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Tag: Neo Sports Broadcast

  • Sonal Gupta joins Zee Entertainment Enterprises as senior vice president- syndication

    Sonal Gupta joins Zee Entertainment Enterprises as senior vice president- syndication

    Mumbai, India – Zee Entertainment Enterprises has appointed Sonal Gupta as its new senior vice president- syndication, based in Mumbai. With over 15 years of experience in the broadcast industry, Gupta brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the role. Her appointment is effective November 2024. 

    Gupta’s most recent position was as head of content & alliances at One Life Studios, where she was responsible for leading syndication and acquisitions worldwide, driving business development through sales, licensing, and distribution, and curating content from renowned production houses.

    Prior to that, she held senior positions at IndiaCast Media, Videocon D2H, and Neo Sports Broadcast, with a focus on international content syndication, digital platforms, and business development.

    Gupta’s extensive experience in the industry has equipped her with a deep understanding of the global market and a proven track record of driving growth and increasing brand presence. She is expected to play a key role in shaping the company’s syndication strategy and expanding its global footprint.

  • 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.

  • Neo ropes in seven sponsors for French Open

    Neo ropes in seven sponsors for French Open

    MUMBAI: Following the announcement of the dual feed coverage for the French Open tennis Grand Slam, Neo Sports Broadcast has announced that it has got seven sponsors for the event which starts tomorrow 26 May 2013.

    The co-presenting sponsors for the French Open this year are Renault and Micromax.

    In addition to these, five associate sponsors have also signed on for the event. These are Cadbury, Carlsberg, Nokia, Coca Cola and Samsung Smart TV. The number of sponsors announced is amongst the highest for any Grand Slam in the country. With this, the broadcaster said that it is almost completely sold out on the French Open.

    The dual feed innovation for the French Open this year ensures that both Neo Prime and Neo Sports will show live feeds from separate courts. Consequently, fans will not miss out on any of the top action in one of the most exciting Grand Slams of the year.

    Viewers will also be able to catch daily build-up and post match analysis for the French Open with ‘First Serve’, the wraparound show for the event.

    Neo Sports Broadcast COO Prasana Krishnan said, “The French Open in 2012 had the highest level of viewership for any Grand Slam. This year, we expect this to go even higher with the pioneering dual feed coverage. We are pleased to note that sponsors have bought into this vision and are supporting us in a big way”.

    Also Read:

    Neo bolsters French Open coverage with a dual feed

  • 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.