ITV

Tag: Dilip Sharan

  • Discovery India gets favourable order from Delhi High Court on DSport

    Discovery India gets favourable order from Delhi High Court on DSport

    MUMBAI: How times change. It was hardly a couple of years ago, that  Discovery Communications International Networks (DCIN) LLC, Discovery Networks Asia Pacific (DNAP) and Discovery Communications India (DCI) were all bum-chummy with the former Dish TV India CEO and ESPN India managing director R Venkateish. Discovery had launched its channel DSPORT with Venky and his firm  Lex Sportel Vision as its “consultant.”

    But the two parted ways on 23 January 2020, with Discovery  –  “exercising their right under the provisions of the Term sheet, following material breaches of Law by Lex Sportel and Venkateish in providing services to DCIN and DNAP” – terminating the relationship with Venky and Lex from 23 January 2020. 

    Prior to that, DNAP and DCI had put Lex Sportel and Venky on a four-month notice from 14 October 2019 during which they were required to provide services in accordance with the term sheet to DCI and DNAP.

    And DCI has been slugging it out with Venky in the courts since then. And yesterday, the Delhi high court passed an ad interim order restraining Lex Sportel Vision, Venky and Dilip Sharan, CEO from using the logo DSPORT in any manner whatsoever and specifically for marketing its own channel 1Sport thereby using the goodwill of DSPORT. The interim injunction was granted against their former partner “as in the past weeks they issued several communications in public causing confusion within the market and industry on the ownership of DSPORT,” says a Discovery India press release.

    Discovery – south Asia senior vice-president – affiliate sales and head of sports business  Vijay Rajput says that the court order clarifies who the true owner of the DSPORT brand is.

    He adds:  “Discovery has carried out business in this country for the past 25 years with utmost credibility and business ethics. We followed all processes despite multiple false accusations and are delighted that finally, the truth has prevailed. “

  • Neo Sports soon available on Tata Sky

    Neo Sports soon available on Tata Sky

    MUMBAI: Neo Sports inked a deal with Tata Sky, the channel will now be available on Tata Sky.

    This mutual and resurgent association will see a major value addition to the sports viewers in India.

    Neo Sports distribution platforms EVP Dilip Sharan said, “Having had a great working relationship with Tata Sky in the past, we are extremely delighted to have Tata Sky as our strong business partner! We look forward to engaging with them in creating much greater value for the industry as a whole. We now propose to flash fabulous sports content that shall be covered by Tata Sky. This will indeed mean tremendous value addition to the viewer”

    Neo Sports with its extensive coverage of both popular as well as premium sports offerings and Tata Sky with its deep penetrative reach in every part of the country shall fulfill the appetite of the avid sports enthusiast.

    With this formidable combination of Neo Sports and Tata Sky, there should be exciting times in the sports broadcast arena. It is a win-win for Tata Sky subscribers & avid fans following their sport on Neo Sports network to watch some fantastic events like the evergreen grand slam tennis tournament – French Open; top notch football championships like Copa Italia, French Cup and the biggest of all FIFA Club World Cup along with the weekends Dutch league Eredivisie would now have a wider reach.

    Cricket’s new excitement BPL (Bangladesh Premier League), the Afghanistan & Zimbabwe cricket series and premium Gold PGA tours add to the world class tourneys.

    This entire development will add another dimension to Neo Sports & Tata Sky which will be whole heartedly welcomed by the viewers.

     

  • Neo Sports soon available on Tata Sky

    Neo Sports soon available on Tata Sky

    MUMBAI: Neo Sports inked a deal with Tata Sky, the channel will now be available on Tata Sky.

    This mutual and resurgent association will see a major value addition to the sports viewers in India.

    Neo Sports distribution platforms EVP Dilip Sharan said, “Having had a great working relationship with Tata Sky in the past, we are extremely delighted to have Tata Sky as our strong business partner! We look forward to engaging with them in creating much greater value for the industry as a whole. We now propose to flash fabulous sports content that shall be covered by Tata Sky. This will indeed mean tremendous value addition to the viewer”

    Neo Sports with its extensive coverage of both popular as well as premium sports offerings and Tata Sky with its deep penetrative reach in every part of the country shall fulfill the appetite of the avid sports enthusiast.

    With this formidable combination of Neo Sports and Tata Sky, there should be exciting times in the sports broadcast arena. It is a win-win for Tata Sky subscribers & avid fans following their sport on Neo Sports network to watch some fantastic events like the evergreen grand slam tennis tournament – French Open; top notch football championships like Copa Italia, French Cup and the biggest of all FIFA Club World Cup along with the weekends Dutch league Eredivisie would now have a wider reach.

    Cricket’s new excitement BPL (Bangladesh Premier League), the Afghanistan & Zimbabwe cricket series and premium Gold PGA tours add to the world class tourneys.

    This entire development will add another dimension to Neo Sports & Tata Sky which will be whole heartedly welcomed by the viewers.

     

  • Neo Sports decides to break away from The One Alliance

    Neo Sports decides to break away from The One Alliance

    MUMBAI: Three weeks after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued its television content aggregation regulation, Neo Sports Broadcast has decided to break away from its distributor The One Alliance.

     

    A statement from the company states that the broadcaster has decided not to renew its agreement with The One Alliance that expires on 31 March. From 1 April, the sportscaster will be distributing its channels Neo Sports and Neo Prime through an in-house distribution team.

     

    When contacted by Indiantelevision.com, The One Alliance president Rajesh Kaul says, “The contract was coming to an end on 31 March and we were contemplating of not renewing the contract because they have lost all the sporting properties from the network. With MSM investing heavily on Sony Six and with IPL and FIFA, it is a formidable sports channel and so we did not want anything else in the bouquet.”

     

    Apart from Neo Sports, The One Alliance currently distributes television channels of Multi Screen Media, Discovery, Times Television Network and TV Today.

     

    Neo Sports believes that it can on its own strength build a robust relationship with cable operators, DTH operators and HITS companies. Even when its channels were being distributed by the aggregator to cable platforms, it was handling distribution through DTH on its own.

     

    According to Neo Sports, standalone channels with good content mix at affordable prices can be good and effective business cases in a digital environment.

     

    Says Neo Sports Broadcast EVP distribution platforms, Dilip Sharan, “The suggestive regulatory approach combined with digitisation clearly points that future distribution deals will be dictated by the relevant content that is made available to various audiences and the ability to work with the platforms keeping in mind the business issues and not entirely on the strength of the channels size in the bouquet, a prevalent practice in the analogue era.  Our cable distribution deal with MSMD made better commercial sense in the analogue environment.”

     

    TRAI’s regulation has barred aggregation of television channels from different broadcaster groups and allowed the aggregators six months of transition period.

     

    Neo Sports believes that there is a lot more scope to monetise from digitisation. The analogue era didn’t allow many channels due to bandwidth limitation. “The new regulation is indicative of how things are likely to pan out in the future. We were waiting for TRAI’s view on it to take this step at the opportune time,” adds Sharan.

     

    One of the major concerns of various broadcasters is that an aggregator might be bias against the smaller networks. Although Sharan doesn’t agree, he does feel it is very natural for an aggregator to give preferential treatment to its own channels.

     

    Most aggregators are aligned with several broadcasters.

     

    Will some other broadcasters also follow suit? “I won’t be surprised if others also do the same,” says Sharan.

     

    Neo Prime and Neo Sports channels are currently available on DTH platforms such as Dish TV, Videocon D2H, Airtel Digital TV, Reliance DTH and Sun Direct. The Neo channels are available on cable channels across all the leading networks.