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Tag: La Liga

  • Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum turns into a high-stakes sports-tech power play as Sportel 2025 starts

    Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum turns into a high-stakes sports-tech power play as Sportel 2025 starts

    MONACO: The sports industry’s deal-makers have flooded into Monaco this week, and the energy is electric. Nearly 70 countries have sent their sharpest minds to Sportel 2025, a three-day collision between legacy sports titans and maverick tech disruptors that kicks off today and runs through 22 October. This is where real money gets moved and genuine innovation gets showcased.

    The Grimaldi Forum is heaving with some of sport’s biggest names exhibiting: Fifa, La Liga, the World Cup of Hockey 2028, alongside a glittering roster of tech firms like Qualcomm, AWS, and Wasabi. But Sportel is no mere trade show—it’s a strategic summit where the next generation of sports media gets hammered out.

    The conference programme cuts straight to the chase. Javier Tebas, La Liga’s president, will deliver a keynote spelling out how the world’s most compelling league is monetising itself. But the real fireworks come in a masterly panel on investment: “Where is the next $1bn coming from?” features the CEOs of Surj Sports Investment, Kings League, and the Professional Fighters League, all circling the same question—which markets are still hungry, and where will private equity and sovereign wealth funds actually deploy capital?

    There’s more. A panel on Formula 1’s storytelling prowess asks whether authentic sport crossed with entertainment star power can turbocharge sponsorship and rights values. Then comes the tech avalanche: sessions on generative AI reshaping everything from content creation to the fan experience; on new live-streaming tools that personalise what viewers see; on how Liverpool FC is harnessing AI and cloud infrastructure to deepen loyalty across the globe.

    The Ligue 1+ case study is particularly clever—a league building its own direct-to-consumer platform, hoarding first-party data, and cutting out the middleman to capture fresh revenue. That model is spreading. So too is the adoption of ad-supported streaming as the default for OTT platforms. World Rugby, via the platform WURL, is showcasing exactly how.

    The conference even has a competition worth caring about: “Pitch Perfect Innovation Contest” will see start-ups including Pendular, FalconHQ, and Camb.ai each get three minutes to convince industry heavyweights that their solution deserves backing. And a Women’s Lunch (by invitation) will celebrate female leaders redefining the sport-media nexus—expect Alexis Ohanian from Seven Seven Six, Lauren Pedersen from SportAI, Fiona Wong from the NBA, and marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe to set the room ablaze.

    The message from all sides is unambiguous: artificial intelligence, cloud technology, and direct fan relationships aren’t the future anymore. They’re the present—and if you’re not moving now, you’re already behind.

  • Viacom18 opts to knock-out rogue websites from infringing its media rights for BCCI events

    Viacom18 opts to knock-out rogue websites from infringing its media rights for BCCI events

    Mumbai: Viacom18 has secured a broad dynamic injunction from the Delhi High Court for the Indian cricket team’s bilateral matches.

    Recently, to strengthen its hold in the sports broadcasting industry, Viacom18 had bagged the BCCI linear and digital right in a three-way bidding war between Viacom18, Sony and Star. As a result, for the next five years i.e., from September 2023 till March 2028, all bilateral games involving the Indian cricket team that will be played in India along with domestic cricket, shall now be broadcasted/streamed by Viacom18 on its television and OTT properties. With this Viacom18 has also become the prominent sports destination as it already has the digital rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL), Women’s Premier League (WPL) and other major sporting events like the Olympics 2024, MotoGP 2023, La Liga, Diamond League etc.

    The new sports broadcasting leader, Viacom18 Media Private Ltd, had approached the Delhi High Court seeking an ad-interim dynamic injunction to protect its Media Rights in relation to the BCCI Events against various rogue and pirate websites as well as John Does/Ashok Kumars/Unknown Defendants. The Court while expressing its concerns regarding the unending menace of piracy noted that the courts have become inundated with suits pertaining to such issues and suggested the importance of a robust anti-piracy policy to curb the issues. The Court observed that a prima facie case for interim injunction was made out and further held that the grant of an injunction would be necessary to avoid irreparable loss/injury from being caused to Viacom18.

    The court further ordered that Viacom18 shall not be bound to initiate any fresh proceedings in relation to any new alphanumeric/redirect/mirror websites that are expected to mushroom during the course of the BCCI events. Access to such websites shall be blocked by the Internet Service Providers (IPSs) upon being informed about the same by Viacom18 on an affidavit. This dynamic injunction provides Viacom18 to swiftly act against pirates and rogue websites infringing and making available the BCCI matches without due permissions. With this effective dynamic injunction Order from the Delhi High Court, Viacom18 has set the field to ensure a smooth exploitation of its rights and bowl-out any infringing and pirated content.  

    Such dynamic injunction orders re-affirm and assure the owner/licensee/assignee of IP rights that the humongous capitals invested in relation to such rights shall be protected against pirates and infringers. With such orders being passed by the courts, it has also become possible to unearth the identities of those hiding behind the cloak of anonymity on the internet and book them for their illegal actions.

    Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd. general counsel Anil Lale said, “We at Viacom18 are proud to be the exclusive digital and television broadcaster for Indian cricket. Viacom18 has always been at the forefront in the fight against piracy. I am sure this is a welcome step for all the cricket fans as also for bona fide broadcasters like us who spend huge sums to get these rights..  

    While we are proud to say that we have won several battles against these pirate websites, we understand that the war against piracy is a continuing one and we are committed towards winning it.”

  • La Liga onboards Khelraja as its official Asian igaming partner

    La Liga onboards Khelraja as its official Asian igaming partner

    Mumbai: Highlighting its commitment to the igaming experience, Khelraja, Asia’s real-money gaming brand that offers sports betting, casino, and esports among other categories, has partnered with La Liga team Sevilla FC. It is its official Asian igaming partner. Through the association, which will run until 30 June 2024, Khelraja will provide its users the opportunity to engage with all La Liga and Copa del Rey matches featuring Sevilla FC and win rewards.

    Sevilla FC president José Castro said, “We are very pleased to have signed this agreement which will allow us to continue growing in our process of internationalising our brand, both globally and in Southeast Asia, a market that we consider strategic in our expansion process. Sevilla is going to become an ambassador of LaLiga with this sponsorship agreement, and we are undoubtedly taking an important step in this region.”

    The Spanish First Division, known as La Liga, has, over the last two decades, featured global superstars such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldinho, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The partnership between Sevilla and Khelraja provides these fans with an opportunity to further elevate their engagement and experience sports immersion.

    Khelraja CEO Viren Modi said, “The passion for football in India is on the rise, as can be seen in the growing popularity of overseas football leagues. Partnering with Sevilla FC, one of the biggest and most illustrious clubs in Spanish football, is a moment of great pride for us. The association will provide football fans on the Khelraja platform with yet another avenue to not only engage with Sevilla FC’s games online but also win lucrative rewards while doing so. We are looking forward to the partnership and will be exploring more such engagement opportunities with other football clubs, both in India and overseas.”

    Sevilla FC has a history spanning more than 130 years. It is the oldest club in Spain dedicated to football and has, since its founding in 1890, won one league title, five Spanish Cups, one Spanish Super Cup, and one Uefa Super Cup. Sevilla FC also holds the distinction of winning the Uefa Europa League (previously called the Uefa Cup) a record six times, with the most recent victory coming in the 2019-20 season.

  • BKT becomes official global partner of LaLiga with 3-year agreement

    BKT becomes official global partner of LaLiga with 3-year agreement

    MUMBAI: BKT and LaLiga have entered into an agreement that will see BKT become “Official Global Partner of LaLiga”.

    The partnership takes immediate effect and will run for three years until the end of the 2021/2022 season.

    “LaLiga stands for excellence and is a synonym for football with a capital ‘F’,” BKT joint managing director Rajiv Poddar stated. “From today on, we are following a new marketing initiative within the Spanish football world, and I am really glad and proud of it. LaLiga is a brand of unquestionable value. It is an honour to act side by side this name!”

    “It is a great pleasure that we can strengthen the bond between BKT and the world of sport, and above all the football world with both its rules and dynamics that we find fully in line with our own values, along with determination and the uncompromising wish to win,” BKT Europe managing director Lucia Salmaso says.

    LaLiga international development director Óscar Mayo added, “LaLiga can help brands to significantly increase their exposure worldwide. Our competition has millions of fans around the world and therefore represents a huge audience for brands to engage with. We look forward to working with BKT over the coming years and helping it to achieve its objectives.”

    This is a decisive goal on BKT’s path of increasing its brand awareness. The company is extraordinarily active when it comes to communication and promotion – a unique and distinguishing feature. Sport is an instrument that perfectly supports BKT’s message on a global level thanks to its characteristic traits such as fair play, respect for the opponent, competition and strategy, values that are shared by LaLiga.

    Becoming official global partner of LaLiga is another initiative that adds to the numerous sport events that BKT has been actively supporting worldwide. These include the 2014-agreement with the Monster Jam circuit, the American motorsport show where giant Monster Trucks fitted with BKT tires perform astonishing stunts; the sponsorship agreement with Lega Nazionale Professionisti B, the governing body of the Italian second league championship, which was undertaken last year being effective till June 2021, and which has changed its name into “Serie BKT”.

    In addition, BKT sponsors the French “Coupe de la Ligue BKT” football competition, to which the company has given its name till June 2024, as well as the partnership with the Australian cricket championship with the KFC Big Bash League, which is valid for two more years.

  • La Liga’s mega fixture, El Clasico will be available exclusively on Facebook Watch in India

    La Liga’s mega fixture, El Clasico will be available exclusively on Facebook Watch in India

    MUMBAI: El Clasico, the biggest club fixture in the world will be streamed live and free only on Facebook Watch on 3 March 2019 in the Indian subcontinent.

    La Liga signed a landmark deal with Facebook before the start of the 2018/19 season for telecast of all La Liga matches in the region.

    The legendary rivalry between Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona is the most anticipated fixture for football fans across the globe. Fans in India can watch the match live and free on Facebook Watch in the early hours of Sunday morning.

    It’s been a La Liga season to remember, and one of the most competitive campaigns in Spanish top-flight history. FC Barcelona lead the way, but their great rivals Real Madrid CF are only 9 points behind ensuring plenty on the line when the two sides meet on the 3 March.

    Live studio coverage will be hosted by Joe Morrison. The popular presenter will be joined by former Real Madrid CF defender Michel Salgado and former English top-flight goalkeeper and fan favourite John Burridge.

     

  • La Liga aims to be India’s second favourite tournament: Jose Cachaza

    La Liga aims to be India’s second favourite tournament: Jose Cachaza

    MUMBAI: La Liga was the most talked topic in football after FIFA World Cup in 2018 because of its first-of-its-kind deal with Facebook for three years for the Indian subcontinent. In the past couple of years, La Liga’s main focus has been to promote Spanish football beyond its borders, with the aim to create a community of fans around the world.  

    With this aim La Liga now has nine international offices: two in China (Shanghai and Beijing), one in South Africa (Johannesburg), Nigeria (Lagos), the United States (New York), the United Arab Emirates (Dubai), India (New Delhi), Mexico (Mexico City) and Singapore.

    Talking about the deal with Facebook, La Liga India MD Jose Cachaza said, “We are doing what’s never done before. Both La Liga and Facebook are very happy looking at how the project is evolving and we hope that our relationship with Facebook will be a long and fruitful one. The figures are really positive till now. We are changing the way Indian fans watch football.”

    While the 380 matches were to be available for free to people on Facebook in eight countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, Facebook and SPN reached an agreement wherein the broadcaster earned the right to air over 100 games via its sports cluster.

    La Liga delegate India Gary Udhwani said, “Our mission is to increase the brand value and brand image not only of La Liga but also of all the clubs. In India, we have many objectives which include increasing revenues and being closer to our fans but our main aim is to contribute to the local growth of football because if football grows here, La Liga will automatically grow. We like to be the second most popular league in any country after their local league.”

    The total revenue earned in the 2016/17 season by LaLiga amounted to €3,662.3 million, which represents an increase of €494.6 million (15.6 per cent) compared to the previous season.

    “India is the fastest growing economy in the world. We all know that cricket is the country’s favourite sport. While 80 per cent of the live sports audience comes from cricket, football is already the second most watched sport on Indian television,” Cachaza added.

    In the last four seasons, LaLiga has increased its international presence around the world. Institutional relations have been reinforced with federations, leagues and even governments, with whom MoUs have been signed.

    LaLiga has also invested a great deal of human and technical resources in the protection of its audiovisual rights. The sale of these rights accounts for a large part of the income received by football clubs and LaLiga has a duty to protect its value.

    La Liga’s enterprising foundation organises a multitude of Corporate Social Responsibility projects that aim to spread the values of CSR of professional football in society. In order to do this, LaLiga allocates €67 million per year to CSR work, thus becoming the highest contributor among the European leagues in social matters.

    The LaLiga Foundation is working on unique projects, in which football values take centre stage and are transferred to all corners of the world. These projects are being carried out on a budget of $4.9 million (4.25 million Euros) for the 2018-2019 season.

    Cachaza pointed out that the exit of Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t affect La Liga. But if we look at the numbers provided by BARC India, the movement of Ronaldo from Real Madrid to Juventus did indeed affect viewership. El Clasico’s impressions dropped down from 4 million to 2 million, but on the other hand, Serie A viewership doubled. The El Clasico's number do not include the impressions garnered on Facebook.

    Football associations are also fighting piracy. On 23 January, a joint statement from the Asian Football Confederation, Bundesliga, F.A. Premier League, FIFA, LaLiga and UEFA was issued against beoutQ, regarding illegally screening matches of AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019. The statement read, “Collectively we, as rights-holders in various football competitions, condemn the pirate entity beoutQ, which continues to abuse the operations of rights holders and legitimate broadcasters through its persistent and illegal screening of events for which it has made no effort to secure the rights; the latest example of which is the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019.”

  • Sony Pictures Networks’ sports cluster’s year in review, road ahead

    Sony Pictures Networks’ sports cluster’s year in review, road ahead

    MUMBAI: In the tough two-horse race of Indian sports broadcasting, Sony Pictures Networks has had a slight edge over Star India when it comes to football events, while the latter holds the sway in Indian cricket. Currently, the NP Singh-led network is in charge of premier football properties like La Liga, Serie A, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, FA Cup and UEFA Super Cup. 

    SPN India has also invested in domestic leagues, firmly believing that such products are not only gaining prominence but are bound to witness a formidable growth in the future. One such success story is the Pro Wrestling League (PWL), which will return to SPN for its fourth edition. Besides this, the network will also broadcast the inaugural edition of the Pro Volleyball League that has gained considerable steam of late.

    Multi-sporting destination

    2018 was a successful year for the broadcaster in terms of multi-sporting properties, with big-ticket events like Commonwealth Games, FIFA World Cup, NBA and Asian Games helping it differentiate itself from others.

    “Multi-sports viewing is on the uptake and we will continue to provide our viewers diverse content across different sports categories along with innovative programming initiatives to increase our penetration in both urban and rural markets,” SPN India chief revenue officer and head – sports business Rajesh Kaul said.

    SPN has been the home of La Liga for the past four seasons in India. However, last year Facebook won the media rights for the top tier of Spanish football for the Indian subcontinent for three seasons starting 2018-19. The deal with the social media giant was the first of its kind for La Liga.

    While the 380 matches were to be available for free to people on Facebook in eight countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, Facebook and SPN reached an agreement wherein the broadcaster earned the right to air over 100 games via its sports cluster.

    The deal will allow SPN to broadcast key clashes including the El Clasico and Madrid Derby across its sports channels as well as SonyLIV.

    Record-breaking show

    The headline act for SPN in 2018 was the FIFA World Cup. There was a humungous buzz around the tournament this time as it aired during primetime in India after almost two editions. The broadcaster had four language feeds for the showpiece event, which was telecast on Sony Ten 2 in English, Sony Ten 3 in Hindi and Bengali and Malayalam audio feeds on Sony ESPN.

    A total of 110.5 million viewers in India watched the quadrennial event, according to the broadcaster. The tournament had 64 live matches aired across Sony TEN 2, Sony TEN 3, Sony ESPN channels and their HD versions.

    The broadcaster, which had managed to attract more than 40 advertisers on television, is estimated to have pocketed close to Rs 200 crore in advertising revenue. The 2014 edition had fetched the network Rs 100 crore in ad revenue.

    70 million viewers across India tuned in to watch the World Cup on SPN’s OTT SonyLIV. The average time spent per viewer was 15-16 minutes per match.

    “Sports’ viewing as a trend is becoming participative and we saw an opportunity to launch interactive engagement for our viewers in both entertainment and sports. Second screen engagement and interactivity is moving to the forefront and we will continue with his trend as it gives viewers deeper insights and a more immersive experience. While TV is still the preferred choice for sports viewing, we have observed trends of a growing user base on digital platforms for sports viewing in 2018 and we see it strengthening its position further in 2019,” Kaul added.

    Cricket rights play

    When it comes to cricket, SPN currently holds the broadcast rights for eight boards – Cricket Australia, England and Wales Cricket Board, Pakistan Cricket Board, Sri Lanka Cricket, Cricket South Africa, Cricket West Indies, Cricket Ireland and Zimbabwe Cricket Board. 

    It had acquired exclusive media rights from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for the Indian subcontinent for a period of five years from 2018 through 2022. This agreement with ECB gives SPN the rights to both televise and digitally broadcast within the Indian subcontinent, men’s and women’s international matches, including Test matches, T20 Internationals and ODIs, played in England.

    SPNI also acquired the media rights for T10 Cricket League for three years (2018-20) for the Indian sub-continent and Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The broadcaster also had the rights for T10 Cricket League in 2017.

    The broadcaster currently has 10 channels in its sports bouquet after the network pulled the plug on Sony Ten Golf HD in the wake of TRAI’s new tariff order.

    The Prasar Bharati problem

    In October, MIB proposed to amend the Sports Act 2007 to offer ‘sports events of national importance’ on Prasar Bharati-owned free-to-air Doordarshan Network, an extended reach via private direct to home and cable TV Networks.

    The move to amend the Sports Act 2007 has been necessitated due to a Supreme Court verdict which held that the public broadcaster Doordarshan cannot air events of national importance on private distribution platforms.

    In the same month, MIB issued a notice for receiving feedback/comments from general public/stakeholders on the draft bill, 2018. The deadline for submitting the feedback was 15 January 2019, but there is no update on the date extension. The earlier deadline was 31 December 2018.

    This may result in a preference change of the consumer, thereby pushing them to unsubscribe private sports network channels. This will also give the distribution platforms an opportunity to negotiate harder with the sports broadcasters.

    A move of this nature could adversely impact the revenues of sports broadcasters, throwing the entire ecosystem into a tizzy.

    Challenges in 2019

    India’s historic win over Australia ensured that SPN kicked off 2019 to a rather glorious start. With the immensely popular Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni delivering match-winning knocks, SPN is likely to have posted big viewership numbers on its channels as well as OTT. However, the remainder of the year isn’t going to produce a lot of fireworks for the broadcaster especially when it comes to Indian cricket. Barring India’s tour to the West Indies, SPN does not have a lot to offer to Indian fans. Rival Star India, with the rights to the IPL and the World Cup, is bound to be the home of India’s cricket-crazy public in 2019.

  • La Liga ahead of the curve with Facebook deal: Jose Cachaza

    La Liga ahead of the curve with Facebook deal: Jose Cachaza

    MUMBAI: As the new wave of acquiring rights is shifting from broadcast to OTT players and social media giants, La Liga is the most recent example which has been acquired by Facebook and sub-licensed to Sony Pictures Network (SPN) India. The Spanish premier football league has launched its football school focussing on grassroots programme in Delhi in the first week of October and then in Kerala recently. In Delhi, the school was inaugurated by former French international and Arsenal legend Robert Pires.

    Apart from Kerala and Delhi, La Liga is planning to open centres in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Kolkata.

    Indiantelevision.com caught up with La Liga India MD Jose Cachaza to talk about the league’s expansion plans and the strategy behind partnering with social media giant Facebook.

    He believes that they are little ahead of the curve from others because it is the way broadcast is going as major companies are getting strongly into sports and OTT is taking a lead role in various countries.  Cachaza also believes that the exit of Cristiano Ronaldo has had no effect on the viewership and sponsorships of the league.

    Excerpts:

    How do you plan to expand the popularity of La Liga in India?

    This is an ongoing project that we started two years ago and we are working in different ways. There are two sides of our work; one that is quite central is our digital project for India. Digital is the most direct way of interacting with fans today, especially considering the penetration of digital communications in India. Two years ago, we had 300,000 followers on social media and today we have reached 3.3 million followers. Digital allows us to not only give information directly to our fans but also to get feedback from them. Our broadcast agreement with Facebook strengthens this strategy.

    We cannot forget of course the relationship with fans so we do a number of activities involving the fans like the public viewings. We just announced the next big public viewing of the upcoming El Clasico in Kolkata on October 28. They have been successful in the past two years in New Delhi and Mumbai and now we are going to Kolkata, which is the modern heartland of football. We want to get there and bring the excitement of the El Clasico to the Bengali fans. Last year in New Delhi, we had 20,000 people showing up and we hope there will be more in Kolkata.

    We are also now bringing to India our network of Football Schools. We are starting with 33 La Liga Football Schools in more than 10 cities and almost 4,000 kids training with us. This project is important to us because we are our philosophy of football, the Spanish way of understanding the game, head coaches who are La Liga trained and UEFA certified coaches. We decided to bring the joy of playing football to thousands of kids and we will leave a legacy of dozens of coaches trained with our methodology and philosophy of football.

    We are bringing legends to India like Fernando Morientes, Luis Garcia, Christian Karembeu, Gaizka Mendieta, Robert Pires and Steve McManaman. We are doing many things and a lot more to come.

    What is the rationale behind going with the social media giant? How satisfied are you with this deal?

    We are highly satisfied and I think it was the right thing to do in this market. So maybe we are a little bit ahead of the curve from others because it is the way broadcast is going. It’s not something we invented with Facebook, major companies are getting strongly into sports and OTT is taking a lead role in various countries. The only thing we have done differently is that we are the first but we won’t be the only.

    A recent report was that football in India is at the third position in terms of viewership and revenue, after cricket and kabaddi respectively…

    No, that is not right. Audience wise, if you consider all the competitions, football is number two. If you see Indian statistics, Pro Kabaddi League has just a few thousand more viewers than ISL. However, if you consider everything like LaLiga, EPL, UEFA and all other leagues, football is clearly the second sport. In terms of revenue, if you take sponsorship, ticketing and broadcast deals from ISL to FIFA, you will once again find that football is the second sport in India.

    Are you planning any content and distribution deals in India to offer more content apart from matches?

    We are offering tens of hours of content to India, various shows and content that is already on Sony and now will be available to fans through Facebook.

    With the new broadcast model, with TV and digital both, has the viewer engagement changed?

    Maybe it has changed in the way they see it, but it is engagement at large. Indeed, our engagement with fans on social media is growing.

    Telecom industry in India has seen a great spike after the entry of Reliance Jio. Data consumption got a boost but till now the country is not well-equipped to watch the full tournaments on smartphones. Don’t you think it is a big risk if the digital platform does not reach to a sub licensing agreement with the broadcaster?

    It is a risk we are eager to take. Always when you are the first in anything, something that will be the trend, you are taking a risk. But, we are proud to do it.

    After the rights are sold, what is the role of La Liga with the broadcast or streaming platform?

    We have a really strong cooperative relationship with our broadcasters, anywhere in the world, not only here. It’s not just that they pay and they show the matches, there’s a lot of thing to do, activations, marketing opportunities and more to this that we work together with them. We are here to understand them and to help them to better promote their product because we also have it in our own interest. Our relationship is very close and intense; it was with Sony and now with Facebook.

  • MIB proposes to change mandatory sports feed sharing norms

    MIB proposes to change mandatory sports feed sharing norms

     NEW DELHI: In what could have far reaching effects on the financial viability of sports TV channels or streaming platforms, which acquire exlcusive rights for sporting events for the India region spending billions of dollars, the government proposes to amend rules relating to mandatory sharing of feeds of sports of national importance with not only the pubcaster, but with other distribution platforms. Reason for proposed changes: people with less purchasing power should not lose out on the sporting excitement.

    “…viewers, who do not have DD FreeDish [pubcaster Doordarshan’s FTA DTH platform] or Doordarshan’s terrestrial network, are either unable to watch these sporting events of national importance or are compelled to watch these sporting events on highly priced sports channels and, thus, the very objective with which the Parliament had enacted the Sports Act has been defeated,” Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) said in a notice issued on 17 October 2018, adding that public comments were invited within a month on the changes proposed in the relevant regulation relating to sharing by rights holding private TV channels of broadcasting feed with the pubcaster.

    As per provisions of the Sports Act, the live feed received by Prasar Bharati from the content rights owners or holders is only for the purpose of re-transmission of the said signals on Doordarshan’s own terrestrial and DTH network (DD FreeDish) and not for
    cable operators or other distribution networks. The ad sales is also done by private companies after taking the pubcaster into confidence with the additional ad revenue shared between the rights holding TV channel and DD.

    Though the sports rule was legislated in 2007, the shared signals on DD were sometimes donloaded by distribution platforms from satellite-delivered channels and re-transmitted not only in India but also in some neighbouring countries. Seeing this trend, Star India, which was investing heavily in sports, had moved the courts and in August 2017 got a favourable ruling from the Supreme Court that ruled the shared feed of sporting events of national importance, as mandated by the government, can only be re-transmitted on DD terrestrial network and DD FreeDish to avoid piracy and possible loss of revenue for the rights holder.

    Additonally, private DTH platforms and MSOs/LCOs were barred from showing DD's non-terrestrial channels that re-transmitted the shared feeds after the August 2017 Supreme Court ruling for the duration of the that particular event and it was stressed on also by Prasar Bharati fearing adverse reaction from the apex court.

    Within few  days of the SC ruling favouring the rights holding TV channel or broadcaster and few days before the lucrative IPL cricket rights bids were opened last year, Jawahar Goel, chairman and MD of Dish TV, India's first DTH platform started by the Zee group, raised an alarm on Star's emerging cricket monopoly.
    In a hard-hitting letter, addressed to various Indian government organisations, including MIB, regulator TRAI and the anti-monopoly authority, Goel had alleged that combined with the financial muscle and near-monpoly over cricket for India region, Star's acquistions will impact "every stakeholder in the broadcasting industry, starting from the distributors of  TV channels". Star India finally outplayed other bidders for the IPL rights for the next five years in 2017 by coughing up a whopping $2.4 billion.

    In the light of recent developments in the distribution segment of the Indian broadcast system, MIB's latest move gains importance. So, what's the proposed amendment being sought to be inserted in the 

    Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharti) (Amendment) Bill, 2018?

    The relevant portion of the amendment being proposed for which stakeholders' comments have been invited reads: “No content rights owner or holder and no television or radio broadcasting service provider shall carry a live television broadcast on any cable and/or Direct-to-Home network and/or IPTV and/or terrestrial network or radio commentary broadcast in India of sporting events of national importance, unless it simultaneously shares the live broadcasting signal, without its advertisements, with the Prasar Bharati to enable them to re-transmit the same on its own terrestrial network and Direct-to-Home network and on other television distribution platforms/networks where is it mandatory to broadcast mandatory channels notified by the Union Government under Section 8 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 in such manner and on such terms and conditions as may be specified.”

    At present, Star India and Sony Pictures Networks India — the latter has a partnership with ESPN that got a divorce from Star for sports channels in 2012 — are two networks that own and manage sports channels in India. However, in recent times digital players like Facebook, Reliance Jio, Amazon and Alibaba-controlled Indian digital wallet company PayTM have shown interest and bid for cricket properties in India. Facebook also won the India rights for La Liga football that was streamed free on the digital platform, while being sub-licensed to Sony for normal TV broadcast.

    However, an industry observor pointed out that apart from the fact that the pubcaster's DD FreeDish platform could get further hit financially if the proposed changes are legislated, it was also highlighted  that what could have further spurred the government into action is that after TRAI's new tariff regime kicked in last month, most broadcast companies and TV channel managers converted FTA TV channels into pay channels  depleting further the basic FTA bouquet aimed at people with low purchasing power.

    It would be interesting to watch how this proposed change plays out with stakeholders.

  • Facebook to sub-license La Liga India broadcast rights to Sony

    Facebook to sub-license La Liga India broadcast rights to Sony

    MUMBAI: Social media giant Facebook, which recently acquired the Indian sub-continent La Liga rights for three years, has struck a sub-licensing broadcast deal with Sony Pictures Network (SPN) India, a source close to the development has confirmed to Indiantelevision.com.

    SPN has also renewed its Serie A deal for a three-year term. Sony Six and Sony ESPN will broadcast the matches, which will be streamed on its OTT platform SONY LIV.
    The high-profile move of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid to Juventus has undoubtedly increased the buzz surrounding the league this term. 

    The five-time Ballon d’Or winner made his Serie A debut for Juventus in a 3-2 win at Chievo on 18 August 2018 after a €100 million move from the Champions League winners.

    SPN had reportedly paid $32m (€28m) when the La Liga rights for India were up for sale in 2014.

    Earlier this year, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company unseated the broadcaster as it bagged the rights for the 2018/19-2020/21 cycle for an undisclosed fee.
    The landmark agreement La Liga’s first broadcast deal with a social media platform.

    At the time, Facebook had stated it was open to working with broadcasters in the region to increase the reach of the league. In a sense, the deal with SPN is consistent with the company’s vision and position.

    While Facebook steams the La Liga content for free, it remains to be seen whether SPN’s OTT will stream the matches with a delayed feed or not.

    Amazon, the tech giant, was the first platform to strike a deal to stream Premier League matches in the UK, with 10 matches to be shown on Amazon Prime on two separate days for three seasons starting from 2019.

    In April 2018, Amazon wrote a large cheque for the exclusive UK rights to the US Open tennis, giving subscribers who pay £79 a year for its Prime Video service access to three of the four grand slams. 

    Last year, Facebook bid for the five-year global media rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which went to Star India for a hefty sum of Rs16,347.50 crore.