ITV

Category: Sports

  • Fifa World Cup: ESS’ Goal That All Ride It

    It was around January that the team at ESPN Software India, led by managing director RC Venkateish, decided to evolve a game plan encompassing marketing, promotion and programming for the biggest spectacle in the world aka the soccer World Cup.

    Somewhere in the subconscious was also the fact that the Fifa event needed to be put up on a scale in India that would neutralise the lack of Indian cricket (considered the biggest sporting draw in the India sub-continent) on ESPN and Star Sports, which are managed in Asia by a joint venture company ESPN Star Sports.
    ESPN Software India MD RC Venkateish

    A successfully implemented soccer strategy would not only get in distribution gains, but would also partially offset (notional) revenue losses for lack of Indian cricket for which ESS has made a lunge twice without success till now.

    Considering ESPN’s parent Disney, according to international media reports, had forked out a whopping $100 million for the English-language rights to broadcast the World Cup across ABC and ESPN, it was worth giving their all, Team Venky probably must have thought.

    From here germinated the idea to have an integrated marketing, programming and promotional strategy for the Fifa show that culminated almost four months later into Duniya Goal Hai (loosely meaning the world would be watching soccer) — the punch line for ESS’ football campaign that is now being ramped up big time as D-Day for the opening event of the globe’s biggest sporting spectacle draws ever nearer. Of course, there were dollops of creative inputs from JWT, the agency for ESS in India.

    “Soccer is getting much bigger in India than it was in 2002, the last World Cup (that was shown on Ten Sports in India). Over 55 million people have watched the European League this season,” a bullish Venkateish says.

    After all, the matches of the Fifa World Cup, holding centre stage from 9 June to 9 July, have convenient timings with some starting at 6:30 pm IST just ahead of prime time viewing and when people would be trooping back from office.

    About 75 million Indians sampled the telecast of World Cup 2002 on Ten Sports and DD with a cumulative audience reach of 30.2 million in India. For the last World Cup, which marked the debut of Ten Sports in India, despite its limited spread in terms of distribution, the channel had ratings of over 50 per cent in places like Kolkata for the final.

    On the other hand, ESPN, which aired an India-Sri Lanka cricket ODI on the day the final match of 2002 WC was played, could muster ratings of just 14-15 per cent.

    The Euro 2004 continued the growth and had a cumulative audience reach of 32.3 million viewers in. This interest in soccer in India now touches even EPL that had a reach of 42.8 million for the season till date, according to ESPN.

    “This means that nearly one in every two individuals in cable homes across India has sampled the EPL,” Venkateish points out, adding that ESS hopes to further heighten this popularity through Fifa World Cup matches and other related programming.

    No wonder, concurring with Venkateish is ESPN India’s vice-president (sales and marketing) and distribution head Sricharan Iyengar, “For us the Fifa is the biggest event that any channel could have this year. It’s bigger than Indian cricket also.”

    What has made it challenging for ESS is that Indians don’t have any direct stake in the World Cup as India is still far far away from playing in the soccer fiesta. Any strategy for India would have to keep this in mind so as to make available the matches in such a manner that it involves Indians and entertains them too.

    Says ESPN India associate director marketing Paras Sharma, “As sports broadcast leaders, the challenge was to present the World Cup to Indians in a different way. The marketing strategy has been built up keeping that in mind.”

     

    Broad Tenets of the Indian Strategy

    At the base of the strategy is the aim “empowering the Indian audience to have a unique and customized interaction” with the property.
     

    This is being delivered thru the following:

    • Engagement: making the viewers play before the actual play begins.
    • Recognition: rewarding the viewers for their passion for the game.
    • Experiential: physically transporting them into the thick of the action
    • Entertainment: providing a peep into the fun side of Fifa.
     
    ESPN Software India associate director marketing Paras Sharma

    The marketing strategy, therefore, has been to focus at the larger sporting fan base and look at their motivations with respect to this sporting spectacle as this audience is looking for a lot more than just viewing pleasure. The two key drivers for building interaction: entertainment and engagement.

    Similarly, at a strategic level, the objective is to create ‘visible’ interest and traction for the event much before it kicks off, thereby extending the Football Fever to deliver on revenue and sponsor interests.

    “The challenge therefore was to position the World Cup in India not only as the ‘biggest international football event with no Indian stake’ but as the `biggest sporting spectacle’ that transcends boundaries so as to catch larger audiences and build sustainable traction for the property and the sport,” points out Sharma.

    Strategic Initiatives

    In the month of June and July the campaign will highlight how the entire world becomes eight inches in diameter (referring to television programmes and live telecasts). And that is summed up in the campaign punch line, which says Duniya Goal Hai.

    The idea is in Hinglish. Translated in English it means that ‘World is round’ wherein ‘goal’ in punned in Hindi to round and the soccer goal. This central thought would be taken forward in all marketing and communication activities.

    Phase 1: This is the Magnum Opus stage and kicked off in April. Here the aim is to create saliency for the forthcoming event two months prior by building upon the most scalable and media interesting hooks of the property. The campaign highlights the unique facets of the event and, in addition, seeding in similar key points in national and regional vernacular media. 

    Both ESPN and Star Sports have started airing programming related to the Fifa show, pushing the event besides putting out special World Cup stories.

    Phase II: The phase of the campaign revolves around creating interest around the history of the event. 

    This will be done by highlighting the unique constituents of the property itself in form of past and current players, milestones etc. 

    Phase III: This offers an Indian take through on-ground activities. The aim is to engage Indian audiences to play the WC.

    In this regard, ESS has started an initiative in association with a channel sponsor Coca-Cola called Gyraah Hindustani, which aims to take selected Indians to watch the WC in all its glory, spectacle and grandeur.

    The Adidas+ Challenge sees Indian school students competing against each other in football matches for the right to go to Germany. It is being rolled out across major cities.

    ESPN Software India marketing director Nirmal Dayani

    Explains ESPN marketing director Nirmal Dayani, “A one of its kind unique consumer involvement and activation exercise has been undertaken along with two of the leading the global sponsors of Fifa, Coca Cola and Adidas.”

    Phase IV: This, Sharma describes, as the In the Middle of Action stage. The aim is to increase new sampling and longer duration relationship with the current audience. 

    ESS will do consumer promotions related to matches, stars, and teams. According to Iyengar, once the World Cup starts, there will be contests in association with one of the channels’ sponsors, Airtel.

    ESS is also working on a tie-up for those who would be part of the flag bearing team for Fifa through a programme initiative called Learning Ground, which is being attempted to be integrated with Fifa-related initiatives to search for Indian kids who would be flag bearers during the event.

     

     

    The Programming Line-Up

    Any sports broadcast, be it cricket or hockey or football, depends heavily on analysis to hook in viewers. For this purpose, ESS has established an enriched studio panel of presenters for the football World Cup.

    These commentators will offer different perspectives on the goings on at the World Cup and leading up to the spectacle when it begins in June. Gerry Armstrong, former Irish international and now a soccer expert with ESS, Steve McMahon, former England and Liverpool player and an ESS presenter and Harsha Bhogle will handle the presentation.
     

    For those looking for a desi or local touch, the broadcaster will also have Indian soccer experts like Novy Kapadia, Noel Da Kima Leitao as guests every week during the event. 

    On the ground in Germany, the broadcaster will have two dedicated teams comprising Anand Narsimhan, Dave Roberts and Jason Dasey, who will capture the World Cup craze. Additionally, a special Indian ESS production team will travel across India to catch the enthusiasm.
     

    Of course, the specials have already been flagged off in a bid to build up viewer interest leading up to June. One such initiative last month was Fifa World Cup Stories. Six episodes of half an hour duration provided different angles to chapters of the event.

    The show featured stories on the most surprising and shocking results in the World Cups, Golden Boot winners of the previous editions, dramatic penalty shoot outs, young stars of the sport and rise to top of some of the underdogs. 

    Born To Play, airing Mondays to Fridays till early May, was a series on some of the best soccer stars the world has witnessed. The 13-episode series brought alive the magical moments from World Cup performances of Pele, Maradona, Baggio, Platini, Beckenbauer and others.

    Fifa Preview, a 16-spisode series running from 3-24 May is another programming initiative.

    Running Mondays to Fridays, this previews the 2006 Fifa World Cup Germany through exciting blend of originally shot footage from qualifiers and other innovative feature based content.

    The series will bring to life the football-ing passion and current form of all qualified nations. The series will profile stars, coaches and will also analyse each nation’s prospects against teams within their groups.

    Some other programming line-up include the six-episode Fifa Stories, Fifa Official Films (13 episodes till 19 May) that will ferret out films from the Fifa archive to research fascinating histories of the some of the most successful nations in World Cup football.

    Local feed: Another strategy that sports channels are following is having feed in Hindi for special events. ESS is no exception.

    To cater to the Hindi speaking markets, ESS will have a special Hindi feed. This will help ESS broad base the appeal of soccer for those who do not understand English and for those who might have difficulty following the accents of ESS’ foreign experts. 

    The sponsors on ESPN and Star Sports, including Fifa global associates, include Coca Cola India (presenting sponsor) Bharti ‘Airtel’ Cellular (joint presenting sponsor), Adidas India (associate sponsor), Mirc Electronics (associate sponsor) and IOC (associate sponsor).
     

    How Different Media Being Used

    ESS’ strategy hasn’t overlooked using other media to further its aim of Duniya Goal Hai in India.

    ESPN Software India VP sales & marketing Sricharan Iyengar

    As part of this game plan, cable operators and MSOs or trade affiliates are being made aware of the importance of the World Cup.

    Pointing out that exclusive events are opportunities to monetize them, Iyengar says, “The fundamental reason for doing initiatives with cable operators in various parts of the country is to create awareness in general about football and Fifa in particular. Football in terms of business and viewership is massive in states like West Bengal, Kerala and Goa.”
     

    Television: This will be the primary medium to reach the wide geographical spread of Indian audience. Spots will air on two leading national channels along with a large mix of regional channels. Innovative promotional activities with these channels are being looked at thus increasing the noise and exposure levels manifold.

    ESS is also negotiating with news channels to offer them footage from the event. Dayani admits that ESS has tied up for the Kolkata region with the newly-launched 24 Ghanta news channel for promotion of WC whereby the news channel will have access to news footage at no extra cost, but will help in ESS’ in branding activities.
     

    Radio: FM radio will be the target vehicle. It is learnt that Radio Mirchi will be the preferred partner for the Fifa event. 

    Print: To increase awareness and build on the tactical requirements, regional press has been roped in. Unique means like customised editorials have been started as a build up to the Cup so as to increase audience’s knowledge and interest in the event. 

    Cinema Halls: Sharma notes that cinema as a medium occupies a pride of place in urban India and is being used as a hype creation mechanism in addition to its value as a communication vehicle.

    Cinema halls across the metros in the country are being painted in Fifa WC colours a month prior to the event by highlighting the most entertaining aspects of the event

    Bollywood: Not leaving any stone unturned, ESS would be roping in Bollywood actors to promote the World Cup.

     

    The Likely Gains

    At the end of it all, it all boils down to economics and not charity. ESS, too, is looking at all round gains. But most of all in the distribution arena.
     

    A spectacle like World Cup might not have helped Ten Sports in 2002 the way it had been envisaged, but ESS seems to be better placed. The fact that out of the 64 matches, ESS will share with pubcaster Doordarshan only four events — the semis, final and the inaugural — gives the sports broadcaster an added advantage.
     

    With an eye on distribution gains, ESS feels that de-activated networks or those that had replaced ESPN and Star Sports with more in-demand channels in the area of their operations due to lack of adequate bandwidth would return within the ESS fold.

    “Fifa has given us a chance to get all the de-activated cable networks back on the roster. We expect 7-8 per cent of the networks which had de-activated ESS, will start showing the channels again now that the football fever is spreading,” Iyengar said, pointing out that trade activities with distribution affiliates are aimed towards this also.

    However, a bigger challenge post the World Cup would be to see how the Fifa show can be leveraged for other football properties that ESS has and whether the Fifa eyeballs could be converted into regular viewership for other programmes.

    “That’ll be a key challenge. The Fifa fever needs to rub off on events like PPL, Spanish League and other football properties and those we think would drive viewership and our subscription revenue,” Iyengar says.

    An optimistic Venkateish feels that the World Cup will “generate ratings, which are equivalent or higher than India international Test ratings.”

    And, if that actually happens, it would encourage ESS to weave strategies around non-cricketing properties in India in a big way.

    (Inputs from Anjan Mitra in New Delhi)

    Photo Credits: RC Venkateish, Nirmal Dayani, Paras Sharma by Sanjay Sharma/Indiapix Network; Duniya Gol Hai and Fifa logo courtesy ESPN

     

  • Windies tour: SC bars Doordarshan from coercing Ten Sports on feed share

    Windies tour: SC bars Doordarshan from coercing Ten Sports on feed share

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has brought to an abrupt halt pubcaster Doordarshan’s “unfettered acess” to coverage of the India cricket team’s tours abroad.

    In a ruling that will for the present hold only for the forthcoming West Indies tour by the Indian cricket team, the apex court ordered today that Ten Sports has exclusive telecast rights to the series and need not share it with the pubcaster.

    A two-judge Bench comprising Justice Ashok Bhan and Justice LK Panta directed that Prasar Bharati (which manages DD) will not take any coercive step or action for taking the live feed of the matches, a Press Trust of India report said.

    India is scheduled to play five one-day matches and four Tests in the Caribbean in a tour that kicks off with the first ODI on 18 May.

    The court, according to one of the parties involved in the case, said that the clause in the downlink guidelines relating to making available feeds of all events of national importance to DD on a mandatory basis lacks proper legal teeth.

    In the absence of a detailed and written order, which will be issued later by the court, the ramification of this order cannot be fully gauged in terms of the overall downlink guidelines, which is being sought to be implemented by the government from 10 May by when all stipulations have to be fulfilled by a channel to get landing rights in India.

    “Going by what the court has said DD will have to do without the West Indies tour, but the ruling is limited to only Ten Sports and the cricket tour concerned for the present,” DD director-general Navin Kumar told Indiantelevision.com.

    Asked if DD will be restrained from carrying French Open tennis, for which Ten Sports holds exclusive rights for the region, Kumar added, “I suppose Ten Sports will have to move a separate application in the court for that. We cannot comment at the moment on what will be our future course of action.”

    Last week, Dubai-headquartered Ten Sports had moved the court arguing that if interim relief was not granted to it this time round, a judgment of the court delivered before the recent Indo-Pak series would become infructuous.

    Taj Television Ltd, owner of Ten Sports, had in its original petition on the matter sought a stay on the government guidelines making it mandatory for the sports channels to share feed of sporting events of national importance with Prasar Bharati.

    It also contended that the court should be guided by the earlier verdict in the India-Pakistan series wherein DD was just a carrier of the Ten Sports signals on its terrestrial network and had also deposited a sum of Rs 150 million in the court towards possible compensation to Ten Sports.

    Ten had said it has already sold distribution rights of the West Indies tour to Set Discovery Pvt Ltd, which will have the right to license throughout the country.

    The Bench had given an inkling on its thinking on the matter at the last hearing itself in actual fact. During the brief hearing last Friday, the Bench observed that last time it was a series with Pakistan and “matches of Indo-Pak series are different from the others.” It added, “For West Indies, many people may not be interested.”

  • Fifa partner Avaya completes key phase of testing of converged network

    Fifa partner Avaya completes key phase of testing of converged network

    MUMBAI: One of football’s global body Fifa’s partners Avaya is building the converged communication network for the event in Germany.

    Avaya has been rigorously testing the network’s configuration, reliability and security. The tests are a key part of the process to ensure the network is available 99.99 per cent of the time.

    The converged network — combining voice and data on the same infrastructure — will be used by teams, referees, journalists plus Fifa and organising committee officials for a variety of tasks.

    These will include accreditation, reporting results, logistics and transportation. Avaya says that to test the network without finding any major issues is excellent, especially considering the complexity of the project.

    In addition to conducting more than 400 tests at the company’s Fifa World Cup lab in Frankfurt, Avaya commissioned Netconsult Online Limited, an independent company specialising in quality control and assurance, to validate network testing results.

    Exhaustive testing of failover scenarios, back-up power, firmware and software compatibility, and the resiliency of the various IP applications was conducted. Following the independent validation, Fifa also just completed its own integration testing in which it examined performance of applications across the network.

    The Fifa integration testing was again successful. All the components of the network have been extensively tested, labeled and made ready for deployment to various stadia and other venues for the event so the excitement can commence with the kick-off of the opening match in less than 50 days.

    The stage is now set for installation of the network in the 12 Cup stadia beginning with Munich and Berlin. The IT Command Center for the entire network is currently up and running in Munich and the accreditations centers will be open over the next weeks, beginning with Berlin.

    Avaya’s Fifa World Cup technical programme MD Doug Gardner says, “Logistics and transportation are among the many critical functions that rely on our converged communications network. It is vital to extensively test the network and all the individual devices to be deployed to avoid delays for the thousands of people involved in producing this event, the 80,000 spectators at each game and to get teams to the stadia on time and match statistics to broadcasters promptly.”

  • Sky bags English Premier League rights

    Sky bags English Premier League rights

    MUMBAI: The English Premier League (EPL) has awarded three live television rights packages to British pay television service BSkyB in the first sale of broadcasting contracts under new European Union rules.

    BSkyB, which has had a monopoly on live league broadcasts since 1992, won three of the six packages that went on sale. Bidding for the remaining packages will begin shortly. EPL says, ‘The FA Premier League is in a position to announce that it has awarded three out of the six packages of live rights to BSkyB. We will be proceeding to a second round of bidding for the remaining three packages in due course.in due course”.

    BSkyB has used soccer to help attract eight million subscribers, making it the U.K.’s biggest pay-TV company. Its 1.02 billion pound purchase of the sole rights to 138 live games for three seasons under the existing accord had prompted the European Commission to order the league to split the sale into six packages and award no more than five to any one company.

    Media reports indicate that The Premier League has never revealed the mechanics of the auction process, but it understood that it reserved the right to re-open the bidding in the event that offers were either too low, or if there was little to choose between two competing bids.

    The rules allow for third and subsequent rounds of bidding, with the provision that the auction concludes by the start of next season in mid-August.

  • BBC unveils technological innovations around the Fifa World Cup

    BBC unveils technological innovations around the Fifa World Cup

    MUMBAI: Innovation is at the heart of UK pubcaster BBC’s sporting coverage and the Fifa football World Cup will be the first football tournament to be broadcast in the UK on High Definition (HD).

    The overall BBC HD trial will kick off with the BBC’s share of World Cup matches up to and including the 9 July final in Germany.

    The site – bbc.co.uk/worldcup – will offer an in-depth guide to the tournament both during and ahead of kick-off.

    New for this tournament will be Player Ratings where website and TV viewers can rate players in-match, while the very popular Mini Motty, the desktop news pop-up of John Motson, returns.

    Also returning, but improved, is Virtual Replay, the 3D-style recreations of key moments from every match.

    Virtual Replay will offer bbc.co.uk/sport users the chance to watch 3D animations of all shots and goals from each of the World Cup matches after they happen.

    Users will be able to view the action from different camera angles and enjoy an ‘as live’ experience as the match is being played.

    Football fans can also add themselves to the website – a new feature called ‘The Beautiful Frame’ will allow users to send in their World Cup-related photos from around the world.

    Public participation also extends to a World Cup Blog which will invite users to live the tournament through the eyes of two BBC journalists.

    As they drive around Germany in a camper van, the bloggers will take direction and advice from readers, regularly relating back their adventures on the long and winding road to Berlin.

    Viewers with digital TV will have access to a number of extra interactive options.

    The BBC Sport Interactive service will be available on all Digital TV platforms with coverage divided into two applications, Live Match and Replay. Interactive will be available 24/7 during the tournament.

    Viewers will have the audio choice of BBC match commentary, Five Live’s commentary or the real-time noise from the stadium.

    Additionally the BBC live match coverage will be extended on interactive beyond its BBC ONE transmission window to allow for extra post-match analysis. Viewers will also be able to replay in full earlier matches via the red button.

    Also on interactive, between BBC match broadcasts, are a number of special streams: three x 15 minute edits of every World Cup match; an England channel, with interviews pre and post-match press conferences; and a round up of the best goals of the tournament.

    Big Screen : The BBC will operate four fixed big screens in Birmingham (not all games), Hull, Leeds and Manchester with more venues to be announced, showing all of the BBC’s games.

    Five Live will also operate a number of mobile, truck-mounted screens travelling all around the UK to a wide range of locations and communities.

    On air World Cup Stories on BBC Two showcases six one hour documentaries on different countries’ World Cup histories from 7 May.

    World Cup Goals on BBC Three is a countdown of the best 100 goals. When Lineker met Maradona is a BBC One documentary with Gary Lineker and Maradona.

  • Up-Mobile acquires rights to Fifa Mascot TV series

    Up-Mobile acquires rights to Fifa Mascot TV series

    MUMBAI: Up-Mobile, an interactive mobile applications and service provider specialising in Hispanic audiences, today announced that it has acquired the mobile rights to offer Spanish-language content in the US and Latin America.

    The product in question is the 2006 Fifa World Cup Official Mascot TV Series.

    The company says that in today’s media-driven society, mascots are images that fans can identify with. Goleo VI, the Official Mascot, is a warm-hearted lion and a versatile ‘living’ character together with his sidekick Pille, the strong-minded football; he can dance, talk, sing and make people laugh.

    The show consists of two separate productions, the first being a live-action puppet format with 21 episodes of 40 seconds each, and the second, a 3D animation made up of 24 spots of 10 seconds each.

    Ready for mobile distribution, Up-Mobile plans to take full advantage of their rights to distribute the series. Up-Mobile’s packages include video clips from the series, 3D animations capturing the most interesting moments of Goleo VI’s road to the 2006 Fifa World Cup, all adapted to view on the go.

    Up-Mobile founder and COO George Rincon says, “A love of soccer runs deep in the veins of Latino sports fans. We are thrilled to take part in the momentum surrounding the 2006 Fifa World Cup and are proud to be the exclusive Spanish-language provider of mobile content featuring the 2006 FIFA World Cup Official Mascot TV Series in the US and Latin America.”

  • ESPN moves TDSAT against Pune cable op ICC for recovery of dues

    ESPN moves TDSAT against Pune cable op ICC for recovery of dues

    MUMBAI: ESPN Software India has approached the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) for recovery of dues from Pune’s biggest cable operator Intermedia Cable Communication.

    ESPN, in its petition to TDSAT, claims that the amount pending from the ICC for the signal provided between December 2004 and June 2005 is approximately Rs 7.7 million plus 12 per cent interest.

    However, ICC in its response filed today before TDSAT, claims to have orally communicated to the broadcaster that ESPN was free to discontinue its signals, and has argued that it is therefore not liable to pay any amount.

    ESPN has filed the case at TDSAT ahead of Fifa World Cup 2006, which will kick off from 9 June.ESPN had entered into an agreement with ICC to distribute signals for the period December 2003 up to December 2004. Following the expiry of the agreement, the two did not sign any fresh deal and ICC continued to distribute the ESPN signals till June 2005.

    ICC, in its reply today, states that it had orally communicated to ESPN not to distribute the signals anymore. And thus ICC is not liable to pay any amount for the period December 2004 to June 2005.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, an ICC spokesperson said, “The case will be heard at Tdsat soon and thus it will be known if there is any amount due.”

    But, according to ESPN officials, “We have filed for recovery of money for services render.”

    It is worth noting here that in December 2004, broadcast regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had allowed for a 7 per cent increase (basic tariff excluding taxes) in cable rates. The change in tariff was effective from 1 January, 2005.

    According to sources close to the developments, ESPN has to prove before TDSAT that the signals distributed to ICC have been passed to consumers and that the latter has collected money for the same. The ICC has declared a subscriber base of approximately 39,750 in Pune.

    TDSAT will be hearing the matter on 9 May — Petition No. 91(C) of 2006 ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd vs Intermedia Cable Communication Pvt Ltd.

  • BCCI to launch portal in association with TCN

    BCCI to launch portal in association with TCN

    MUMBAI: With a view to building a stronger brand for the bat and ball game The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) has signed an agreement with The Cricket Network (TCN) to design, build and operate the BCCI’s cricket web-portal.

    The initial phase of the web-portal is anticipated to soon go live. When fully functional (scheduled to coincide with the ICC Champions Trophy in October, 2006) the web-portal will enable cricket internet users around the world to access various levels of news, highlights, archival footage, statistics, streaming video, merchandising and mobile phone content.

    BCCI VP Lalit Modi says, “Our vision is to embrace the entire Indian community worldwide and over time we will make available the web-portal to all Indian cricket associations with multi-lingual capabilities.
    “The BCCI will promote this portal on all TV channels that broadcast the Indian home games through branding, which will be prominent on BCCI’s live TV feeds around the world. This will help it to become one of the most prominent portals in the world”.

    Through TCN, BCCI’s cricket portal will bring together media, content (Sportsbrand), technology and sporting expertise from around the world to launch what is slated to become the leading global sports network.

    TCN has selected as its preferred technology partner Sun Microsystems to provide IT infrastructure solutions and support for the implementation of the company’s digital asset management system that will power the BCCI’s web-portal. This approach will facilitate multi-distribution by way of cable & satellite, audio, hand-held and future devices of the web-portal’s cricket and lifestyle content.

    TCN director Luke Reinehr says, “We aim to provide cricket content to fans as they want it, when they want it and how they want it. We consider that this sports network has great application to all cricket fans around the world.

    “We are proud to have chosen Sun Microsystems. The Sun people from India, Australia and the US have been superb in understanding the joint vision of the BCCI and TCN and in developing the right solutions. We chose Sun because of their world-class architecture that supports millions of businesses across the globe, and in particular their work with the enormously successful sports site MLB.com”.

    Sun’s global VP for media and entertainment Juan Dewar said, “Sun Microsystems is very pleased to work with TCN to create the BCCI web portal for cricket in India. We are able to leverage our award winning digital asset management reference architecture to provide a flexible infrastructure that provides compelling content to millions of cricket fans everywhere. Our approach and focus on this industry segment has helped us to work with TCN and BCCI to understand their joint vision and develop a scalable, robust infrastructure to support their needs.”

  • Zee Sports adds special features to enhance cricket viewing experience

    Zee Sports adds special features to enhance cricket viewing experience

    MUMBAI: After quite a wait Zee Sports has finally got some serious cricket. It is currently telecasting the Abu Dhabi series between India and Pakistan. The channel is pulling out all the stops to make sure that the viewer experience is complete.

    Speaking on this, Zee Sports marketing VP Gaurav Seth says, “TWI is doing the production for us. Our aim is to ensure that the viewer gets a complete experience. There have been reports about how too many ads on other channels (read Sahara) are spoiling the cricket experience. We wanted to avoid that at all costs. Therefore, our senior management got together to work out a way by which the breaks were sequenced so that not a single moment on the field is missed.

    “One new technical feature we introduced was the ball meter. This graphic on the top right hand corner of the screen tracks the movement and pace of the ball from the time it leaves the bowlers hand. So, you will see it slowing down and then picking up pace again.”

    Zee Sports also has the usual Hawkeye and other features. As Seth says, “We wanted to put our best foot forward. One way to do this is putting together an expert panel of commentators on our pre and post special Cricket Cafe. We have among others Navjot Siddhu, Ajay Jadeja, Kapil Dev and Imran Khan.”

    The channel is using Kapil Dev in an innovative way through the segment Kapil’s Corner. Here, the former Indian captain who helped India win the World Cup in 1983, talks from different venues like a golf course, swimming pool on how the game has changed over the years and how he views it today.

    The channel has also roped in Bollywood actress Tara Sharma who sends postcards. She visits different parts of the city to give the viewer at home a flavour of what it offers. Face Off is an irreverent, funny section featuring former cricketers Arun Lal and Rameez Raja. While Lal talks about why he thinks Pakistan will win, Raja talks about India’s chances.

    Another segment in the first match saw Band Of Boys singer Verghese who is a VJ for the broadcaster talking to television stars, film actors about how cricket compares to Bollywood and to television serials. The question was whether an India-Pakistan match is bigger than a Saas-bahu serial and a major blockbuster featuring the likes of Amitabh Bachchan. The consensus was that India-Pakistan was bigger.

    The question remains as to whether fatigue will happen since India and Pakistan are playing each other with greater frequency. To this, Seth points out that a fan is always a fan. While there might be some fatigue, an India-Pakistan match will always have good viewership as it generates passion. “The attitude is that it is more painful for India to lose to Pakistan than it is to lose the World Cup final. So you can imagine the level of interest when these two teams meet.”

    In terms of advertising, Seth says that both Pepsi and Coke are on board. “We also roped in Motorola, BSNL, DLF among others. We were initially apprehensive about co-marketing the event with DD. But, the result has been very good and DD brought its experience of marketing cricket for the past several years to the table.

    “In addition to being careful about the number of spots aired we also made sure that our pop ups were non intrusive. Often on other channels ads pop up in such a way that it blocks the view and thus compromise the experience. We had pop ups that came and disappeared quickly. They were also relatively smaller compared to what one can see elsewhere.”

    On the distribution front, Seth concedes that carriage fees have been paid to some operators. “However one objective of cricket is to show the cable fraternity that we are in the game for the long term. We are not just looking to make a quick buck. Our aim is to reach 60 to 70 per cent of cable & satellite homes by the end of the month.

    “We are aware that it is difficult for a sports channel to be present if there is no cricket on account of bandwith shortage. However, our aim for the next 12 months is to achieve a 60 to 70 per cent penetration level, regardless of whether we have cricket or not. I would say that we have already achieved that level of penetration. in the East and North where football is followed.

    “Also, it will not take more than two to three years for tennis and football to act as some sort of a driver for sports channels. I do not think that hockey can be a driver. If you go to any school you will see kids playing football in addition to cricket.

    “The elite play tennis. Indians, I think, have some degree of difficulty relating to hockey. Football, of course, is the most global sport played by 182 countries compared to cricket where only 10 countries participate and hockey which has around 10 participating countries. If the Indian national football team can improve its performance, the sport will go places,” says Seth.

  • Government demarcates listed sports events

    Government demarcates listed sports events

    NEW DELHI: The government has come out with a list of sports events, excluding cricket, which would have to be shared with the pubcaster on a mandatory basis whether played in India or outside.

    A government communication to broadcasters states that the list will be valid for five years, though implementation review will be done annually by the authorities.

    If Doordarshan is unable to telecast a listed event due to some reasons, then that game’s possible deletion from the list is likely to be discussed during the annual review meeting.

    Cricket related events have not been specified as there are two cases pending in the courts relating to it and involving ESPN Star Sports and Ten Sports.

    The mandatory sharing of feed of listed events is part of the downlinking norms, which were announced by the government in November 2005.

    Asked about the listed events released by the government, ESPN India managing director RC Venkateish said, “We are comfortable with the non-cricket list of sporting events.”

    The list of sports to be shared with DD include the summer and winter Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asian games and Afro-Asian Games.

    On the soccer front, where the mercury is building up leading up to the Fifa World Cup in a couple of months time, the list includes the semi-final and final matches of Euro Cup and Fifa World Cup. For Asia Cup, it would be the semis, final and all matches featuring India.

    As far as domestic soccer tournaments are concerned, DD will have access to the semifinal and final matches of Subroto Cup, Santosh Trophy, Federation Cup, Durand Cup, National Women’s Football and Junior National Football.

    In tennis, all matches featuring India and the semis and final of Davis Cup will have to be shared with DD. For the Grand Slams and WTA, all the final matches (men’s, women’s, mixed doubles and doubles) feature in the government list, apart from any other matches featuring an India from quarter-final onward.

    In hockey, the World Cup semis, final and India matches will have to be shared with DD. For the Champions’ Trophy, its India matches plus the final, while on the domestic circuit, the Baton Cup and Gold Cup for Women will see the semis and finals on DD.

    In chess, the World Cup final and matches featuring any Indian from quarterfinal onward find mention in the list. Ditto for Chess Olympiad.

    The finals and India games of billiard and snooker World Cups also have made it as listed events.