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Category: Sports

  • Cricket reality show ‘Cricket Star’ to kick off on DD & Zee on 14 January

    Cricket reality show ‘Cricket Star’ to kick off on DD & Zee on 14 January

    MUMBAI: Cricket based reality talent hunt show called Cricket Star will hit television on DD National and the Zee Network on 14 January.

    The show will run for eleven weeks, with three weekly simulcast episodes on DD National and Zee Sports, on Sundays at 11:30 am, Mondays and Tuesdays at 8:30 pm and a weekly episode on Zee TV on Saturdays from 6.30 pm to 7.30 pm.
    Investors In Cricket, a company specializing in the creation and management of sports rights that have relevance to the Asian Sub continent has conceptualized the show Cricket Star. The company then signed on cricket gurus Kapil Dev and Saurav Ganguly to be the selectors while Ajay Jadeja has been appointed as a cricket analyst and co-anchor. The show will be hosted by TV personality Shweta Salve.

    After weeks of mini and regional auditions conducted across the nation in 11 cities including Jaipur, Jamshedpur, Rajkot, Lucknow, Mysore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore, 23 participants were shortlisted. These 23 will now be competing with each other to be the Cricket Star of India.

    The winner of the first series, Cricket Star India, will win a one-year all-expenses-paid contract with Leicestershire County Cricket Club and attractive cash prizes and will also achieve international celebrity status. The final 11 contestants will also have the opportunity to participate in the global rollout of Cricket Star, which is slated for a UK launch in summer 2007 and a subsequent launch in Pakistan, where there is significant interest in the format, informs an official release.

    With Sourav being away in South Africa, the selection was conducted under cricket gurus Kapil Dev (Selector) and Robin Singh (Director of Academy). Ajay Jadeja (Cricket Analyst) was present throughout the regional rounds providing support and tips to the young cricket participants. Cricket Star aspirants will play a series of 20:20 cricket matches as part of the programme, which will be telecast on Zee Sports on Sundays at 3 pm – 6 pm.

    Each week at the Cricket Star Academy contestants will be subjected to specialized cricket tests, personal challenges and master class inputs from legends of the game, along with cricket coaching and fitness training. Based on their performances each week, the judges will nominate the bottom four performers, out of whom the other contestants will evict two. Following which, the final eleven contestants, will be voted by television by phone or SMS. The contestant receiving the maximum votes cumulatively will be declared the Cricket Star. The show will culminate in the final episode in the end of March.

    The IIC has signed on Miditech Pvt. Ltd as the production house for the show.

  • US PGA Tour: Buick Invitational Live on Ten Sports

    MUMBAI: Ten Sports will show live coverage of all four days of the Buick Invitational golf this week from Friday 26th to Sunday 29th January with golf fans hoping for a repeat of the excitement of last year.

     

    In 2006 Tiger Woods won the tournament for the 4th time, winning a dramatic play off against 2 time Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal and Australian rookie Nathan Green. It meant three wins in 4 years for Tiger Woods at the event, which has been running since 1952 and at the Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla California since 1968.

     

    The live coverage runs from 0130 – 0430 IST with the action from the last 2 days repeated in prime time at 1915 IST on Sunday 28th and Monday 29th.

     

    Ten Sports broadcasts exclusive coverage of the US PGA tour, European tour and the US PGA Championships as well as coverage of the top Indian golf events.

     

    Schedule:

    Day Date Time Event
    Friday 26/1/07 1:30 a.m. US PGA Tour: BUICK INVITATIONAL Day 1 (LIVE)
    Saturday 27/1/07 1:30 a.m. US PGA Tour: BUICK INVITATIONAL Day 2 (LIVE)
    Sunday 28/1/07 1:30 a.m. US PGA Tour: BUICK INVITATIONAL Day 3 (LIVE)
    Monday 29/1/07 1:30 a.m. US PGA Tour: BUICK INVITATIONAL Day 4 (LIVE)

    ABOUT TEN SPORTS: Only launched in April 2002, Taj TV’s Ten Sports is watched by more viewers than any other sports channel in the sub-continent and is available in nearly 50 million cable/ satellite households worldwide. In just a short span of three years, Ten Sports has also become the world’s biggest producers of cricket.

    The channel broadcasts cricket from Sharjah, the West Indies, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Morocco throughout the Indian sub-continent and Asia, as well as in Europe and the Middle East. Other cricket properties broadcast by Ten Sports in certain territories include internationals from India, the World Cup 2003 and the ICC Champions Trophy 2004.

     

    FOR MORE INFORMATION ON TEN SPORTS PROGRAMMES, CONTACT:

    Murtuza Madraswala – Taj Television India Pvt Ltd, 403 Manish Commercial Complex, Dr. A.B. Road, Mumbai, India. Tel no: +91 22 6662 3101; Fax no: +91 22 6662 629; Email: murtuzam@tajtv.com or visit www.tensports.com

  • WWE: New Year’s Revolution On Ten Sports

    MUMBAI: The worlds top wrestlers are on Ten Sports this Sunday in the first Pay Per View Special of the New Year. It airs on Sunday, 21st January 2007 at 11.30 am

     

     

     

     

    The undoubted highlight of a packed show is John Cena’s defence of the WWE Championship against the undefeated Samoan Bulldozer, Umaga.

     

    The challenge for this match was originally laid out on Raw one night after Survivor Series. While Umaga was disqualified at the pay-per-view, the Samoan Bulldozer went on a rampage and looked dominant by destroying everything in his path. Because of this, and because no one has been able to challenge Umaga since his debut in April, manager Armando Alejandro Estrada felt that the only thing left for his undefeated protégé to do was become WWE Champion. Moments after Estrada laid out the challenge, Cena stormed to the ring and quickly accepted before staring down Umaga.

     

    The following week, Jonathan Coachman announced that the battle between Cena and Umaga would take place at New Year’s Revolution. Later that night, after The Champ defeated Chris Masters in a Master Lock Challenge, the Bulldozer stormed the ring looking to get it on early. Cena met him when he did, and the two men engaged in a lengthy brawl that took almost a dozen people to break up.

     

    In over eight months of competition, no one has been able to defeat the dangerous Samoan Bulldozer. With the WWE Championship at stake, will that streak continue or will John Cena finally put a blemish on Umaga’s record

     

    Ten Sports broadcasts WWE 365 days a year with 7 weekly shows as well as the monthly pay per view specials in the most viewed regular sports shows in the sub-continent.

     

     

    ABOUT TEN SPORTS: Only launched in April 2002, Taj TV’s Ten Sports is watched by more viewers than any other sports channel in the sub-continent and is available in more than 50 million cable/ satellite households worldwide. Ten Sports is the world’s biggest producers of cricket. The Channel broadcasts cricket from Sharjah, the West Indies, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Morocco throughout the Indian sub-continent and Asia, as well as in Europe and the Middle East. Other cricket properties broadcast by Ten Sports in certain territories include internationals from India, the World Cup 2003 and the ICC Champions Trophy 2004.

     

    For more information on Ten Sports programmes, contact:

    Murtuza Madraswala – Taj Television India Pvt Ltd, 403 Manish Commercial Complex, Dr. A.B. Road, Mumbai, India. Tel no: +91 22 6662 3101; Fax no: +91 22 6662 629; Email: murtuzam@tajtv.com or visit www.tensports.com.

  • SET Network to telecast all the Matches during ICC Cricket World Cup 2007

    This World Cup, don’t miss any of the matches: catch the Group stage matches on MAX, SAB & PIX. All Super Eight matches, Semis & Finals to be simulcast on MAX and SAB, in English and Hindi respectively.

    MUMBAI: This summer, viewers can get set for a grand cricketing feast from the 13th March to 28th April 07 as the SET Network announces the schedule for the telecast of the biggest event of the cricketing calendar in the last 4 years – The ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. Viewers will get to enjoy all 51 matches, as the SET Network will bring a world class feed of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 Live across its 3 channels – MAX, SAB and PIX.

     

    MAX will continue to blend the excitement of cricket with its inimitable dose of entertainment – “extraaa innings”. All the matches of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 will be telecast live. The coverage starts with “extraaa innings” from 5pm onwards on all match days on MAX and SAB.

     

    Kunal Dasgupta, CEO, SET India Private Limited said, “MAX has always garnered an unprecedented television viewership during Cricket tournaments. For the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 we have made every effort to provide the viewers with unique access to live world class coverage and also ensuring that not a single match will be missed.”

     

    Rohit Gupta, Executive Vice President, Ad Sales & Revenue Management, SET India Private Limited said, “ICC Cricket World Cup is the biggest Television Event which happens once every 4 years and reaches out to nearly 80% of the C&S audience. And to make it even bigger this time around we will show almost all the matches on SAB in Hindi as well. Thus the platform for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 matches will be far bigger as we cater to a much larger and varied audience. It’s a huge value add for the advertisers since previously we only had 12 matches on SAB and now we will be airing all the matches. We are sure of a far greater reach with a bigger platform for ratings and viewership.”

     

    The upcoming cricket tournament in 2007 will feature 16 teams allocated into four groups of four. Within each group, the teams will play each other in a round-robin format and the top two teams will advance to the “Super Eight” round. The telecast schedule includes all group stage matches to air on MAX, SAB & PIX while the Super Eight Series matches and will be aired on MAX and simulcast in Hindi on SAB.

     

    Reliance & Nokia are the co-presenters for the broadcast of ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. Hero Honda, Maruti, ITC Foods, Pepsi, Videocon, LG and Aditya Birla Group are the associate sponsors.

     

    Schedule for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007

     

    Date Max Sab Pix
    13th March West Indies v Pakistan    
    14th March Australia v Scotland Kenya v Canada  
    15th March Sri Lanka v Bermuda Zimbabwe v Ireland  
    16th March England v New Zealand South Africa v The Netherlands  
    17th March India v Bangladesh India v Bangladesh Pakistan v Ireland
    18th March Australia v The Netherlands England v Canada  
    19th March India v Bermuda India v Bermuda West Indies v Zimbabwe
    20th March New Zealand v Kenya South Africa v Scotland  
    21st March Sri Lanka v Bangladesh Zimbabwe v Pakistan  
    22nd March New Zealand v Canada Scotland v The Netherlands  
    23rd March India v Sri Lanka India v Sri Lanka West Indies v Ireland
    24th March Australia v South Africa England v Kenya  
    25th March Bermuda v Bangladesh    

    SECOND STAGE – SUPER EIGHT SERIES. Matches to be simulcast on Max and Sab.

    Date Match
    27th March D2 v A1 (West Indies v Australia)
    28th March A2 v B1 (South Africa v Sri Lanka)
    29th March D2 v C1 (West Indies v New Zealand)
    30th March D1 v C2 (Pakistan v England)
    31st March A1 v B2 (Australia v India)
    1st April D2 v B1 (West Indies v Sri Lanka)
    2nd April B2 v C1 (India v New Zealand)
    3rd April D1 v A2 (Pakistan v South Africa)
    4th April C2 v B1 (England v Sri Lanka)
    7th April B2 v A2 (India v South Africa)
    8th April A1 v C2 (Australia v England)
    9th April D1 v C1 (Pakistan v New Zealand)
    10th April D2 v A2 (West Indies v South Africa)
    11th April C2 v B2 (England v India)
    12th April B1 v C1 (Sri Lanka v New Zealand)
    13th April A1 v D1 (Australia v Pakistan)
    14th April A2 v C1 (South Africa v New Zealand)
    15th April B2 v D1 (India v Pakistan)
    16th April A1 v B1 (Australia v Sri Lanka)
    17th April A2 v C2 (South Africa v England)
    18th April D1 v B1 (Pakistan v Sri Lanka)
    19th April D2 v B2 (West Indies v India)
    20th April A1 v C1 (Australia v New Zealand)
    21st April D2 v C2 (West Indies v England)
    24th April Semi Final 1: 2 v 3
    25th April Semi Final 2: 1 v 4
    28th April Final

  • Rakshanda Khan, Ranvir Shorey to run the marathon to support a cause Make-A-Wish Foundation of India

    MUMBAI: The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 07′ will witness 57 Make-A-Wish volunteers, staff members and supporters participating in the 6 km Dream Run, endorsing one of the most unique causes – granting wishes of children suffering from life-threatening illnesses.

    The group will be led by the Founder Trustee Mr. Uday Joshi and his wife Mrs. Gita Joshi. Encouraging Make-A-Wish Foundation’s 1 st attempt at the Marathon, are three well-known names – Ms. Rakshanda Khan, Mr. Ranvir Shorey and Mr. Rajat Kapoor.

     

    Looking forward to the occasion, Founder Trustee – Make-A-Wish Foundation ® of India, Mr. Uday Joshi enthused, “We are very excited about being a part of this world renowned event. We invite more people to come forward and be a part of our cause and help us spread smiles on the faces of many more children.”

     

    Rakshanda Khan, who is equally touched by the cause, says, ” I am glad to be running for Make-A-Wish Foundation® of India, an NGO that fulfills the cherished wishes of children suffering from life-threatening illnesses. It is a cause very close to my heart and I urge you all to show solidarity in furthering this noble cause of Make-A-Wish Foundation ®.” Mr. Shorey echoed similar sentiments.

  • SC tells ESPN to call on it, if govt. seeks to coerce

    SC tells ESPN to call on it, if govt. seeks to coerce

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court told ESPN-STAR Sports that it could approach it in case the latter finds itself being coerced by the Central government for not sharing its exclusive feed of the just concluded India-South Africa cricket series with Prasar Bharati.

    The court disposed of the application holding that with the statement of the government, nothing survives in the application.

    The bench, comprising Justice Ashok Bhan and Justice Dalveer Bhandari, on recording the statement of Additional Solicitor General Amrender Saran, that till date, the government had not taken any coercive step, and if it decides to do so, it would issue a show-cause notice, said then the applicant would be free to approach the court, as the series is already over.

    Incidentally, a petition challenging the government guidelines to compulsorily share feed of every national or international tournament with the public broadcaster, namely Doordarshan, in public interest is already pending in the court.

    Earlier, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the channel, had contended that his application was for stay of coercive steps and must not be confined to the India-South Africa cricket series.

    ESPN-Star Sports had last week stated that it had filed a writ petition in the Delhi High court seeking to quash the downlinking guidelines, issued in November 2005, compelling the television channels to share the telecast of all matches, even if they were played outside India. This petition was subsequently shifted to the apex court.

    The petitioner had said that though it had exclusive rights for the telecast of the matches, it apprehended that the government would penalise the channel by invoking the provisions under the downlinking guidelines.

    Prasar Bharati had requested it to share the Star-ESPN feed with Doordarshan’s terrestrial channel and proposed sharing of revenue in the ratio of 75:25.

    ESPN-Star Sports had said it would be willing to share the dirty feed (the signal along with advertisements and logo) provided Prasar Bharati paid Rs 35 million for one-day internationals as compensation for loss of subscription revenue.

    It was apparent that Prasar Bharati only wanted to make money and was not really interested whether the public were able to watch cricket matches or not, the petitioner had argued.

    It had sought quashing of the guidelines on downlinking policy.

    In response to that and the hearings today, the Apex court today told ESPN to come back to it if they felt coercion is being resorted to.

  • Mobile video to boost sports services market: Juniper report

    Mobile video to boost sports services market: Juniper report

    MUMBAI: The increasing influence of mobile video enabled on 3G networks will drive the uptake of many mobile sports, leisure and information services over the next five years, says Juniper Research.

    The global market for sports, leisure and information content (infotainment) is set to grow from its 2006 value of just under $4.2 billion to $9.5 billion by 2011. The largest geographic market is forecast to be in Europe, which is expected to account for 40 per cent of revenues over the 2006 to 2011 period, with Asia Pacific contributing 33 per cent and the rapidly growing US market 18 per cent.

    The Asia Pacific region, according to the Juniper Research report, would generate the most infotainment traffic over the period, but higher price levels would make Europe the largest revenue generator.

    The report’s author Bruce Gibson said, “video has the potential to transform the user experience of many infotainment services, provided the video quality is good enough. The continued roll-out of 3G services globally will provide the platform for the development of high quality video content based services.”

    Types of services that will particularly benefit from enhanced video capability will include sports services, services based around TV shows and celebrities, traffic update services, news services and community applications with user generated content. Growth in sports services and services with user generated content should be particularly strong.

    Gibson adds, “Sports services are getting repeated boosts by high profile global and regional sporting events. 2008 will be a significant year in market growth with Uefa Euro 2008 and the Beijing Olympics. However the need to acquire mobile sports rights is keeping sports service prices high and these services require high quality and timely content.

    “On the other hand community applications with user generated content have relatively low cost content acquisition and minimise much of the complexity of content acquisition and updating. We see growth opportunities in both market sectors for very different reasons.”

  • BDO Hockey Champions Trophy live on Ten Sports

    MUMBAI: The biggest stars in world hockey will be on show for the next 9 days on Ten Sports as the channel shows exclusive live coverage of the biggest womens hockey event of the year. The BDO Champions Trophy in Quilmes, Argentina will see the top 6 nations in action with each match shown live along with prime time highlights of each days’ action.

    Hosts Argentina will take on defending champions Germany, World Cup winners the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and Spain in a highly anticipated tournament, as the sides start their build up to the Beijing Olympics. The Indian womens team are currently 13th in the Sahara World Rankings and miss out on the event.

    Live coverage begins with Netherlands against Spain at 2330 IST on the 13th of January with highlights of all three games from day 1 at 2030 IST on the 14th of January.

    Ten Sports has the exclusive rights to broadcasts the biggest international hockey events including the World Cups and the Champions Trophies. The channel will also broadcast India’s next world ranked event, as they attempt to climb back into the elite of mens hockey by winning the Champions Challenge in June.

    Schedule:

    Match Date Match # IST Match
    Sat 13 Jan 2007
    1
    23:30
    		 Netherlands vs Spain
     
    2
    01:45
    		 Japan vs Australia
     
    3
    04:45
    		 Argentina vs Germany
     
     
     
    		  
    Sun 14 Jan 2007
    4
    00:30
    		 Netherlands vs Japan
     
    5
    02:45
    		 Australia vs Germany
     
    6
    05:45
    		 Spain vs Argentina
    Tue 16 Jan 2007
    7
    00:30
    		 Spain vs Australia
     
    8
    02:45
    		 Germany vs Japan
     
    9
    05:45
    		 Argentina vs Netherlands
     
     
     
    		  
    Thu 18 Jan 2007
    10
    00:30
    		 Germany vs Spain
     
    11
    02:45
    		 Australia vs Netherlands
     
    12
    05:45
    		 Japan vs Argentina
     
     
     
    		  
    Sat 20 Jan 2007
    13
    21:45
    		 Netherlands vs Germany
     
    14
    00:00
    		 Spain vs Japan
     
    15
    02:15
    		 Argentina vs Australia
     
     
     
    		  
    Sun 21 Jan 2007
    16
    00:15
    		 5th vs 6th
     
    17
    03:00
    		 3rd vs 4th
     
    18
    05:45
    		 1st vs 2nd

  • Twenty20 injects new life into sports broadcast

    Though it had cricket, Neo Sports also found the going tough. Its distribution deal with Star fell through. This cost it crores of rupees in terms of ad revenue not to mention the fact that the payments that were contractually due to Neo were delayed – or never arrived. It set up its own distribution team headed by Arun Poddar. But without branding in the market monies it got would have been affected.

    On the advertising front Neo Sports CEO Shashi Kalathil says that the fact that DD bid heavily to do its own marketing for the Pakistan series proved to be a boon. It added Rs. 180 million its kitty, claims Kalathil.

    Non Encryption: There is no respite for sports broadcasters on this issue. Sports feed to DD will not to be encrypted for four to five years. This will impact all the players, more so Neo Sports since it holds the India rights.

    In terms of other sports ESS is re-jigging its Premier Hockey League (PHL) initiative. ESPN had to be careful and innovate the strategy this year since there are a lesser number of teams – this being the Olympic selection year and most top international players being busy – and so the duration of the tourney is also shorter. The media fraternity though, feels that PHL is still to attain some sort of sizeable recognition even though ESS has been doing it for the past few years.

    Mallya brings home an F1 Team: The biggest non cricket event though was news that Vijay Mallya bought the Dutch F1 team Spyker Ferrari. It was then renamed Force 1 India. This news coupled with the fact that India will hold an F1 event a few years down the road is expected to give a boost to motor racing in the country in a big way.

    The Advertising Scene

    Information available with Indiantelevision.com indicates that the sports genre earned around Rs. 7.5 billion this year. ESS made around Rs. 2.2 billion. Ten Sports and Zee Sports combined made around Rs. 700 million. Sony made Rs 3 billion.

    Sinha says that the biggest learning is that everything depends on performance. “When India does well clients get a very healthy return. But when they do not it can be disastrous which is what happened with the World Cup. Hundreds of crores were lost by clients. T20 was a success more due to India’s performance in the form of the game as opposed to the format itself.”

    “Had India fared poorly in the T20 World Cup also the mood would have been very different. Some fringe clients who occasionally invest in cricket got out after the World Cup experience. India’s failure to quality for the Super Eight is something that will haunt some clients and media planners for a long while. The premiums paid were so high that it was impossible for anybody to prepare for what was to follow.”

    And what about talks of accountability? Sinha notes that it is practically difficult apart from maybe a couple of big clients to do this. Venkateish maintains that ESS did not fall into this trap. “After all clients who get involved know that there are ups and downs. If the ratings for a tournament are great we do not ask those who have already signed on to pay more. So why should we take less?”

    Set India executive VP Rohit Gupta adds that for clients like Pepsi it balances out in the long term. “The 2003 World Cup was a bonanza. Yes the 2007 World Cup was bad but then things turned for the better. Most clients who get involved understand this. They are in for the long haul. In addition for each category there are several companies vying for a spot. So in telecom if Reliance for instance pulls out of cricket there will always be an Idea or Vodafone to step in.”

    It is pertinent to note that clients who kept the faith and got in early for the England series and especially the T20 World Cup got a terrific bang for their buck. After all the net effect of the World Cup debacle was that clients were able to negotiate better rates for the events that immediately followed.

    In conclusion, what both IPL and ICL bring to the Twenty20 table is that it is all to the good for the stakeholders – because it derisks cricket.

  • Zee Sports to launch cricket talk show

    MUMBAI: Zee Sports will launch a show Cricket Talk on 3 January. It will air every Wednesday at 9:30 pm.

    Hosted by Zee Jockey Vineet Malhotra, the weekly half an hour show will focus on getting cricketers closer to the Indian sports fan. Each episode will focus on an individual cricketer, his relationships with people and the forces that influenced his career.

    Reebok is the title sponsor for the show. Some of the cricketers who will be featured in Cricket Talk are Australian captain Ricky Ponting, South African fast bowler Shaun Pollock and Sri Lankan batsmen Kumar Sangakkara. Cricket Talk aims to reflect the overall personality of a cricketer.