sony Six and Sony Kix EVP and business head Prasana Krishnan tells Indiantelevision.com, “We are in the developing process now and the prime goal is not to get brands and sell inventory at this stage. Currently, we are concentrating on developing a substantial following for the sport, which will help us in the long run. We are looking at a long-term deal with NBA India and the key is viewership now. I believe it’s better not to sell instead of selling at a low rate.And that’s the reason why we never went aggressively to sell. That is not our priority at this stage.”
Speaking about the final, Krishnan says, “Overall it has been a great season for NBA fans as uncertainties orchestrated the season. Ecstasy, agony, passion… everything was there in the series so far and if the final goes to the 7th game it will be a perfect ending for us as a broadcaster because viewers will have a worthy treat.”
Breakfast viewership is a relatively new concept and NBA India in association with Sony Six has been pushing aggressively across different mediums to promote it.
Upbeat about the finals, NBA India managing director Yannick Colaco says, “The love for NBA in India is growing at a brisk pace and the finals will certainly help it.We have launched various social media campaigns to garner as much traction as possible. We have also organised breakfast viewing get together with our clients.So the finals are going to be utterly exciting.”
Speaking on the growth of the sport in India, Colaco says, “We are growing at triple digit percentile in every aspect whether it is merchandising, social media impressionsor television viewership, which is very encouraging as we see good prospect in long run.”
While the sport may have a good prospect, it is suffering due to lack of endeavor made to promote the sport feels Madison Media Omega COO Dinesh Singh Rathod. “NBA, which is a part of breakfast viewership is there since a long time but it has been treated as another brick in the wall and no aggressive efforts were made by any broadcasters till date to properly promote a sport like NBA. Timing is another factor that plays a vital role against the development.Cricket too, if played in a time slot like this will face problems and the ad rates will go down. So overall for fans,the NBA final is a treat to watch but from a business perspective I feel lot of hard work has to be done to sell slots at a high rate,” he says.
This is the first time since 1998 that none of the participants in the Finals are the Los Angeles Lakers, the San Antonio Spurs, or the Miami Heat. Coincidentally, this is also the first NBA Finals to not feature Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, or Dwyane Wade since 1998 and the fifth consecutive NBA Finals appearance for Cleveland teammates LeBron James and James Jones, who both played for the Miami Heat the previous four seasons. The finals feature two teams with title droughts of four decades, with the Cavaliers having never won since their 1970–71 inception and the Warriors’ last title in 1975.
MUMBAI: Even though football is not considered to be a revenue generating game for broadcasters due to its limited scope to append advertisements, Ten Sports has managed to attract as many as fifteen brands across categories for the finale of the UEFA Champions League.
The much-touted finale will be played between Spanish La Liga Champions Barcelona FC and Italian SerieA triumphant Juventus in Olympiastadion Stadium, Berlin on 6 June.
Brands like Micromax, Xolo, Amul, Vini Cosmetics, L’Oreal – Garnier Men, Adidas, TVS Motors, Parle Agro, Amity University, Nissan, Sharda University, Accenture, Park Avenue, Urban Ladder and TVS Tyres are already on board.
Ten Sports senior vice president and marketing head Prasenjit Basu informs Indiantelevision.com that apart from these, many more brands have shown keen interestin associating with the final. “However, I doubt we can accommodate all of them with limited inventory left,” he says.
A media planner, who closely deals with the sports fraternity adds, “Football is not considered as a high revenue generating sport as there are not much room to showcase advertisements because of the continuous nature of the sport. However, in a match of such magnitude, the prime time begins 20 minutes before the match, which otherwise is always two minutes before kick off. And subsequently a huge number of brands get associated with the event to grab eyeballs.”
The UEFA Champions League final is one of the greatest matches in club football history and with the 2013 final drawing a record of 360 million television viewers globally, it comes as no surprise that multiple brands are vying for an ad spoton it even if it means paying a premium.
Given the high demand, Ten Sports is said to be charging as much as Rs2 – 2.75 lakh for a 10 second slot in the final. The premium rates are also owing to the sport’sgrowing viewership in India.
A media expert opines, “It’s a battle between defense and attack. Juventus will defend while Messi, Suarez and Neymar will try their level best to score for Barcelona, which makes the final a highly interesting one. So the ad rates going up is normal for such an event because everyone will try to buy a spot and grab eyeballs.”
Talking about the network’s special plans for the finale, Ten Sports CEO Rajesh Sethi says, “Ten Sports Network and Zee Network channels are being used extensively to promote the events along with digital platforms with a two pronged approach, which is content and activation led. This also includes activities like Play With The Pro -Taking the route of gamification ahead and collaborating with our panelist and an ardent gamer; Dubsmash videos; partnering with Twitter for ‘Periscope’ live mobile video broadcasting platform to take viewers at behind the scenes of the show before it goes on air; Social TVto exploit the twitter data in real time to showcase fan sentiments around the match and Missed Call Service, which allows the audience to receive our tweets in real time via SMS.”
Additionally, the channel has also created special programming where fans could get an opportunity to relive the glorious moments of the contestants from this season in ‘Road to Glory.’
In a recent deal with UEFA, Ten Sports acquired the broadcast rights of both Champions League and Europa League for a period of three years till 2018 for the Indian subcontinent, which includes India, Pakistan, Sri-Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan. The channel will broadcast these properties across all its platforms including premium HD offerings and live streaming of matches on tensports.com.
Backing the most vital game of the UEFA Champions League with extensive marketing and promotional activities, Ten Sportswill be rolling out its marquee activation – #MidnightFootballParty to capture fan frenzy related to the finale between Barcelona FC and Juventus.
Throwing light on the marketing plan, Basu says, “As the two European giants fight for the biggest crown in the continent, we will be deploying our marquee activation #MidnightFootballParty to capture on fan enthusiasm. Our prima objective is to co-create content with our fans and present it during the telecast of finals. The football fans will be treated to a lot of activities and viewers to refreshed content during the studio show.”
MUMBAI: Pro Kabaddi League, which was a grand success in 2014, will be back with its second season on 18 July, 2015 with the opening leg to be held at National Sports Club of India (NSCI) in Mumbai.
The season opener will pit the two finalists of last year, as host team U Mumba take on reigning Champions Jaipur Pink Panthers.
The league promoted by Mashal Sports and Star India with the backing of the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India and International Kabaddi Federation, will feature 60 games played across 37 days in eight cities.
Following the same ‘caravan style’ format like in the first season, the league will be played at each franchise city for a duration of four days, where the home team will play four of the visiting franchises. All seven visiting franchises will play a set of away games in each city.
After the opening leg in Mumbai, the league will move on to the Netaji Indoor Stadium, Kolkata, followed by the home of current champions, Jaipur Pink Panthers at Sawai Mangsingh Stadium in Jaipur. The Indoor Stadium at the Patliputra Sports Complex, Patna will be the venue for the culmination to the first half of PKL season 2.
Hyderabad, the new home of the Telugu Titans, will play host to the second half of the league with the caravan arriving at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium on 4 August. Moving on from Hyderabad, the league will be played in at Thyagaraj Indoor Stadium in the capital city and move onto the Kanteerava Indoor Stadium in Bangalore before culminating at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune.
For the grand finale, the play offs will return to NSCI Mumbai, with the semi-finals scheduled for 21 August and the finals and play-offs scheduled for 23 August.
MUMBAI: Multi Screen Media’s (MSM) sports and entertainment channel Sony Six has launched the Hindi feed for its wrestling entertainment property – Total Non-stop Action (TNA).
Starting 6 June, 2015, every weekend at 9pm, the channel will air two hours of the wrestling entertainment in Hindi across India. The announcement comes as a major development in response to the growing popularity of Mahabali Shera, the first-ever Indian wrestler on TNA. This also marks a significant investment by Sony Six towards the growth of wrestling programming across the Indian market.
The televised show hours will be encapsulated under the branding Shera ki Kahaani that will feature Mahabali Shera aka Amanpreet Singh and follow his storyline right from his entry in TNA.
It may be recalled that recently TNA and Sony Six signed a long-term deal, wherein the channel will be the exclusive home for all TNA-based content until 2022.
To garner viewer interest, the channel has initiated an on-air campaign, including promos inviting viewers to catch his story exclusively on Sony Six. Through this initiative, the channel aims at expanding its current programming reach amongst the vast Hindi-speaking market, which also follows combat sports keenly.
Sony Six and Sony Kix business head Prasana Krishnan said, ‘‘We are really excited to announce the launch of an alternative language feed for TNA as with this initiative we move into the next phase of expanding the popularity of TNA in India. This endeavour aligns with our commitment to constantly innovate and offer localized content to appeal to the taste of our Indian viewers. Shera’s introduction has managed to further Brand TNA in the country, and now with the launch of local feed, we aim to further expand the sampling of the sport amongst the mass viewership demographic in India.”
Sony Six has been experimenting with the local language feed offering for prime sporting properties, which has further contributed to its viewership growth. The channel initiated the local feed option by airing the 2014 FIFA World Cup for the first time ever in Bengali. Following its success, the channel also offered multiple regional feeds including Telegu, Tamil and Bengali for the Pepsi IPL 2015.
MUMBAI: Star India has bagged the exclusive telecast rights of Bundesliga football for the next five seasons 2015-16 to 2019-20.
Star India has teamed up with DFL Sports Enterprises, the sales entity of the DFL (Deutche Football League) to air the tourney in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives.
Star Sports will broadcast Bundesliga matches on a live or delayed basis across the India subcontinent, as well as provide live streaming of all matches on its digital platform, starsports.com.
“This signing is a reflection of the success we have had in seeing the Bundesliga recognized as a premium product among leading international markets. Star India provides the ideal environment for the Bundesliga to grow and prosper in India, one of our key strategic markets,” said DFL Sports Enterprises managing director Jörg Daubitzer.
Star India COO Sanjay Gupta added, “Our partnership with the Bundesliga is in line with our overall strategy to promote football and build heroes for the millions of sports fans in the country. The German national team won the FIFA World Cup last year and Germany’s in depth grassroots program has bred some of world’s best players and teams, making the Bundesliga one of the most exciting leagues to watch.”
From fan engagement programs to once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch the Bundesliga live, DFL Sports Enterprises is planning a concerted campaign to support Star in growing the Bundesliga brand in India. DFL Sports Enterprises will provide interesting and relevant interviews of some of world’s best footballing talent and customized content packages of a highly competitive league in order to connect with the fans.
