ITV

Category: Sports

  • Nimbus bags Bangla cricket rights for $ 56 million

    Nimbus bags Bangla cricket rights for $ 56 million

    MUMBAI: About the only consistent aspect of bidding for cricket rights is that no one seems to have a fix on just how high the numbers will go. Test minnows Bangladesh has sold to Nimbus Sport, the marketing rights for international cricket matches held in that country till 2012 for a whopping $ 56.88 million.

    To put some perspective on the matter, $11.75 million is what ESPN Star Sports paid the Bangladesh cricket Board (BCB) last time round when it acquired the rights for a period of five years. Those rights expired in April last year.

    The BCB’s new tender invitation is for the period 1 November 2006 to 31 March 2012. Bangladesh is expected to play 21-23 Test matches and 59-61 internationals during this period.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com earlier, ESPN India MD RC Venkateish had said that his network was certainly interested in renewing the rights.

    Nimbus’ bid was over $ 23 million higher than next in line Zee Telefilms’ tender, newswire Press Trust of India quoted Bangladesh Cricket Board general secretary Mahbub Anam as saying on Friday.
    “We will sign a contract with Nimbus within the next two weeks. All we need now is the government’s seal of approval,” Anam said.

    Two key clauses in the tender document issued by the BCB were:

    * Production the responsibility of the bidder though there are allowable expenses against the winning bid (subject to the board agreeing) including production costs.

    * All revenues will be shared between BCCB and the successful bidder in a ratio of 80:20 in favour of BCCB.

    Nimbus’ telecast of Bangladesh cricket begins later this month with a five-match one-day series against Zimbabwe. After that, Bangladesh plays Bermuda and Canada in early 2007 (two ODIs each).

  • Nimbus looks to push genre frontiers with Neo Sports Plus

    Nimbus looks to push genre frontiers with Neo Sports Plus

    MUMBAI: Your Gateway to the best sporting action! This is the tagline that Nimbus is using to push its second channel Neo Sports Plus. The channel, which Nimbus says is a sports entertainment offering, has launched today. Sister cricket channel Neo Sports had launched a month back.

    Neo Sports Plus will offer content from a variety of sports like soccer, badminton, motorsports. As Nimbus chairman Harish Thawani says, “Some of the recent Indian sporting achievements have come from sports disciplines like golf, tennis and motor racing, to name a few. On the back of these developments we believe that there is potential in building sustained consumer interest in sports beyond cricket amongst Indians in the medium to long term through strategic content and marketing initiatives.”

    On the soccer front Neo Sports Plus has acquired content from Italy, Germany, Brazil and Argentina through leagues like Bundesliga, Serie A, Copa Suda Americana and Copa Libertadores. In motorsports it has got V8 Supercars and Superbike World Championships. Additionally, the channel is also focussing on badminton through properties like the Sudirman Cup, The Thomas Cup, The Uber Cup and The World Badminton Championship. Thawani says that the sport, despite strong grassroots support in India, has not got the backing of a channel to realise its potential.

    Neo Sports Broadcast CEO Shashi Kalathil says that the aim is to build up passion for different sports in the long run. It has sports entertainment concepts on the drawing board. Some shows have gone into production. The channel is looking at chat shows, reality shows, sports serials, game shows, quizzes etc.

    Further Neo Sports Plus will also air India cricket in dubbed languages like Hindi. This initiative kicks off this month with the Duleep trophy. Kalathil says that search has been done into what kind of sports entertainment concepts the Indian viewer will like and dislike.

    It has already come up with some entertainment shows. One of them is Unbreakable. This focusses on a memorable performance of a batsman or a bowler or a partnership that refused to buckle under pressure. Then there is Test of Strength. This is a daily show that focusses on India’s great cricketing moments. When India Beat looks at victories by the Indian cricket team. Neo Sports Rewind provides a crisp look at classic ODIs. Mission Impossible is a one hour show that looks at some of the finest cricket matches. The anchor takes viewers through the match and sees how an individual made the impossible possible.

  • WWE gets over 14 million votes online for pay per view event

    WWE gets over 14 million votes online for pay per view event

    MUMBAI: World wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has announced that its Cyber Sunday interactive pay-per-view sent fans into a record breaking voting frenzy.

    About 2.5 million fans cast more than 14.6 million votes for interactive elements in the Cyber Sunday pay-per-view, more than twice as many votes as were cast for last year’s interactive pay-per-view, Taboo Tuesday. In India WWE airs on Ten Sports.
    Voting during Cyber Sunday’s live broadcast last night got as high as 6,000 votes per minute during the three-hour pay-per-view. The free voting for Cyber Sunday ran from October 16 through the end of yesterday’s pay-per-view.

    WWE senior VP interactive media Chris Chambers says, “The interest of our fans in deciding the various interactive elements of Cyber Sunday just blew us away.”

    WWE.com last month increased monthly unique visitors to more than 17 million. WWE says that it continues to add daily new content and video for fans to view around the clock online.

  • INDIAN HOCKEY FEDERATION

    INDIAN HOCKEY FEDERATION

    Unlike last two years where the league had two tiers with five teams each, the third edition of the PHL will have the top seven teams from the last years’s edition battiling for the country’s top Hockey team.The team have been chosen on the basis of their perfomance in last years PHL – namely, Sher-e-Jalandhar, Chandigarh Dynamos,Maratha Warriors, Banglore Lions and Hyderabad Sultans,the top two teams from Tier ||,that is,Orissa Steelers and Chennai Veerans will be playing in the Preimier division.

    The Premier division will have the seven teams play each other twice, in 42 matches, followed by a best of 3 play-off final between the top two teams in the league like last year. The total number of matches in all will be 45 and will span a period of two months.

    This edition of PHL will also see it move to a multi venue format with Chennai to play host for the PHL for the first month, followed by Chandigarh in the second. All matches will under lights as before and be covered LIVE and and exclusive by ESPN STAR Sports.

  • INDIAN HOCKEY FEDERATION

    INDIAN HOCKEY FEDERATION

    Unlike last two years where the league had two tiers with five teams each, the third edition of the PHL will have the top seven teams from the last years’s edition battiling for the country’s top Hockey team.The team have been chosen on the basis of their perfomance in last years PHL – namely, Sher-e-Jalandhar, Chandigarh Dynamos,Maratha Warriors, Banglore Lions and Hyderabad Sultans,the top two teams from Tier ||,that is,Orissa Steelers and Chennai Veerans will be playing in the Preimier division.

    The Premier division will have the seven teams play each other twice, in 42 matches, followed by a best of 3 play-off final between the top two teams in the league like last year. The total number of matches in all will be 45 and will span a period of two months.

    This edition of PHL will also see it move to a multi venue format with Chennai to play host for the PHL for the first month, followed by Chandigarh in the second. All matches will under lights as before and be covered LIVE and and exclusive by ESPN STAR Sports.

  • Zee Sports to telecast Sony Ericsson world tennis championship

    Zee Sports to telecast Sony Ericsson world tennis championship

    MUMBAI: Zee Sports will telecast the season ending Sony Ericsson Championship from Madrid Arena, Madrid from 8 November to 12 November, 2006. The Sony Ericsson Championship gather the Top eight singles players and top four doubles teams from the regular 2006 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour season as they battle it out for the season ending titles and a share of the $ 3 million prize money.

    The top eight women players who have qualified for this edition of Sony Ericsson World Championship are Justine Henin Hardenne, Amelia Mauresmo, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznestsova, Nadia Petrova, Elena Dementieva, Martina Hingis and Kim Clisters. The defending champions are Amelie Mauresmo (singles) and Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur (doubles), the release adds.

    Four former champions and five number ones are in Madrid this week for arguably the most competitive season-ending Championships in Sony Ericsson WTA Tour history, which also features the first-ever three-way battle for the year-end number one ranking. Honoring the host nation, the two Groups have been named Yellow and Red, with four players from the elite eight – who qualified based on their results during the regular 2006 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour season – randomly placed in each group.
    The world’s top two players –number one Amélie Mauresmo and number two Maria Sharapova – head the Yellow and Red Groups respectively. Completing the Yellow Group is world number three Justine Henin-Hardenne, number five Nadia Petrova and number eight Martina Hingis. The remainder of an almost all-Russian Red Group consists of number four Svetlana Kuznetsova, number six Kim Clijsters and number seven Elena Dementieva. For the first time in Sony Ericsson WTA Tour history, there is a three-way battle for the year-end number one ranking, with incumbent Mauresmo up against Sharapova and Henin-Hardenne for the coveted achievement, the release states.

    The round robin stage of the Sony Ericsson Championships will be conducted over four days between Wednesday and Friday, with each player meeting the other three women in their Group. The top two performers in each Group advance to semifinals, with the final scheduled for Sunday.

    Catch the action LIVE and EXCLUSIVE on Zee Sports

    Sony Ericsson World Championship
    Nov 8, 2006
    10:30 pm onwards

    Sony Ericsson World Championship
    Nov 9, 2006
    10:30 pm onwards

    Sony Ericsson World Championship
    Nov 10, 2006
    10:30 pm onwards

    Sony Ericsson World Championship
    Nov 11, 2006
    6:00 pm onwards

    Sony Ericsson World Championship
    Nov 12, 2006
    9:00 pm onwards

  • INDIAN HOCKEY FEDERATION

    INDIAN HOCKEY FEDERATION

    Unlike last two years where the league had two tiers with five teams each, the third edition of the PHL will have the top seven teams from the last years’s edition battiling for the country’s top Hockey team.The team have been chosen on the basis of their perfomance in last years PHL – namely, Sher-e-Jalandhar, Chandigarh Dynamos,Maratha Warriors, Banglore Lions and Hyderabad Sultans,the top two teams from Tier ||,that is,Orissa Steelers and Chennai Veerans will be playing in the Preimier division.

    The Premier division will have the seven teams play each other twice, in 42 matches, followed by a best of 3 play-off final between the top two teams in the league like last year. The total number of matches in all will be 45 and will span a period of two months.

    This edition of PHL will also see it move to a multi venue format with Chennai to play host for the PHL for the first month, followed by Chandigarh in the second. All matches will under lights as before and be covered LIVE and and exclusive by ESPN STAR Sports.

  • INDIAN HOCKEY FEDERATION

    INDIAN HOCKEY FEDERATION

    Unlike last two years where the league had two tiers with five teams each, the third edition of the PHL will have the top seven teams from the last years’s edition battiling for the country’s top Hockey team.The team have been chosen on the basis of their perfomance in last years PHL – namely, Sher-e-Jalandhar, Chandigarh Dynamos,Maratha Warriors, Banglore Lions and Hyderabad Sultans,the top two teams from Tier ||,that is,Orissa Steelers and Chennai Veerans will be playing in the Preimier division.

    The Premier division will have the seven teams play each other twice, in 42 matches, followed by a best of 3 play-off final between the top two teams in the league like last year. The total number of matches in all will be 45 and will span a period of two months.

    This edition of PHL will also see it move to a multi venue format with Chennai to play host for the PHL for the first month, followed by Chandigarh in the second. All matches will under lights as before and be covered LIVE and and exclusive by ESPN STAR Sports.

  • INDIAN HOCKEY FEDERATION

    INDIAN HOCKEY FEDERATION

    Unlike last two years where the league had two tiers with five teams each, the third edition of the PHL will have the top seven teams from thelast years’s edition battiling for the country’s top Hockeyteam.The team have been chosen on the basis of their perfomance in last years PHL – namely, Sher-e-Jalandhar, Chandigarh Dynamos,Maratha Warriors, Banglore Lions and Hyderabad Sultans,the top two teams from Tier ||,that is,Orissa Steelers and Chennai Veerans will be playing in the Preimier division.

    The Premier division will have the seven teams play each other twice, in 42 matches, followed by a best of 3 play-off final between the top two teams in the league like last year. The total number of matches in all will be 45 and will span a period of two months.

    This edition of PHL will also see it move to a multi venue format with Chennai to play host for the PHL for the first month, followed by Chandigarh in the second. All matches will under lights as before and be covered LIVE and and exclusive by ESPN STAR Sports.

  • ABU slams changes in Beijing 2008 Olympics schedule

    ABU slams changes in Beijing 2008 Olympics schedule

    MUMBAI: The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) has added its weight to the rising chorus of protests against the recent rescheduling of key events for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

    IOC’s decision, announced last week, to reschedule the swimming and gymnastics finals to the morning, Beijing time, instead of holding them in the evening as is traditional, is seen as being a result of the pressure exerted by the powerful “US lobby”. Television network NBC, which paid $3.55 billion for the US telecast rights for the Olympics, wants to ensure that these events are seen at prime-time in North America.

    ABU President Genichi Hashimoto made the protest call at a news conference in Beijing yesterday on the eve of the ABU’s annual General Assembly.

    “We are very disappointed and strongly regret the changes that have been made to the time schedule for swimming and gymnastics,” said Hashimoto, who is also president of Japan’s public broadcaster NHK.

    “The Olympic Games is a highly-anticipated event which everyone all over the world is looking forward to watching. We have to give serious consideration to this matter so that such a regrettable incident will never happen again in the future,” added Hashimoto.

    Les Murray, ABU Sports Group chairman and editorial supervisor for SBS Sports, Australia, said the majority of the press has described this “as the worst decision by the International Olympic Committee in recent memory and one that is obviously designed to only benefit the giant US television network NBC.”

    The move could cost Asian broadcasters millions of dollars in lost ad revenue, said ABU’s head of Sports John Barton.

    “We want the Olympic family to be strong. We want to see a true partnership of equals regardless of commercial muscle,” ABU secretary-general David Astley said in a speech to the sports group meeting that preceded the general assembly.

    How the IOC responds to the ABU’s protests, which follow those made earlier by the European Broadcasting Union, will be watched closely. Asian broadcasters, which include the host of the 2008 Games, would likely have a more telling influence in the matter.