Tag: Cricket

Starsports.com targets 10 mn unique visitors during ICC T-20 World Cup

MUMBAI: To say cricket is a religion in India could be an understatement. Cricket fanatics who are unable to watch live action on television find help in mobile phones and sports websites to get near live updates. These cricket devotees now have a whole new comprehensive experience on offer in Starsports.com.

Ever since its launch in June 2013, starsports.com has drawn nearly 28 million unique visitors for all its sports properties and the average time spent is 45 minutes per match. Starsports.com claims these numbers – comparable to television – are the highest ever on a digital platform.

“During the recently concluded Asia Cup, we witnessed 4.5 million unique visitors, and with over 10 million video views, the numbers are really humbling,” says Star India digital head Ajit Mohan. “The average time spent on video content was 32 minutes. Thus, Asia Cup was an affirmation that if someone is willing to create a great video experience there is a great appetite for it out there.”

Heading into the ICC T-20 World Cup, Starsports.com is going through a fairly major revamp. “It all began in June 2013 with Starsports.com and our major pull was the proposition of watching live matches on the go or on desktops for a subscription price with a great video player having timelines and data integrations with the option of tracking data without leaving the live video,” adds Mohan.

Now the portal is expanding the proposition with the insight that when sports fans are not in front of their TV sets there is a huge interest in following the matches. And of course the interest is higher when India is playing.

“So far, most companies for sports on the web will give the option of text commentary, or give ball by ball commentary. Over the last six months with the onset of Starsports.com with live video available on subscription and text commentary, we have changed the way sports is perceived on the web,” explains Mohan.

Starsports.com believes that there is a whole new space in between which can be shaped by it and create an experience that is way better than text commentary.

The three major changes that will be experienced on the revamped site, as Mohan puts it, will be Zip Clips, Graphical Representations and streaming of live action with a 5-minute delay.

Zip Clips: Starsports.com is creating a new match centre, where sports fans will be able to enjoy the live match through a series of clips. Almost ball by ball we will have ‘Zip Clips’ to catch up with the game or follow the game. So one doesn’t really have to sit and read the scores but gets to experience it with a series of short clips. And the clips will be almost in real time.

Graphical Representations: The other thing added to the mix is a lot more graphical representation during the match and provide nuggets and insights. There will be experimentation with capturing in graphics where the match stands at that point in time.

5-minute delayed live stream: And the third and most promising proposition for sports fans is streaming of the live action with a five-minute delay. This should encourage increased video consumption also in homes that do not have more than one TV screen.

Cricket fans pressed for time and also those having low bandwidth can watch ‘zip clips’ to catch up with the near live action or when in leisure, cricket fans can watch the match with a five minute delay. For those wanting to watch live streaming, there’s a small charge to be paid.

Starsports.com carried out loads of tests for nearly four months on how to make the best use of the zip clips feature and created the work flow from both the content and the technology point of views. Taking into consideration the fact that there are bandwidth constraints across the nation, Starsports.com strives to provide the best in video content at great quality.

“Essentially, we are shaping a new service for fundamentally addressing the need for following a match. When the sports fan is not in front of the television, and therefore, to create a full video experience that is beyond what they are used to in terms of text commentary but also addresses the issue of time and convenience,” expounds Mohan. “It’s still a world where people are concerned about data charges and bandwidth and we are saying let us help you solve the concern by reducing the duration of the clips.”

The prices for the tournaments and matches are quite reasonable given that they will get to watch it in high definition. ICC T20 World Cup 2014 Pass: Rs 100; The FA Cup 2013: Rs 100; Premier League Season Pass: Rs 500; Formula 1 – 2014 Season Pass: Rs 500; La Liga Season Pass: Rs 500; Football Season Pass: Rs 800; All Sports Day Pass (floating): Rs 20; Match Week Pass (floating): Rs 30 (which starts from Friday).

The zip clips will be supported by ads but they would only feature on the clips of particularly longer duration, and it has a great value proposition for advertisers. “I believe advertisers increasingly value ads when the fans are really engaged in a full video experience. So our aim is to let them target engaged sports fans, so there is no point in cluttering the clips with ads. But there will be ads against these clips and for the delayed five minute stream, only the live stream will be ad free,” expounds Mohan.

Thus with these three offerings Starsports.com is trying to keep sports fans pleased with the proposal of watching shorter clips to play catch-up with the live action or to watch the five minute delayed stream at leisure or if you are really keen to watch M S Dhoni smack the ball out of the park live just shell out a few extra bucks.

“We have always had a tournament pass, season passes on soccer and our objective has always been to keep the prices reasonable and we believe in delivering quality content at that price,” beams Mohan.

Speaking on Starsports.com’s association with Vodafone, Mohan adds, “They are a very valued partner for us, I think as a telco looking to shape data and video consumption, they are acutely aware of the power of sports, so we are powering Vodafone Sports with our curated content and all of what we are doing here will help us shape that service as well.”

Social media acts as a catalyst for driving viewers from all over the web to the content on offer. These clips will be made available for easy sharing, “But I guess primarily people want to watch the matches and the shorter clips and for us to deliver a great video experience, we don’t want to clutter our social media with the buzz word like most providers do,” explains Mohan.

Looking at the kind of brands that the portal has on board and already in talks with some of the leading brands for the ongoing T-20 World Cup, industry sources estimate that starsports.com generated ad revenue of around Rs 7-8 crore during the recently concluded Asia Cup and would generate around Rs 15-16 crore from the ongoing ICC T-20 World Cup.

“We have received a great response from the advertisers and a lot of brands are looking for a great video experience on the web. It’s no longer about banner ads and they are keen to grab the attention of engaged sports fans,” says Mohan.

Starsports.com is gung-ho about touching the 10 million unique visitors mark during the ICC T-20 World Cup tourney. “Our target has always been to hit the 50 million unique visitors mark between the major tournaments namely the recently concluded Asia Cup, the ongoing T-20 World Cup and the upcoming big-ticket tourney the Indian Premiere League,” says Mohan.

There are three major things that one looks at when delivering the best experience through a sports service – one is having great storytellers, great infrastructure and the video player.

Expanding on these three aspects, Mohan says: “We have a dedicated sports team working on the digital front, focusing on how to communicate stories on the web. We have learnt a lot over the past year to deliver the best in sports experience on the web and finally our video player is something that we are proud of after investing so much on building one of the best players in the market currently that can support great graphic content as well.”

Starports.com is clearly living up to its claim of being the YouTube of sports in India and is focused on building a strong backbone for video content delivery and continuing to invest in improving the experience even further.

“For us, the response we receive from the ICC T-20 WC and the IPL will be a good trial of (whether) we are able to both communicate and bring in a sports fan,” says Mohan.

“Sports fans have been used to something else and it’s not easy to bring a change in habits as most people have been following a text scorecard over the years and our challenge is to tell them that there is a better way to consume sports,” concludes Mohan.

March 19, 2014
GroupM ESP India and SportzPower launch sports sponsorship report 2014

MUMBAI: The sports & entertainment arm of GroupM, GroupM ESP and provider of sports business news and knowledge, SportzPower, have collaborated to bring the most comprehensive report on sports sponsorship.

The study will capture the trends and developments in the Indian Sports Industry from 2008 to 2013. The report for the Indian Sports industry, documents important events during these years including the emergence of league-format sports in India like the Indian Premier League (IPL), Hockey India League (HIL), and Indian Badminton League (IBL) and traces developments in the Indian sports industry when sports business was in its nascent stages.

Elaborating on the future of sports marketing in India, Group M south Asia CEO CVL Srinivas says, “This decade will transformational for Sports in India with a spectator base of over a billio n people, a dozen sports television channels beaming content round the clock and a rapidly growing list of keen corporates and brands waiting to invest in cricket and other alternate sports. The next few years marketing investment in sports will no longer be peripheral, and it will be paralleled with that of entertainment and mainstream cinema.”

The report examined advertising investments in Indian Sport from four angles – On Ground, Team Sponsorship, Athlete Management, and Media Spends, and offers a comprehensive overview of sponsorship in Sport. The key takeaway the study offers is as follows:

·    Spend in Sport in India are dominated by cricket, and within it the Indian Premier League in particular.

·    Sports marketing spends between 2008- 2013 advertising investments in Indian sport rose roughly two fold with a total spend of Rs 21.39 billion in 2008 which rose by 92% to Rs 41.1 billion in 2014.

·    The market is slotted to grow exponentially in the next few years with other sports like Football, Basketball, Distance Running, Golf, Motorsports, Tennis, Hockey, Badminton and Contact sports complementing the Cricket Story since the real opportunity lies in these under-leveraged and monetized areas.

Focusing on the key developments expected in 2014, GroupM ESP national director sports and live events Vinit Karnik says, “Even though the IPL is off to a rough start this year, in the long run accountability, better corporate governance, more transparency, are all good for not just the IPL, but the BCCI too. The successful launch of HIL and IBL has set the stage for an action-packed 2014 as far as franchise-based leagues are concerned in cricket, football, hockey, badminton, tennis, wrestling and kabaddi. The big news of 2014 will be the inaugural edition of the IMG-Reliance-Star co-owned Indian Super League, which is set to bring all the bells and whistles associated with the IPL to football. There is also the commitment that IMG-Reliance, the commercial rights holders for football in the country, to improve the country’s top-tier soccer tournament. The I-League clubs will be hoping that IMG-R walks the talk on that front, though the prevailing sentiment is one of wariness as to what the future holds.”

SportzPowerco-founder Thomas Abraham further discusses the future of sports broadcasting inIndia, “Indian sports TV broadcasting was, is, and will continue to be dominated by Cricket for theforeseeable future, contributing to 80 to 85% of the total television sports media revenues. However, other sports are also gaining prominence, especially Football, though interest remains predominantly for international leagues/tournaments. That is expected as the I-League improves as a television- friendly product and also with the launch of the Indian Super League (ISL) later this year. Other sports such as Badminton and Hockey have also started making their presence felt because of improved performances by Indian players in the international arena, coupled with increased investments flowing into the two sports due to the launch of the Indian Badminton League (IBL) and the Hockey India League (HIL) respectively.”

All in all, 2014 has more upsides than down. While there will be no Indian Grand Prix next year, there will be more leagues, sports like basketball are making rapid strides, and the whole wellness and fitness movement is gaining ever increasing traction, which in turn means more interest in sport as a participation activity and not just as spectator engagement.

March 4, 2014
Screwvala launches Unilazer Sports; ropes in Red Bull’s Supratik Sen as CEO

MUMBAI: You can’t really get Ronnie Screwvala to sit still for long and avoid getting into businesses where he smells opportunity. With almost everyone investing in a big way in sports, he too has decided to board that train. The media and TV maven has set up Unilazer Sports as a division of Unilazer Ventures. And Supratik Sen, former Red Bull India national head for sports and events marketing, has been roped in as its CEO. Supratik has been mandated to focus on teams, leagues, academies as well as creating IPs and franchises in two or three selected sports.

It was only last year that Ronnie exited from UTV by selling out his holdings to Disney, and since then he has been building up on Unilazer Ventures which is focused on creating ground up businesses and being a strategic equity investor in others. His investments range from agriculture, e-commerce, education, and micro housing initiatives. He has also set his sights on philanthropy.

And now Ronnie has his eyes set on the exploding Indian sports business which is expected to see more than 30 per cent growth each year. Earlier this week Screwvala had in an interview to CNN-IBN’s Rajdeep Sardesai disclosed “that it is restlessness, the sense of being disruptive, challenging the status quo,” which drives him even today.

His CEO hire has real pedigree. Supratik is a an ex national rugby player, who was also a professionally trained footballer and cricket. The past five years of his life were spent at Red Bull India leading all its marquee projects with athletes, sports projects and events in the country. Before joining Red Bull, Supratik worked with Australian major Repucom. He has also worked with sports, event marketing and media management companies Procam, Percept D’Mark and E-Sense Entertainment. In all, he has over 15 years of work experience in sports marketing and talent management. His journey began in Future Hope India that works in grass root development of sport in eastern India.

February 20, 2014
starsports.com witnesses huge traffic during IPL 7 auction

MUMBAI: The digital arm of Star Sports – starsports.com – seems to be living up to its claim of being known as the YouTube of sports in India. The portal witnessed a huge traffic when it streamed the two day auction of the Pepsi Indian Premiere League (IPL) 2014 with five-minute delay.

The reach of the auction managed to outmatch Sony Six’s 2013 Pepsi IPL player auction numbers, claims the website as it attracted close to 680,000 visits over the two days.

Last year, the IPL auction on Sony Six witnessed traffic of 404,000 viewers with average time spent being 25 minutes in the male SEC ABC 15+ demographic.

In comparison, starsports.com reached 387,000 viewers with average time spent on the web being 31 minutes on each day.

Star India EVP and head new media Ajit Mohan said: “We had decided to produce a high quality show around the auctions, with commentary and analysis from Harsha Bhogle and Sourav Ganguly. This is a vindication of our approach. The Indian consumer is evolving fast and more and more consumers want to catch action while on the move. We are convinced that this year, the mobile screen will be where the action will be for IPL.”

The highest growth in traffic was seen in the first session of the auction on 12 February when marquee players like Yuvraj Singh and Kevin Pietersen were going under the hammer. The traffic peaked at 3 pm on 12 February. And almost 60 per cent of the traffic was from sports fans between the age of 18-24 years, and almost all of the traffic was in the coveted male demographics.

starsports.com is India’s first multi-sports digital service with availability across the web and mobile. Powered by live and video rights, it covers the best of world sports including major cricket tournaments, BPL, La Liga and Serie A in football, F1, hockey and tennis. This year, for the first time, all IPL matches will be available on the portal after it won the online streaming rights from Indiatimes.com this time around.

February 19, 2014
Starsports.com: YouTube of sports in India?

Barely a year old and starsports.com could well qualify as an example of the limitless possibilities of the World Wide Web.

Ever since its launch in June 2013, starsports.com, has been drawing nearly 28 million unique visitors every day with as many as 45 minutes spent per match. These numbers – comparable to television – are the highest ever on a digital platform.

starsports.com’s meteoric rise is not for nothing as the website has always been about giving sports fans a rich, immersive video experience a la YouTube and becoming a one-stop shop for them.

Star India digital head Ajit Mohan puts it well when he says: “The philosophy of the design and the service itself was to make video the hero; we believe we have become the YouTube of sports.”

Drawing attention to how sports coverage has evolved from print to radio to television and now the digital medium, Mohan says: “The idea was to create a new immersive experience around sports on digital for fans. The best way to attract the viewers was to add a lot of video elements that allowed getting data and analytics into the experience in a very meaningful manner. So we wanted it to be fully relevant to the digital medium, rather than what consumers were being served.”

Starsports.com has a 20-strong content development team and leverages the network’s production and broadcast team. Explains Mohan: “The idea is to keep delivering content on-the-go and report as events take place. The team creates video stories as well as columns and articles, but the point is to create a lot of video during the course of a live match as people would love to listen to someone’s point of view on the state of the match, thus driving home our point of an immersive experience.”

Speaking of design, starsports.com isn’t cluttered with irrelevant content like other sports sites. “We have kept the design experience for the consumer in mind where it becomes easy for viewers to discover a live match. Having said that, we have had a lot of learning over the past 12 months and we want to further improve on the experience for consumers,” says Mohan. “We work with a lot of world-class platforms and partners to help out with execution on the video as well as platform development.”

Apart from content and design, the revenue model too has evolved with time. At the time of the beta launch in December 2012, the streaming was free and had a little delay but post the launch, the live streaming experience was taken behind the pay-wall. “Just to give an idea about the conversion rate, it’s been in the range of three to five per cent – depending on whether on the web or the mobile app or any other operator service. Looking at the current subscriber base, if we exclude the telecom world, we probably have one of the largest subscription base of content subscriptions in the digital world,” says Mohan. “We are currently in a dilemma trying to figure out what services to charge for and what to keep free access for. So if we are asking people to pay, then there has to be something really exceptional and a high value proposition.”

Mohan believes the site’s success owes to two big leaps: firstly, high quality streaming of an even higher standard than YouTube or a comparable platform and secondly, advertising which allows a deeper engagement with sports fans on the back of very high quality video and content created exclusively for starsports.com.

“We have provided a much customised backbone to serve a very good video experience in live viewing. The response for the streaming quality has been very good and users find it very reliable and of high quality. So if the user has access to even a 1 mbps net connection, the video is of HD quality. That is something that is unprecedented and no other sports company has managed thus far,” Mohan exults. “We already had Adidas and Red Bull being associated with Starsports.com and within the next four to six weeks, we are sure to get more brands on-board with the announcement of the IPL streaming rights. Also, we will be having a lot of action for fans with the Asia Cup, the ICC T-20 World Cup in March and moving onto the IPL in April and May. So with a fully packed calendar for the next three and a half months, advertisers are keen to come on board.”

On the subject of IPL streaming rights, Mohan believes that despite the five-minute delay in streaming, IPL is sure to generate a lot of viewership on the digital platform.

“There is a habit of watching the event on the mobile and other portable devices, so the idea is to leverage our platform and provide a much better consumer experience and advertising solution and deploy it for IPL where there is already a habit and increase the numbers even more as against last year,” says he.

Again, IPL isn’t the only such property available on starsports.com; the site also streams as many as six to seven matches of the Barclays Premiere League (BPL) at one time. “We also show Sierra and La Liga matches along with F1 and the Australian Open. During the grand slam, we witnessed a spike of 200,000 users in a day coming on the back of the Open. Cricket will continue to be our cornerstone but we will also generate focus and engagement in other sports,” says Mohan.

Any discussion on the success story of starsports.com would be incomplete without a reference to ‘The Sachin Memory Project’, one of the website’s biggest and most innovative online campaigns around cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar.

“The idea was to be distinctive at the same time connect the master blaster with his fans. So starsports.com believed that the best way to create that connect would be to make a timeline of all the major events of Tendulkar’s career and best innings with the support of archival videos,” recalls Mohan, pointing out that the engagement reached such levels that people tried to think back and see where they were when Tendulkar broke a certain record. “The reason for calling it ‘The Memory Project’ came across well and we achieved what we had set out for!” he exclaims. Starsports.com had nearly four million visitors during the India-West Indies series, largely on the back of this innovation.

Mohan is happy with the way things have shaped up. “We have already made strides on unchartered territory and it would be really difficult for anyone to find a digital service on sports that has created a great video player and gives HD quality output,” says he. Currently, the site has video content across cricket, football, tennis, hockey and F1 but is looking at what consumers want and intends to bring back discontented sports fans who aren’t satisfied with the digital content provided by others. “We will add new sports and improve the consumer experience, and try and reach out to people with lesser bandwidth as well and provide equal quality of content,” says Mohan of the company’s future plans.

Plans are afoot to provide short clips which allow consumers to pick up the best moments in the match which they either missed or would love to relive. Providing ample visibility for advertisers is also on the cards. “We do believe that going forward, a lot of the brands will be looking to build traction on the digital platform and we want to provide such a platform where advertisers feel their products and brands will get proper visibility and the right value,” he signs off.

February 7, 2014
BCCI, ECB and CA on course to play ball for ICC

MUMBAI: A change is gonna come, wrote one of the most revered R&B artists, Sam Cooke, in 1963.

Possibly singing the same tune today is the triumvirate of India, Australia and England, what with reports of the ‘Position Paper’ – which gives decision making powers to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia (CA), and England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) – soon coming into effect. Buzz is the trio may well be on its way to securing the necessary votes for revamping the global cricket governing body, ICC, even as other member nations lose their grip on the situation.

“Around July last year, I encouraged CA, ECB and the BCCI to work together and develop conditions to which all the member countries can come to terms with,” ICC president Alan Isaac said in a recent press conference. “We have currently drawn up the principles but the detailing needs to be done after conducting discussions. The idea was to get the three of the biggest and strongest boards together in one room and come up with a strong plan of action.”

At the same press conference, ICC CEO Dave Richardson added: “There were numerous negotiations going on with all the member countries, but at the end of the negotiations, we saw that there were only these three nations that had those sticky points which we were looking out for.”

Neither of the other boards has released an official statement but top officials on the executive board of ICC have gone on record in approving the proposed changes that give the trio complete freedom in the way cricket will be played 2015 onward as well as revenue shared in accordance to the brand value a test-playing nation is worth.

Among the first ones to point out detrimental flaws in the BCCI-drafted ‘Position Paper’ were the cricket boards of South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Thereafter, the trio tweaked a few clauses to get other member boards to agree to the terms with West Indies, New Zealand and minnows Bangladesh having already given the go-ahead. The biggest hurdle the trio faces is that for the ‘Position Paper’ to come into effect, they need eight out of the 10 member nations to give their nod. Apparently, they are just one vote away from the three-fourths majority required to push the proposal through. And the financially crippled Pakistan cricket board is likely to be the one to bite the bullet. Not only has the country been struggling to maintain cricketing ties, given the prevailing political conditions, it hasn’t been able to host an international match since early 2009. This may be just the opportunity for the nation to have bilateral series under long-term contracts with the trio.

That said, the proposal put forth in the ‘Position Paper’ appears fundamentally flawed as it assumes members have a proprietary interest in the money their respective economies generate for ICC events.

Fact is broadcasters buy cricket rights because it appeals to their customers, drives subscriptions and advertising revenues. Similarly, sponsors use cricket to promote their products and services.

While values are generally greater when the broadcasting country is playing, not all of it can be attributed to the country’s cricket board. The opposition too has a great bearing on the value cricketing boards receive for their media rights.

Indian broadcasters would prefer broadcasting ICC events and Star Sports would stand to earn brownie points, having acquired the broadcast rights for Indian cricket for a price of Rs 3,851 crore, which covers over 96 matches between 2012-2018 including internet and mobile rights.

That BCCI generates nearly 80 per cent of the world’s cricket earnings is a given. The only way most other boards can maintain a reasonably plump bottom line is from the massive broadcast rights acquired from a tour by India. Not surprisingly, weaker boards such as West Indies and Bangladesh would jump at the opportunity where they are guaranteed no relegation from test cricket plus the possibility of India touring more frequently to help generate revenue.

So, it’s just a matter of time before the trio start officially throwing around their weight in terms of decisions regarding the scheduling of bilateral ties, especially involving either of the three.

January 31, 2014
First day of ICC Board meeting concludes with unanimous support for key principles

DUBAI: The first day of the International Cricket Council’s Board meetings concluded in Dubai on 28 January with unanimous support for a set of principles relating to the future structure, governance and financial models of the ICC.

The ICC Board unanimously supported the following principles:

* There will be an opportunity for all Members to play all formats of cricket on merit, with participation based on meritocracy; no immunity to any country, and no change to membership status.

* A Test Cricket Fund paid equally on an annual basis to all Full Members (except the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board) will be introduced to encourage and support Test match cricket.

* A larger percentage from the increasing Associate Members’ surplus will be distributed to the higher performing non-Full Members.

* Mutually agreed bi-lateral FTP Agreements which will be legally binding and bankable and will run for the same period as the ICC commercial rights cycle (2015-2023).

* Recognition of the need for strong leadership of the ICC, involving leading Members, which will involve BCCI taking a central leadership responsibility.

* A need to recognise the varying contribution of Full Members to the value of ICC events through the payment of ‘contribution costs’.

* The establishment of an Executive Committee (ExCo) and Financial & Commercial Affairs Committee (F&CA) to provide leadership at an operational level, with five members, including BCCI, CA and ECB representatives. Anybody from within the Board can be elected to Chair the Board and anybody from within ExCo and F&CA can be elected to Chair those Committees. With the ICC undergoing a transitional period that includes a new governance structure and media rights cycle, this leadership will be provided for two years from June 2014 by: a BCCI representative to Chair the ICC Board, a CA representative to Chair the ExCo and an ECB representative to Chair the F&CA.

* A new company will be incorporated to tender future commercial rights for ICC events. There will be three major ICC events in each four-year cycle, including the ICC Champions Trophy which will replace the ICC World Test Championship.

* ICC will utilise a more efficient operating model for all ICC events, with a simplified accounting model across ICC income and expenditure to help better manage ICC administrative and event costs.

ICC President Alan Isaac said: “This is an important time for world cricket and it is extremely encouraging that the ICC Board has unanimously supported a set of far-reaching principles that will underpin the long-term prosperity of the global game.

“These principles emphasise the primacy of Test cricket and that for the first time in cricket’s history participation will be based entirely on meritocracy, giving everyone powerful incentives to play better cricket and develop better cricketers.

“There is more work to be done by the Members in developing their schedules of bilateral cricket while at the ICC we need to work through the detail of the manner in which these principles will be implemented.

“Extensive work will now be undertaken in advance of a follow-up Board meeting next month.”

Isaac also expressed his disappointment with the misconceptions that had been created as a result of a draft position paper produced by three ICC Members being leaked.

“Several months ago I encouraged BCCI, CA and ECB to enter into a constructive dialogue together to help resolve some of the key commercial and governance issues facing the game. These leading cricket nations have worked tirelessly to produce a document which provided the basis for the past few weeks of extremely constructive discussions.

“It is obviously very disappointing that a draft position paper from these Members was leaked as this prompted a debate that ignored the ongoing negotiations between all Members and led to unwarranted criticism of many of those involved in the process.

“The principles agreed today provide clear evidence that through the course of further discussions over the coming weeks we can be increasingly confident in achieving consensus.”

David Richardson, the ICC Chief Executive, added: “An enormous amount of effort has gone into developing a comprehensive set of proposals that include input from all Members.

“The Board has held some very constructive, inclusive, wide-ranging and far-reaching discussions and I am looking forward to bringing to fruition some of the principles that have been proposed and accepted in relation to the cricketing structures of the global game.”

The ICC Board consists of the chairman or president from each of the 10 Full Members plus three elected Associate Member representatives. Also present at ICC Board meetings is the ICC President, who chairs proceedings, the ICC Chief Executive and the ICC Vice-President.

Alan Isaac                                                      ICC President

Mustafa Kamal                                               ICC Vice-President

David Richardson                                          ICC Chief Executive

Zaka Ashraf Pakistan

Dave Cameron West Indies

Peter Chingoka Zimbabwe

Giles Clarke England and Wales

Jayantha Dharmadasa Sri Lanka

Wally Edwards Australia

Nazmul Hassan Bangladesh

Imran Khwaja Associate Member Representative

Chris Nenzani South Africa

Keith Oliver Associate Member Representative

Martin Snedden New Zealand

Neil Speight Associate Member Representative

Narayanaswami Srinivasan India

January 29, 2014
Star Sports on a route to ‘glocalise’ Hockey

MUMBAI: It wasn’t very long ago when the News Corp-owned media and entertainment leader, Star Network, committed to invest Rs 20,000 crore in building up the sports business in India. So while the investment was intended to fuel the expansion of sports coverage in the country, there were plans of building exciting new leagues including the Indian Super League (ISL) in football, the Hockey India League (HIL) and the Indian Badminton League (IBL) as well over the next few years.

Star India head of sports business Nitin Kukreja says: “Well, we at Star believe to put money where our mouth is.”

In a strategic announcement today, Star has pledged to push the envelope for the promotion of Hockey – India’s national sport – with an unprecedented investment of over Rs 1,500 crore over the next eight years. This is a never seen before commitment to Hockey, which would see Hockey India, International Hockey Federation (FIH) and Star India embark upon a journey to promote the game.

“The idea is to look at sports other than Cricket and try and bring a change in the sporting landscape. For the transformation in any sport to really come about it requires time, investment, innovations, ideas and the coming together of the ecosystem,” adds Kukreja.

The sports broadcaster is set to create a new global benchmark in Hockey broadcasting with the telecast of the second edition of HIL. Showcasing ‘The New Face of Hockey’, Star Sports’ has invested over Rs 100 crore in the promotion (Rs 50 crore) and production (Rs 50 crore) of the second edition of HIL which starts on 25 January, 8 pm onwards.

Such a big investment hasn’t been made earlier by a broadcaster in any local league, the exception being the Indian Premiere League (IPL). However, Star Sports intends to showcase Hockey like it has never been experienced before whether in India or globally.

Kukreja says: “In terms of making the right noise around the second edition of HIL, we are already getting a good response from advertisers. We already have Micromax, Dr. Ortho and Denver Deos as our sponsors and we are in final stages of discussions with other advertisers. We will certainly be having lot of spot buyers once the tournament kicks-off.”

Star Sports’ wants the HIL broadcast to be an immersive, engaging and pleasurable viewing experience for the Indian hockey fan. The idea is to take the consumer closer to the game and make them understand the game better. Star Sports has hired International Management Group (IMG) to produce the second edition of HIL. Israel-based specialised sports agency Prometheus has been entrusted with the responsibility of developing cutting edge graphics suitable for Hockey broadcast. The broadcaster will use as many as 20 cameras for the very first time in the history of the sport for each and every match during the league – covering every piece of action on the Astroturf.

“It gives us immense pleasure to be the home for the 2018 Hockey World Cup telecast. We will surely push the envelope in match coverage as well as get into in-depth pre and post match analysis to engage the consumer better,” expounds Kukreja.

Additionally, the viewing experience will get batter because Star Sports is treating HIL at par with international cricket. The league will be showcased not only in English on Star Sports 1 and Star Sports HD1, but will also be showcased in Hindi on Star Sports 3. Starsports.com will stream all matches live of the tournament for Hockey loving fans across the world.

Star Sports has erected a world class set for pre and post shows of the league. The studio team in English will be led by former BBC presenter Michael Absalom; while in Hindi, Star Sports has roped Vidya Malvade (of Chak De India fame) as the lead anchor.

The channel’s experts and sports commentary team comprises some of the most eminent names of Hockey. English studio team: Michael Absalom (anchor), Viren Rasquinha and A.B Subbaiah (experts); English commentary team: Ashley Morrison, Adrian D’souza and Amar Aiyama (lead); Sandeep Somesh, Ashish Ballal and Solomon Casoojee (experts); Hindi studio team: Vidya Malvade (anchor), Harender Singh, Tahir Zaman (experts) and Hindi commentary team: Sunil Taneja, Ravikant Singh and Mohit Gang (lead); Salman Akbar and Sameer Dad (experts).

“We are investing time and money in the hockey commentators to make them TV compatible,” says Kukreja, and further adds, “The Indian Hockey loving fan has always missed out on the kind of telecast quality that is generally experienced only in Cricket; well all that is about to change with this path breaking production standards that we have adopted for the very first time ever in the game of Hockey.”

Just looking at this edition of HIL, this will be the first time that 30 out of the 34 matches will be played at 8 pm which is the prime time viewing. The six teams that will be featuring in the tournament are: Dabur Mumbai Magicians, Jaypee Punjab Warriors, Ranchi Rhinos, Delhi Waveriders, Kalinga Lancers and Uttar Pradesh Wizards.

Kukreja further adds that nearly 70 per cent of the viewership comes from the Hindi Speaking Markets (HSMs) and the time spent (which generally shows the strength of the content) on the Hindi channel (Star Sports 3) is about 40 per cent higher, thus clearly indicating a higher stickiness quotient among these markets.

Star Sports along with IMG and Prometheus has already rolled out team specific music videos with peppy tunes and eye popping visuals capturing the essence of the cities the teams belong to. It is not just grabbing the attention of viewers, but is also creating the right noise with the tournament just a couple of days away.

“We believe that we have done our bit in the promotion of the sport and it’s now time that the entire ecosystem comes together and make the sport even bigger and reach a wider fan base. I really don’t see a reason why can’t India regain its glory in the sport that brought in loads of medals and recognition on the global platform,” Kukreja concludes.

Star India is certainly betting big on promoting the sports culture in the country. Now it’s only a matter of a couple of days to see how the viewers respond to this big gamble played out by the broadcaster. Play on!

January 23, 2014
MSM moves to court over exclusive media rights for IND-NZ cric series

MUMBAI: Multi Screen Media’s (MSM) sports arm Sony Six bagged the exclusive broadcast rights for the highly anticipated India’s tour of New Zealand just 10 days prior to the first match.

However, after the first One Day International (ODI) which was played at Napier on 19 January where the Kiwis decimated the boys in blue by a margin of 24 runs, MSM discovered that few website operators and a radio operator were providing live and contemporaneous text and audio commentary and detailed ball-by-ball update of the match without obtaining any authorisation from MSM.

While ESPNCricinfo was providing live and simultaneous text commentary over the internet, Cricbuzz was providing audio and text commentary online, and RadioOne was providing audio commentary through internet and mobile. Since the Network has exclusive copyright over the content, MSM moved the Delhi High Court (HC) against these three entities seeking inter alia for permanent injunction restraining violation of its exclusive media rights, damages and rendition of accounts.

The New Zealand Cricket Board had granted exclusive media rights including television, internet, mobile and data rights pertaining to the India tour of New Zealand cricket matches series being played in January/February 2014 to Multi Screen Media along with its affiliates (MSM) for telecast in the Indian subcontinent.

MSM general counsel Ashok Nambissan says, “We are happy that the Hon’ble High Court has granted us an injunction preventing the flagrant violation of the exclusivity of our rights in the ongoing cricket series between India and New Zealand. These rights are acquired at great cost in our efforts to bring international sports events live to our viewers. We will continue to be vigilant and take action as per law to protect our rights.”

The above-mentioned matter came up before Justice GS Sistani of the Delhi High Court on 21 January, 2014. Upon hearing the submissions made on behalf of MSM, the Judge – plaintiff – issued a notice to the operators (ESPNCricinfo, Cricbuzz and RadioOne) – defendants – and passed an ex-parte ad-interim orders.

The relevant portion of the aforementioned order reads as below:-

“Accordingly, defendant, its agents, servants, employees are restrained from:

* Making available, through any medium whatsoever, live/contemporaneous audio commentary of the matches played in the cricket series between India-New Zealand;

* Exploiting or authorising the exploitation of cricket match-related material/information/details including but not limited to current cricket score, ball-by-ball updates, score cards, score updates, alerts etc, contemporaneous with match situations/events, as they happen in relation to the matches played in the cricket series between India- New Zealand.”

The Delhi High Court has directed these websites and radio channel to obtain licenses from MSM if they wish to provide live commentary on their websites and apps and/or provide score updates, scorecards or any other match information.

January 22, 2014
Viacom18 uses Celebrity Cricket League to give leg up to Rishtey

MUMBAI: It’s already made its debut on Indian screens just 10 day befor X’mas this year through Prasar Bharati’s DTH platform FreeDish. Since then, the IndiaCast team – lead by its CEO Anuj Gandhi – has been signing carriage deals for Viacom18’s second GEC Rishtey with various cable and DTH platforms.

Now the Viacom18 group is giving Rishtey a gentle nudge by using the platform of the Celebrity Cricket League (CCL), which commences on 25 January 2013. The CCL – which has teams featuring and owned by film and other celebrities vying for the title – will have all its matches being telecast on the new GEC, with four of them being simulcast on the older channel from the network, Colors.

Colors and Rishtey sources say that the hope is that Indian viewers will get to snack content on the new channel, in the process increasing its awareness. Most of the networks – including Zee, Star and Sony – have second flanking GECs, which has allowed them to soak up advertising that could not be accommodated on the mother channel because of air time constraints. Viacom18 has plugged this lacunae in its portfolio by bringing Rishtey – which was earlier tested in international markets amongst south Asian viewers – into Indian homes.

TAM ratings for the first two weeks of 2014 saw the newbie garner an average viewership of 46.5 million.

Last week on Thursday, the front page of all leading national dailies ran full page ads, while promos are running across 40 channels announcing Rishtey’s first tent pole event. It is interesting to note that the logo of Rishtey is much bigger than Colors, therefore catching the eye first. Viacom18 has already been promoting Rishtey on CCL’s social media presence for the past fortnight.

The broadcast partners for the event also include: Asianet, Suvarna, Star Vijay, Zee Talkies, Big Magic and Zee Bangla Cinema.

As of now, the channel has already snared several DTH carriers such as Airtel DTH, Videocon d2h, Dish TV and Free Dish and cable TV platforms such as Den (pan India), GTPL (Gujarat, Maharashtra & Jharkhand), Fastway (Punjab), Digicable (pan India), WWIL & KCBPL (Kolkata), Manthan (Kolkata & Jharkhand), Darsha (Bihar), UCN, ICC and Next Gen (Maharashtra), Hathway (Maharashtra, MP, Punjab and Rajasthan), You Scod18 and Seven Star.

Will the CCL help Rishtey forge new relationships?

January 19, 2014