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Tag: Neo Prime

  • Neo Sports Broadcast set for mega revamp; sees Rs 400 crore equity infusion

    Neo Sports Broadcast set for mega revamp; sees Rs 400 crore equity infusion

    MUMBAI: “They say in golf if you are shooting 100 then your golf needs attention but if you are scoring 80 then your business may need attention. The sweet spot is somewhere in between, the ideal work life balance.” That’s how Harish Thawani, a man synonymous with the Indian sports industry and currently NEO Sports Broadcast chairman, begins the conversation after weeks of chasing to understand the company’s play in the current ecosystem.

     

    And be rest assured that this avid golfer has surely found that sweet spot in between, for his company Neo Sports Broadcast will soon see a complete makeover and fresh investments to the tune of Rs 400 crore in content, branding, marketing and technology in 2015-16.

     

    Neo Sports Broadcast, which operates two channels – Neo Prime and Neo Sports, will also see a slew of new initiatives being launched soon.

     

    “Our existing shareholders have decided to make an equity infusion of approximately Rs 400 crore into the company this year, subject to the necessary regulatory approvals,” Thawani tells Indiantelevision.com.

     

    Equity Infusion and Consumer Insights:

     

    The existing shareholders of Neo includes Oman Investment Fund, Nimbus and Thawani himself. Nimbus in turn is majority owned by Cisco, 3i and OIF; with Thawani and associates holding a significant stake. In 2012, after having lost the BCCI cricketing rights, Neo decided to re-engineer itself on its future growth story. Through consumer insights, TAM numbers and research undertaken by the company, it picked up two trends in the market.

     

    “One, sports other than cricket like football, tennis, badminton, golf and basketball were gaining significant traction and it helped us to find ourselves a relevant space in the ecosystem. Secondly, digitisation was providing an opportunity to broadcasters to cater to over 150 million viewers that now watch sports other than cricket,” Thawani explains.

     

    Based on these insights the company has decided to acquire quite a few properties for this year for its two channels.

     

    New Rights Acquisitions:

     

    As Neo Prime and Neo Sports look to boost their fan base based on its recent research on viewers’ preferences, the company has begun a fresh set of rights acquisitions. As many as five new rights deals have been recently concluded and at least five more are in the pipeline, providing over 40 new live events and over 800 hours of live programming a year. All rights acquisitions have been done on a multi-year basis.

     

    Neo has also boosted its football portfolio with a top five European league the Dutch Eredivisie and will shortly add another major European football property to its portfolio. Its Eredivisie acquisition followed the research insights that top tier clubs like Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord have a significant fan base in India.

     

    Another consumer insight showed that table tennis is an under-served sport in India, despite being a huge participation sport, commonly understood by viewers. This prompted Neo to acquire not just the World Cups and World Championships but also the ITTF World Tour. “The rise of Indians on the table tennis circuit augurs well for the growth of its viewership in India,” states Thawani.

     

    The telecast rights to the 2015 European Games (similar to the Asian Games) have been acquired by Neo and will be aired this summer. This second largest multi-nation, multi-sport event is expected to be a spectacular display of sport at the highest level.

     

    To boost its motor sport coverage and enthused by the fact that technology now enables live coverage, Neo has acquired the World Rally Championships (all 12 events a year).

     

    It has also boosted its coverage of live horse racing to engage the super affluent horse racing fans in India, with its deal to air English horse racing (including the major Derbies and Classics).

     

    Also in the pipeline is a programming band devoted to fight sport, which is expected to launch in the second half of 2015 apart from a major European football asset, a series of top tier badminton events and a tennis rights package.

     

    This complements Neo’s offering in tennis, consisting of the French Open, Davis Cup and Fed Cup; its top tier golf coverage with the PGA Tour of about 40 events a year, Bundesliga football, World Basketball Championships and others.

     

    When queried about plans for cricket, Thawani says, “It has been widely reported that Neo was recently a bidder for the ICC rights, which should convey that our interest in cricket will continue. There are several cricket rights that will come to market in the coming 18 months, and we will evaluate each opportunity.”

     

    Channel Upgrade to HD: 

     

    “We will convert both our channels; Neo Prime and Neo Sports from SD to HD. We aim to make this transition in October-December 2015 quarter,” says the man, who besides being an avid golfer, played as many as four other sports competitively at university and club level.

     

    Consumer Engagement:

     

    The company will also launch a multimedia campaign, including digital media to communicate its enhanced programming to fans in order to boost brand recall and increased engagement. The mega multimedia campaign will begin from as early as May 2015.

     

    It has been learnt that the company had seen an interest from companies such as Euro Sport, BeIn Sports and Super Sports among others to either buy a majority stake or outright purchase of Neo Sports Broadcast. However, Thawani refused to comment on any specific discussions citing confidentiality provisions, but states, “Neo is, to my knowledge, the only profitable sports broadcaster in India, having made profits in 2013-14 and we expect to sustain that trend. This has enthused our shareholders to back the company in its quest for further growth. Consequently, we have taken a decision to not evaluate any stake sale. When required, we may induct one more financial investor.”

     

    It is clear that Neo shareholders believe that smart management and digitisation would help it go a long way and therefore it would be a wrong time to disinvest. It may be recalled that just eight years back, Neo had one of the most successful pay TV launches in the world of sport, quickly becoming the number one sports channel in 2009 and number one sports network by 2010.

     

    In the world of today’s broadcast television, where content, technology and innovation rapidly changes the share of audience, Neo looks poised to take competition head-on with fresh capital infusion and many a new properties firmly tucked under its belt.

  • Upcoming leagues have helped unleash potential for Sports Business: FICCI report

    Upcoming leagues have helped unleash potential for Sports Business: FICCI report

    MUMBAI: While a number of sports leagues have been launched in India recently, the sports industry is still in its infancy stage which can be exploited not only by commercially viable large leagues but also other businesses of sports like events, academies, elite and other coaching institutes, niche sports science backup services and so on according to FICCI’s recent report on the sports business titled – Business of Sports Aiming Higher Reaching Further. The main purpose according to the body for coming up with report was to look briefly at the sports industry and make some predictions in the upcoming decade.

     

    According to FICCI president Sidharth Birla, the business of sports worldwide has not just been restricted to the playing of sports but it now encompasses a variety of firms covering a wide spectrum of domains. 

     

    “Although it is still in a nascent stage in India, its potential has truly been unleashed by the growing number of innovate start-ups in this field. The need of the hour is to increase individual’s interest and rope in private investments in the sports industry, which is almost immaterial” he added.

     

    The paper was released by Sports secretary Ajit M Sharan of the Youth Affairs and Sports Ministry who opined that the private sector would have to  participate and partner with the government and the apex chamber to promote sports in the country.

     

     

    The report says that the Indian Sports Industry runs parallel with the growth of the country’s economy and 4.3 million people would be required in the Indian Sports Industry as workforce by 2025.

     

    FICCI Sports committee chairman and Tata Metaliks MD Sanjeev Paul, speaking about the report, said, “FICCI has taken up the responsibilities to bridge the knowledge gap to aid the Sports Business development in India and to share the real time and up to date information about ongoing initiatives in sports.”

     

    While elaborating on the ongoing Hero Indian Super League (ISL), the paper says the league will provide Indian football fans the opportunity to witness some of the world’s best on home soil, inject much needed energy into the domestic game, improve football infrastructure and raise the commercial value of the sport in the country. 

     

    For the ISL, each franchise has been bought for a period of ten years at a cost ranging from Rs 130 crore to Rs 160 crore. Although financials are confidential, the central pool of the ISL is expected to be in the $ 10million to $ 15 million per year range. To further boost and increase revenue franchises have the right to independently procure team sponsors, and the rights to merchandising.

     

    The report also mentions about the investment by four different broadcasters in India for various different sports properties. It says that MSM’s Sony Six has currently invested $ 3.2 billion in broadcast rights for properties such as The Pepsi IPL, UEFA EURO 2016, qualifiers

    for EURO-2016, European qualifier for 2018 FIFA World Cup, 2018 FIFA World Cup, TNA, Australian Open Tennis Championships, The NBA and The Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC).

     

    Star Sports India has currently invested $ 242 million for ICC Events, International Premier Tennis League, FIH Event, Summer Olympic Games, Formula one, FIFA Confederation Cup, FIFA World Cup Qualifiers (AFC), AFC Champion Leagues, La Liga, Premier League, Seria A, FA Cup, ISL, Wimbledon etc.

     

    Taj Television’s Ten Sports will invest a little over $ 100 million (Rs 600 crore) in the Indian sporting-related entertainment market, according to sources. Some of its properties include US Open, The Commonwealth Games, Moto GP, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, Federation Cup, German Cup, Major League Soccer and Golf, Chennai Open among others.

     

    Nimbus Communications’ Neo Prime and Neo Sports has invested $ 2 million for International Cricket in Bangladesh, Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, Copa America, Rugby World Cup, Bundesliga, UEFA Women’s Championship and Davis Cup.

     

    Highlighting the role played by the government, it says that the Government of India will be opening 70 sports academies in coming ten years in 18 sports disciplines. It is estimated that the Government of India will spend Rs 90 crore per academy. The allocation for the sports and youth affairs ministry for 2014-2015 saw a rise of Rs 561.24 crore, a 46.5 per cent hike from the last fiscal with the government.

     

    In its concluding remarks the report notes that the future seems bright for Indian Sports as it is set to become one of the largest economies of the world by the year 2025 as per projections made by internationally consultants and IMF. Many investors and corporate companies around the world have stepped up in order to take advantage of the growth opportunities offered by Indian markets and many others are keeping a close eye on the subcontinent for investments in coming years.

  • 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.

  • Five brands sign on-air deals for Bundesliga on NEO

    Five brands sign on-air deals for Bundesliga on NEO

    NEO Sports Broadcast has announced a list of sponsors for the German Football League.

     

    The associate sponsors for the Bundesliga’s 51st season in 2013-14 are Airtel, Lava, Loreal, Bose and Nike. More brands are in the process of signing up the channel revealed.

     

    The number of sponsors announced is amongst the highest for any football league broadcast in the country. Through these associations, NEO has nearly sold out all inventories on the Bundesliga, the broadcaster claims.

     

    NEO Prime and NEO Sports will showcase close to 300 hours of live and non-live programming from the 2013-14 Bundesliga season. Apart from the live action every weekend, this includes previews, match highlights and magazine shows covering the latest news and developments from the league.

     

    Live coverage of the current Bundesliga season on NEO runs from August 2013 to May 2014.

     

    NEO Sports Broadcast Sr. VP advertising revenue Sudip Roy said, “Football viewership is on the rise in India, and among the top European football leagues in the last season, the Bundesliga had the highest growth in reach on the digital cable platform. Fans love watching winning teams and with Bayern Munich having won a historic treble in 2012-13, we only expect the league to further grow in popularity. Sponsors have recognised this and we are delighted with their support.”

     

    Alliance Advertising director Arshad Nizam said, “These are exhilarating times for the broadcast of professional football in India. The interest shown by multiple sponsors in the Bundesliga reaffirms the growth of the commercial value of the sport here.”

  • Euro 2012: Spain vs Portugal match delivers 2.04 TVR for Neo

    MUMBAI: The semi-final match between Spain and Portugal was the most watched match of Uefa Euro 2012 garnering 2.04 TVR in the six metros (Sec ABC 15+ CS male target group), broadcaster Neo Prime said quoting TAM data.

    The second semi-final match between Germany and Italy got only 1.37 TVR. The two semi-finals had average ratings of 1.70 TVR.
    The viewership data for the final between Spain and Italy is expected next week.

    Comparably, the semi-final matches in the previous edition of tournament had average ratings of 1.12 TVR with the first semi-final match between Germany and Turkey getting a TVR of 1.91 and the second semi-final between Russia and Spain attracting 0.91 TVR.

    The 2008 Uefa Euro was aired on ESPN in India.

    The event‘s reach also improved significantly with 19.28 million viewers tuning in for matches till the semi-final stage. The previous edition had a reach of 14.96 million.

    The four quarter final matches for the tournament was 1.09 TVR with the last two matches getting viewership of above 1 TVR. The 2008 edition had average ratings of 0.88 for the quarter final stage.

    On the whole, the average event viewership notched 0.73 TVR which is just a tad better than the 0.67 TV in the previous edition. Eleven out of 30 matches till the semi-final stage rated more than 1 TVR compared to seven matches in the 2008 Uefa championship.

    In US, the Uefa Euro 2012 final on ESPN set a record as the most-watched European Football Championship game in the United States. The match was seen by an average audience of 4.068 million viewers in 2.699 million average television households.

    Throughout the 31 matches of the three-week tournament, ESPN‘s live English-language TV presentation delivered an average of 993,000 households and 1,300,000 viewers, up 51 per cent in households and viewers respectively, versus 31 matches in 2008 (657,000 households and 859,000 viewers).

    In the U.K., the Spain-Italy final on pubcaster BBC and ITV averaged 12.3 million viewers during the game, compared with two million on ITV.

  • Neo looks at Rs 400 million from Euro 2012

    MUMBAI: Neo Sports Broadcast, the owner and operator of Neo Sports and Neo Prime channels, is looking at Rs 400 million ad revenue from Uefa Euro 2012.

    The broadcaster has roped in five sponsors for the 24-day event starting Friday which includes Carlsberg, Cadbury, Intel Zolo smartphone, DHL, and Reliance Netconnect. Neo is looking to add two more sponsors for the event.

    “Neo is looking at Rs 400 million from the event,” a source said.

    The five sponsors have committed an outlay of Rs 35 million each for the event, the source added. For spot buys, the broadcaster is looking at Rs 120,000-140,000 per 10 second spot. Each match will have 40 commercial spots of 10 seconds each.

    However, a top media buying executive said Neo could end up with Rs 300 million of ad revenue from the event. “The revenue growth from this edition won‘t be more than 10-15 per cent over the last edition.”

    ESPN Star Sports, which had televised the event in 2008, had earned an estimated Rs 250 million from the event.

    Lodestar COO Anamika Mehta though bullish about the event believes Neo is unlikely to earn Rs 400 million despite an aggressive pitch to advertisers.

    “Considering that Euro happens to be in a Cricket-free (India playing) period, Euro offers a good opportunity to advertisers to engage with the youth-sports-audience. However, post heavy investments by most advertisers during IPL and a loaded Cricket calendar post July, and bearing in mind the steep entry cost by Neo, Euro may not gather as many takers across categories,” Mehta contended.

    Euro 2012, which is considered to be the second biggest football event after the Fifa World Cup, will be held from 8 June to 1 July and will be telecast on Neo Prime, which was recently rebranded to an all sports channel from its earlier avatar of being a cricket dedicated channel.

    However, she also adds that Football owing to its format and stickiness factor is a winner for advertisers. The fact that it has a lower entry barrier compared to dominant sports cricket only adds to its advantage.

    “Though football does not allow as many branding opportunities as Cricket, however football owing to its shorter format and higher ‘stickiness‘ quotient offers an opportunity to engage the youth through an association with the event which is integrated with the content – offers lot of opportunity to drive marketing activations for core sponsors,”

    “Secondly vis a vis cricket the entry costs are far lower hence despite small ratings at an overall level the ROI works in favor alongside helping brands in India to associate with the young India.”

    The event will have a total of 31 matches featuring 16 top teams from Europe divided in four groups.

    Besides television, the tournament will also be streamed live on video portal istream.com for the Indian market while leading telecom operator Airtel has bagged the exclusive mobile video rights.

    Neo has also entered into a sub-licensing agreement with sports management company Sporty Solutionz, which has roped in Bangladesh media company Maasranga Communications to exclusively broadcast the event in Bangladesh.

    Neo had in August last year acquired the rights for Uefa Euro 2012 by bidding $11 million overcoming competition from incumbent rights holder ESPN Star Sports and Ten Sports. ESS had bid $4 million for the rights while Ten Sports ended up as the runner-up with a bid of $6 million.

    As part of its programming around the event, Neo Prime has signed up French football legend Frank Leboeuf for preview shows and wrap around content which will be hosted by Radhakrishnan Sreenivasan. The preview shows will feature Leboeuf along with celebrity football fans from different walks of life.

    The former Chelsea defender will also be involved with several on ground initiatives including football clinics, contests and meet and greet with fans apart from on air programming on Neo Prime.

  • Neo Cricket set to rebrand as Neo Prime

    MUMBAI: As part of its strategy to focus on non-cricket sports, Neo Sports Broadcast has rebranded its cricket focussed channel to a premium all-sports channel.

    Consequently, Neo Cricket will have its name changed to Neo Prime starting 3 June.

    With reduced live cricket property and a surge in volume in multiple sports, NSB believes two all sports channel is the current need of the hour.

    Neo Sports Broadcast COO Prasana Krishnan said, “Neo Prime is the prime feed of a premium all-sports channel. The channel will showcase HD ready sports content and will shortly launch its HD offering.”

    The decision to rebrand Neo Cricket is twofold. One, the broadcaster doesn‘t have live cricket to run a dedicated cricket channel. Two, a lot of Neo Sports properties were overlapping creating scheduling conflicts.

    “The network will shortly announce a slew of big ticket acquisitions and multiple all sports channels will ensure scheduling conflicts are addressed to maximise the network viewership,” Krishnan said.

    As part of a long term strategy, Neo has been acquiring sporting events including Uefa Euro 2012, French Open, World Series Hockey, Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, Copa America and Rugby World Cup in addition to the existing bouquet of Asia Cup, German Bundesliga, Davis Cup, US PGA Tour, BWF Badminton Super Series, and Fed Cup.

    Neo Cricket was born in the wake of the BCCI rights which now reside with Star India. Neo has adopted a strategy that would run with primarily other sports like football, hockey, tennis and badminton.

    Also read: Neo Prime begins its journey as all sports channel