ITV

Tag: ESPN

  • Neo Sports challenges Trai decision on price cut for its sports channels

    Neo Sports challenges Trai decision on price cut for its sports channels

    NEW DELHI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal today asked Trai to explain by 7 February the basis of its decision to slash the bouquet prices of Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus channels’ from Rs 58.50 to Rs 37.25, on which the channels had filed an appeal.

    The channels’ contentions were on several grounds, especially that “sports” cannot be treated as a “genre” for fixing of price.

    The counsel for the channels argued at TDSAT today, that “sports” cannot be treated as a genre as a method of fixing a channel’s price because there are sports channels and sports channels.

    The channels said that there were huge differentials between the pricing of various sports channels, and that these differentials stem from the rights to cricket properties. Neo Sports channels presented its case saying that it had rights of almost two-third of the assured cricketing properties involving India, till 2010. These properties have a tremendous revenue generating potential and also have to be bought at massive prices, hence the higher prices, the channels argued.

    Trai had argued earlier that fixing of prices for channels of the same “genre”, which is one of the key factors as per the Trai principal Tariff Order’s clause 3, does not allow Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus to fix their prices higher than those fixed for channels of the same genre of sports, like Star Sports and ESPN.

    Based on these arguments Trai last week had ordered a slashing of the prices of the two Nimbus channels to the levels of Star Sports and ESPN, that is, Rs 5 in Cas areas in the three metros, and Rs 37.25 otherwise.

    While Nimbus has questioned the authority of Trai to fix the price, it has also pointed out to the tribunal that the price of sports channels range from Rs 10 for Zee Sports, to Rs 42.50 for ESPN, with Ten Sports at Rs 14 falling in between.

    This shows a 400 per cent difference in pricing for channels of the same genre: sports, which, Nimbus has contended, goes against Trai’s own argument, which is the basis of the decision to slash Nimbus’ pricing.

    MSOs and cable operators refused comment, since the matter has become sub-judice. Roop Sharma, president of Cable Operators Federation of India, which had in the first instance filed the case against Nimbus originally, said they would respond to the notice when the time comes.

  • Trai slashes Nimbus bouquet price by Rs 21.25

    Trai slashes Nimbus bouquet price by Rs 21.25

    NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has directed Nimbus Sports Broadcast Pvt Ltd to reduce the price of its two channels by Rs 21.25 to Rs 37.25. Nimbus had priced the bouquet at Rs 58.50.

    The regulator has asked Nimbus to furnish a report of compliance within seven days from the date of receipt of this direction. The directive was issued yesterday.

    Reacting to the decision, Nimbus officials have told Indiantelevision.com that they would be filing a challenge to Trai’s directive before the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).

    Trai ordered this in relation to a complaint filed by Cable Operators’ Federation of India, after reviewing the prices charged by other broadcasters in the the same genre, that is, sport.

    In the Cas (Conditional access system) areas, Nimbus will have to stick to Trai’s tariff order where a la carte channels can be priced at a maximum of Rs 5.

    A clearly jubilant Cable Operators’ Federation of India president Roop Sharma told Indiantelevision.com that “this was a great decision as customers were being fleeced.”

    Trai has held that the decision was based on Clause 3 of its principal Tariff Order relating to charges, and said that Nimbus’ contentions were irrelevant especially because review of the prices charged by channels of the same genre showed that these are much less.

    Nimbus had argued that the prices for its two channels, Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus, were higher than those of other sports channels because their content, composition and structure were different than such other rival sports channels.

    Trai in its decision observed that clause 3 of the principal Tariff Order specifies that the charges, excluding taxes, payable by (a) Cable subscribers to cable operator; (b) Cable Operators to multi system operators / broadcasters (including their authorised distribution agencies); and (c) Multi System operators to broadcasters(including their authorised distribution agencies) prevalent as on the 26th December 2003 shall be the ceiling with respect to both free-to-air and pay channels.

    Tra said that basically, channels of the same genre are required to charge the same price and this is a reasonable basic for fixing of prices.

    But the “thrust of the arguments of Nimbus does not bring out facts, which would justify a higher price being charged by them for its said sports channels as compared with other similar channels of the same genre”, Trai observed.

    The regulator compared the prices charged by Star Sports and ESPN and said that after due consideration, it has decided that Nimbus would have to slash the rate by Rs 21.25.

    Trai said that the argument that the prices charged were based on composition, content and structure of a sports channel did not hold ground.

    “Being business decisions, these may undergo a change in view of changing perception of the market and other perceptions, and such changes will not have a bearing on deciding the similarity of channels, as required under clause 3B, so long as the genre of the channel does not get altered on account of such changes,” Trai said.

    Trai observed that even in the case of Nimbus’ own two channels, Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus, which were different in their respective compositions, contents and structures “both the said sports channels are having the same price”.

    “This shows that the broadcaster has not resorted to differential pricing even where composition, content and structure are different,” Trai observed.

    Commenting on the Trai directive WWIL senior executive vice president Arvind Mohanl said, “This is a seminal order and will go a long way to ease the burden on consumers.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    It had sought quashing of the guidelines on downlinking policy.

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

  • Dilip Jayaram leaves ESS for Procam International

    Dilip Jayaram leaves ESS for Procam International

    MUMBAI: After a long stint of over six years with ESPN Star Sports (ESS), Dilip Jayaram has decided to move on. He will be spearheading Procam International as its senior VP and would be groomed to take over as its COO in a year.
    He used to work with Buena Vista Television India earlier which used to manage the ad sales for ESPN, followed by a stint with MTV and SAB TV.

    In 2000 he came back to ESS as the regional head of the southern region, and in 2002 he moved to Delhi as the regional head for north and east. In 2004, DJ took on the portfolio of business development and innovations for ESS and was heading the team that was responsible for the
    launch of the Premier Hockey League in 2005. He was then promoted as ad sales director in June 2006.

    Procam International organises the Standard Chartered Marathon in Mumbai (which incidentally has in four years found a place in the top 10 marathons of the world) and the Hutch Half Marathon in Delhi (which is the richest half marathon in the world). Procam is also involved with Under 17 Cricket which it manages under the aegis of over seven state associations and also runs the soccer leagues in Goa and Kerala.

    Additionally Procam has also done premium sports events in India like the Squash World Cup and Mr Universe to name a few. He says, “I have worked extensively with one vertical of sports with the best in the genre and have also gained valuable insights on the other side of sports during the Asia Cup in 2004 and the first two editions of PHL. I am now crossing over to the next aspect – that of owning and promoting sports events in the country?”

    Anil and Vivek Singh the promoters of Procam said, “His past experience with ESPN Star Sports, combined with his innate entrepreneurial initiative, gives him extensive knowledge of media and sports events covering the entire gamut from conception to execution. He has been responsible for some of the largest media deals in sport and has also been the chief protagonist of the PHL.

    Procam Mediatel, responsible for the live production of the Marathons, is also currently involved in creating
    innovative shows and concept formats for television.

  • Twenty20 injects new life into sports broadcast

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

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

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

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

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

    The Advertising Scene

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • ‘Cricket needs to evolve’

    ‘Cricket needs to evolve’

    If there was one person who brought about the biggest change in sports broadcasting in India in 2006, it was Nimbus chairman Harish Thawani. He took the big gamble by acquiring India cricket rights for a whopping $612.8 million and became a broadcaster.

    Thawani holds forth on sports broadcasting in terms of the changing landscape, Asia emerging as a major player and the importance of multiplicity of platforms and technologies.

    Traditionally the sports media industry has had 3 major segments: full service sports management/marketing agencies (such as IMG, Sport Five, Nimbus Sport) that manage/market rights, sponsorship sales, stage/manage events, provide sponsor services, advise on and/or manage L & M programs, represent athletes etc (many agencies specialize in a sub-set of these); sports television companies that focus on host broadcast production and/or sports program production and syndication (such as Sunset + Vine, TWI, HBS, Nimbus Sport) and sports broadcasters (such as ESPN, Fox Sports, Sky Sports, NEO Sports).

    Two trends seem to be emerging in the sports media sector. On one hand there appears to consolidation taking place in both the agency and broadcast sector (more of that later) and on the other hand the lines are getting blurred between the roles with agencies or their parent companies such as Nimbus entering the broadcast sector (with its recently launched NEO Sports) and broadcasters such as ESS pitching for rights on a global basis and consequently winding up acting as rights agencies in countries where they don’t broadcast.

    Consequently the future may see new role definitions, new competitive stances and strange alliances emerging; and quite possibly competitors in one region being partners in another.

    Trends close to home

    The importance of Asia is growing. In football it is now the world’s second most valuable rights territory. In cricket it is by far the most valuable. Japan, Korea, China and the ASEAN are fuelling unprecedented growth in rights values for basketball, golf, motor sport, tennis, even baseball.

    Pan Asian broadcast services are under threat and I think in 3 years will become unviable, as the regional broadcasters gain ground. The rise of the regional broadcasters and/or platform owned sports channels (from Al Jazeera in the Middle East to NEO Sports in South Asia to Astro’s Super Sports in Malaysia, to PCCW in Hong Kong and Starhub’s Super Sports in Singapore) have encouraged rights holders to stop doing pan Asian deals and opt for country wise deals. The success of the recent EPL auctions on a country wise basis was an example, where ESS lost a substantial portion of the valuable territories to regional broadcasters including China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and several others.

    Multiplicity of platforms and technologies will fetch sports broadcasters in Asia higher share of subscriber revenues. Sports and movies drive pay TV! In the Middle East we have three DTH platforms and three cable companies vying for premium sports channels. In India we have two DTH platforms with two more to come and a very large cable industry, Malaysia’s long standing monopoly of Astro will diminish with Telecom Malaysia’s massive IPTV foray. Hong Kong has two cable systems. Every major country is developing multiple platforms.

    Perhaps in 2-3 years time, we might see a consortium of regional broadcasters emerge, forming a pan Asian footprint but retaining regional autonomy, using the benefits of consortium buying of rights, collective platform negotiation ability, exchange of best practices and technology; and who knows perhaps even cross holdings into an Asian superstructure.

    Global management is now happy to work in Asia thereby giving Asian sports broadcasters the ability to merge local skills into global best practices, and compete with the global broadcasters such as ESPN and Newscorp (Fox, Sky, Star)…for e.g. NEO Sports has a Scottish COO, an Australian head of acquisitions, a Polish technology consultant and an Indian CEO!

    Cricket : The challenges and opportunities

    Cricket needs to evolve. The economic dominance of Asia powered largely by India represents both an opportunity and a threat to the globalization of the sport. Opportunity because the funds now at the disposal of cricket allow it to invest in development across the world. Threat because if the Indian economy slows down or the sports broadcast industry further consolidates, the revenues of the sport will decline. Cricket must reduce its excessive dependency on India. But that is easier said than done.

    The sport is essentially a 10 country sport with only 4-5 countries providing revenues worth the mention. The structure of the sport needs to emulate football and we need to dismantle the class system wherein only 10 countries get to play Tests and regular ODIs. In football even India plays internationals despite being ranked below 125! Cricket needs to allow all ICC member countries to play internationals. With the emergence of shorter formats (which itself are the way to the future of the game), like 20/20, it is easier for weaker teams to win against stronger teams occasionally because all that it takes is for 1-2 batsmen to fire for an hour or so!! Such results fuel fan following and the sports grows in new countries.

    Lastly cricket needs to understand that its obsessive focus only on revenues (read highest bidder wins!) is perhaps an expensive trade off as the interests of the highest bidder are not necessarily aligned to that of the sport. E.g. broadcasters that win global rights are not necessarily equipped or even wanting to encourage free TV broadcasts or multiple platform broadcasts for their interests lie in exclusivity and the subscription revenues that come with it. Fortunately many cricket boards have begun to understand that and now prefer to engage sports agencies (albeit with a revenue MG) to manage their rights with the mandate to increase revenues but also increase reach, improve branding, procure better sponsorships, develop new markets and assist in development programs through coaching videos etc.

    India : Road ahead is clear

    With economic growth beating the 8 per cent per annum mark and the next 10 years (if not much more) quite clearly a boom phase, there’s seldom been a better time to invest in India. Broadcast industry revenues are growing at 17-19 per cent per annum, spending on leisure including sport by Indians is on the rise, and the advent of addressable systems particularly DTH bodes well for premium pay TV services such as sports and movies.

    India : Cricket domination continues

    Having said that even the world’s largest markets don’t support more than 2-3 pay TV sports companies, which meant that my prediction of some months back that from a 6 player market we will see a 3 player market by 2007 has come true even before 2006 is out. DD and Sony are at least for the moment quite clearly out of the cricket rights acquisition market. Zee has taken control of Ten, so its essentially 3 companies now in sports broadcasting each with 2 channels (Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus, ESPN and Star Sports, Zee Sports and Ten Sports); which should allow all three to operate profitably and given the amazing range of sports product available would give all three enough options to program their channels, except for one catch. The cricket catch.

    In a single sport country, this means that Neo Sports with its powerful cricket assets over the next five years, the depth of sports expertise of Nimbus behind it and powered by Star India’s distribution leadership will have a smooth side. As will ESS with its long standing experience, market franchise and reasonable cricket assets now strengthened by the ICC package. The challenge for ESS will be that in 2007 some if not all of their previous cricket assets start expiring and that means an uncertain path ahead. If renewals are hard to come by, they will have to wait for 2011 when the next World Cup is staged to make a strong come back.

    India: Domestic sport

    I had said in early 2006 that this would be the year of domestic sport in India. Hopefully the numbers bear me out. BCCI commenced 72 days a year of domestic cricket coverage and extensive re-branding and re-formatting. Even with the start-up phase distribution of NEO Sports it rocketed to the No 1 sports channel position in the TAM data in its first week itself with the broadcast of the domestic Challenger Series, with peak TVRs of 9.2 in one match! The Duleep Trophy final achieved peak TVRs of 2.7 on a weekday despite it being a 5 day match format! Zee Sports broadcast of Indian domestic football has also shown consistent results. I think by mid 2007 the ratings of domestic cricket will start rivaling Test match TVRs consistently and weekend One Day matches in the domestic Super League could be the killer app for NEO Sports!

    India: Other Sports

    Hockey is dead. It’s now official. It received a quiet and indecent burial at the recent Asian Games where India did not make it to the semis and no one shed tears.Tennis, golf and motor sport plough on their elitist path into Indian homes that would scarcely know the difference between a birdie and a break-point. I can hear howls of protest from the same elitist benches and to them I would say walk down (as I have) the streets of Jalgaon, Coimbatore, Ajmer or even Hyderabad and ask what a birdie is. The range of cute or crass answers might surprise you.

    That leaves football and to me the dark horse badminton as the 2 sports that India can and I think will develop a TV loyalty to. Football because it has a 3-4 state base, and the western and southern metros are beginning to take up to it (on TV I mean) and also quite simply because it is the true world game. Which is why at NEO Sports it already broadcasts live the Bundesliga and the Italian Serie A.

    And Badminton because it is India’s largest participation sport after cricket. It is extensively played in India and easily understood. It has never been adequately programmed on sports channels and not enough has been done to market it. NEO Sports plans to change both of that starting early 2007.

    India: Sports entertainment

    When Nimbus Sport did the Extraaa Innings production for Sony during the 2003 Cricket World Cup, only Nimbus Sport and Sony believed that merging sport with entertainment will lead to a serious opportunity to build a viewer franchise. It made the purists cringe (and rightfully so) but it raked in the TRPs and the revenues.

    Some months back I had announced that we see sports entertainment as the big hole in the market and NEO Sports Plus will launch a slew of sports entertainment shows by 1st quarter 2007. ESS was quick to follow with its own announcement and the good news is that they’ve already started 2 shows, both of which are showing very promising ratings.

    I think NEO Sports Plus will do 70+ GRPs a week by mid 2007 off the back of sports entertainment and its focus on football and badminton.

    Regulatory

    So now TV is in the PDS, controlled prices et al (sorry administered prices). Is it constitutional? Are world class premium channels to be sacrificed at the altar of populism? These and many other questions will get answered in the coming months. Personally I believe that price caps will not go for at least 6 months, but in the interim a multi tier price cap regime may emerge, with Rs 5 as cap for most channels, Rs 10 as cap for GE and movie channels and Rs 20 for sports channels.

    On anti-siphoning the Supreme Court of India has ruled in the Ten Sports case. Many believe that in India where cable is cheap and DTH is also cheap and covers all cable dark areas, there is no grounds for anti-siphoning regulations. Moreover cable reaches nearly 65 per cent of all TV homes now.

    But if anti-siphoning laws do get enacted, they need to consider some rather serious issues:

    1. Is DD a terrestrial broadcaster or cable/DTH? ODI matches can’t be shared with DD under the guise of it being a public free TV terrestrial broadcaster, and then DD merrily supplies the signal to cable and DTH killing the pay TV business!

    2. A use or lose policy with strict timelines and license fee rationale will need to be adhered to by DD as it is in many countries where antis-siphoning rules are in force.

    3. DD must encrypt its signals to their transmission towers. No where in the world does a free TV broadcaster send unencrypted signals via satellite.

    4. If the anti-siphoning rules are truly meant to for public service, DD must refrain from commercial exploitation of the feed and agree to carry the rights holders feed with commercials. And DD must not decline other sports the right to be broadcast on DD National, when events of global stature and/or Indian interest are being staged.

  • ‘Consolidation good for the sports broadcasting business’

    ‘Consolidation good for the sports broadcasting business’

    2006 has been a rocky year for sports broadcasters. Cricket properties were acquired at humungous prices, SET India decided to walk out of bidding wars, Harish Thawani made his entry into the broadcasting arena and Zee bought 50 per cent in Ten Sports.

     

    ESPN Software India MD RC Venkateish offers his views on the consolidation in sports broadcasting, the challenges broadcasters face in pushing sports other than cricket, the need to come out with sports entertainment programming, and the Cas issue.

     

    Over the past few years we have seen a proliferation of sports channels but 2006 was a year when we saw consolidation. You had Zee buying a stake in Ten Sports while Sony opted out of sports. Nimbus is also in the process of aligning itself. This happened because earlier you had an unsustainable situation where a lot of people jumped onto the sports bandwagon thinking that it was an easy play.

     

    People have realised that it is not that easy to run a sports channel. This is because of the kind of skill sets that are required, the capabilities that are required and also the kind of investments that need to be sustained.

     

    Going forward you will see moderation in the sports business. You will see the crazy escalation in rights prices starting to cool down a bit. People are starting to get more realistic. In terms of overall developments of the business, consolidation is good.

     

    You earlier had smaller players jumping in and bidding the rights prices to crazy levels. There was a destabilising factor in terms of asset valuations. When asset valuations reach a ridiculous level you are bound to have a correction. This sort of a boom-bust cycle is not good for anybody’s business. People who tried to take acquisition prices up, have realised that it is not an easy game to play. Now the players who are standing are serious and committed. The environment is stable with players who are in it for the long haul and looking to increase their brand equity rather than a quick fire in and out situation.

     

    Consolidation means that the model of let me set up something sell it and get out is gone. A stable environment will allow the players to invest in broadcast quality, programme content. We can focus on better quality of coverage for the viewer rather than saying,”Hi I am blowing your brains out on the rights acquisition costs.” From a five-player field it has been reduced to three and possible eventually to two.

     

    Sports Entertainment

     

    Sports is entertainment. There are wrap around shows around content. What we have sought to bring to the viewers is 360 degree spectrum of sports. We have always had magazine programmes, informative shows. We recently launched a lighthearted programme revolving around sports. The main theme, though, will always be live sports. Around that we try to build properties and shows. Anything that seeks to enhance the understanding of sports and inform the viewer provides a different angle.

     

    This space needs to surround the live programming. It cannot act as a substitute. As an exclusive standalone as a channel or as a genre I do not think that sports entertainment will have any legs. Recently, one of the players launched a live sports channel and another channel on sports entertainment. Yet if you see the second channel it too has live sports. They probably couldn’t find enough software. That is not to say they will not create software but it is important to find a proper balance. At ESPN we have added concepts like dream job, Full Toss to the live experience.

     

    Sports federations need to get their act together

     

    International football is doing well with the soccer World Cup and English Premier League. The World Cup gave ratings that have not been seen for a non cricket sport. We had all India ratings of 2.6 and 3.1 for some of the league games. Unfortunately, the ratings for the rest of the stuff has been middling. That has to do with the lack of performance at the international level by sportspeople. I remember that two years ago when Sania Mirza came to the third round of the Australian Open the ratings shot up to 1.1.

     

    Unfortunately she has not been able to maintain that sort of form and the ratings have dipped. Premier Hockey League has given us ratings but because the national side has not been performing their matches have not fared well. Unless you perform at an international level it is hard to capture the imagination of the public.

     

    People want to emulate winners not losers. If you do not do well then there is no new pipeline of young talent who wants to play the sport. Eventually the sport dies out. We are doing our bit to push hockey and soccer. Having said that, sports federations need to have a deep, hard look at themselves. People need to fundamentally overhaul the system. Otherwise it is not going to go anywhere. It has been like this for the last 40 years. It will be like this for the next 40 years. Cricket at the moment does not face challenges. You have a good set of players as well as youngsters who want to take it up. So the pipeline is active.

     

    Certainly in other sports when it comes to marketing it is a challenge. With hockey we have to fight the dice a little bit as the national team’s performance has been bad. If India had won the Asian Games or even finished as runners up, there would have been a positive groundswell of support for the game. Marketing is a lot easier if the national team is doing well. Hopefully, people will put the bad performance of the Indian hockey team behind them and watch PHL for the love of the game itself and not for the satisfaction of one team beating another. In the UK local soccer league games have more viewership than some international matches.

     

    2007 A big revenue boost for sports

     

    Sports is event driven. You have the cricket World Cup coming up. So there will be a boost. Then there is the 20/20 World Cup in September. India goes to England and to Australia. We also tour Pakistan. So there is a fair amount of cricket. It compares favourably to this year when there was the soccer World Cup and the Champions Trophy.

     

    Distribution

     

    DTH has been around for quite a while and is a good development. It offers an alternative to the consumer and it is digital telecast. It is good that sports are airing in a format that is clearer to see. We welcome Cas from a technology perspective. The only thing that we are unhappy about is the kind of price regulation that has been forced down our throat. We will get 45 per cent of Rs 5 per subscriber, which is two rupees and forty-five paisa. This is absurdity that defies even basic, cursory logic. It is extremely unfair and we have already appealed to TDSAT. It has always been seen that free market forces are the best even for the consumers eventually.

    To interfere with that is always going to be a recipe for disaster. DTH and Cas address single subscribers and provide content for that subscriber. We are already providing interactive services to both Dish TV
    and Tata Sky. This allows viewers to check out rolling highlights, players statistics, different camera angles. As the transponder capacity goes up, it will afford the opportunity for more data. We have the rights for Euro 2008 and so the DTH service providers will probably come to us to see if we could do something with them.

  • Archery sees a surge in TV viewership

    Archery sees a surge in TV viewership

    MUMBAI: The International Archery Federation (FITA) has announced that due to the Meteksan Archery World Cup and the Field World Championships an estimated 900 million people watched Archery on television in 2006.

    Fita has produced and distributed through the EBU newscast and 26 or 52 minutes highlights on each event, i.e. the four World Cup stages, the World Cup Final at the Mayapan pyramids and the Field World Championships in Göteborg. The Final was also broadcast live.

    The main TV channels that showed archery include ESPN Star Asia, Eurosport, Fox International, Sport+, Zee Sport, RAI, RTR Russia, TRT or CCTV.

    The global cumulative audience is calculated so far in 2006:
    – With news coverage : 565 million viewers
    – With live, highlights or features : 324 million viewers
    – Total :889 million viewers

    With the year-end programming, the audience should reach 900 million.

    This has been a successful come-back for Archery on television with the success of the new World Cup. Fita has set up its own Fita TV with the company HTR in Geneva for the live, the highlights and the newscast, which have reached about 100 territories. Moreover, Gillette World Sport, Sports Unlimited and Trans World Sport have broadcast feature stories on each event. The archery TV images were most watched in Asia and Europe, especially in India, China, Russia, Italy, Turkey and France, says Fita.

  • HC adjourns Star, Sony case against Trai to 18 Jan

    HC adjourns Star, Sony case against Trai to 18 Jan

    NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court bench hearing the case on the issue of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) constitutional standing to be a regulator was adjourned after a sizeable time spent in hearing the initial arguments from both ESPN and Sony as well as the multi-system operators (MSOs). The issue will come up for hearing again on 18 January.

    The MSOs, who are supporting Trai, were represented by Dr Abhishekh Singhvi, CS Vaidyanathan and Aryama Sundaran, whereas the boradcasters’ consel was Soli Sorabjee. ESS and Sony had moved the Delhi HC, challenging Trai’s constiutional standing.

    The court heard the initial arguments and felt that since the parties concerned have not completed filingrejoinders and counters the matter may be postponed till the next date.

    The case relates to the cable rules empowering Trai as CAS regulator. The High Court is hearing only the constituional issues on the matter and the quantum issues are beig heard by TDAST.

    Spokesperson for the MSOs refused to divulge details of the arguments as the matter is subjudice, and the counsel was not available till late evening.

    Tomorrow, hearings are slated for three cases in TDSAT. The first is on a appeal by ESPN on the August 24 order Trai of fixing tariff at Rs five per pay channel, and second is also an appeal by ESPN against the Trai order of 24 August on distribution margins for pay channels, which as per the order stand at 45 per cent for broadcasters, 30 per cent for MSOs and 25 per cent for local cable operators. The issue of Cas rule relating to signing of a standard contract is also coming up during this hearing, with the MSOs opposing the ‘forcible’ signing of a contract.

    The third case also relates to the same issues, on an appeal filed by Sony Entertainment Television.

    The Surpeme Court will hear the final arguments in the case filed by Sea TV, an affiliate of Zee Group based in Agra, on the issue of underdeclaration of the number of households by the cable operators.

    Sea TV had applied for access to Star channels two years ago, and the broadcaster had said that they had given access to Moon TV. Sea TV should get the signal from Moon TV, Star had pointed out. However, Zee had intervened saying Sea TV was bound to be given access and had disputed that an MSO (in this case the Moon TV) or an LCO can be an agent of a broadcaster, which was the genesis of the case being heard.

  • Unprecedented worldwide audience for Euro 2008

    Unprecedented worldwide audience for Euro 2008

    MUMBAI: Uefa Euro 2008 will have unprecedented television coverage around the world after Uefa announced it had agreed the sale of broadcast rights to key territories outside of Europe, including the United States and Asia.

    “We will have coverage of the European Championship which we have never had before,” said Uefa chief executive Lars-Christer Olsson as he announced the deal yesterday.

    As already reported, ESPN Star Sports has won exclusive broadcast and internet rights for the Indian subcontinent for the tournament, the most prestigious in the football calendar after the World Cup.

    Explaining Uefa’s strategy, Olsson said that after putting the broadcast rights to tender, the European governing body had decided to enter into direct negotiations with broadcasters in certain strategic territories in light of the quality of offers received. “We invited in August to tender for the rights for the European Championship outside Europe and we got some very positive proposals from some individual markets,” said Olsson. “We decided to make direct contracts in certain territories – the United States, India, the Middle East, North Africa and Hong Kong.”

    The territories covered by the sale and the broadcasters involved are as follows:

    ESPN has been granted the rights for North America, including pay rights in Latin America. The deal guarantees extensive coverage of Euro 2008 on the ESPN network including two games on ABC.

    ESS has been appointed for the Indian subcontinent, including sub-licensing to terrestrial networks. The structure of the agreement provides a unique platform for the promotion of Euro 2008 in a region encompassing a global population of up to 1.3 billion people.

    Al Jazeera was granted the rights for the Middle East and North Africa. The agreement will ensure a wide coverage of the competition in this region, where most of the 350 million people are huge football fans and that has close links with European football.

    PCCW has been selected in Hong Kong. PCCW’s NOW TV is a cutting-edge broadcaster that runs the largest IPTV operation in the world. This agreement will put Uefa and Euro 2008 at the forefront of technology convergence with a fully integrated distribution on IPTV and mobile.

    To complement this network of broadcasters, Uefa has appointed SportFive to represent the media rights to Euro 2008 in all the remaining markets outside Europe. This is a natural extension of the current agency agreement between Uefa and SportFive for the European territories, and will ensure a consistent distribution of the broadcast rights worldwide

    Philippe Le Floc’h, director of marketing and media rights at Uefa, said: “We are delighted by the outcome of the process and are convinced that these new partnerships will lead to the most comprehensive and wide-reaching promotional platform ever for Uefa European Football Championship in territories ex-Europe. We are looking forward to developing a direct relationship with the broadcasters and to further deepen the collaboration with Sportfive.”