Tag: Neo Sports

Neo Sports’ Mautik Tolia opens up on the Impact of DAS

DAS (digital addressable system) is here to stay. Despite the shortcomings, the hiccups in the implementation of the first two phases, the government has announced that it will not extend the deadlines of December 31, 2015 for phase III areas and December 31, 2016 for phase IV, when the entire country is expected to be digitised. After complete switchover, cable TV services will be available only through set top boxes in India.

We, at the Indiantelevision.com are starting a new section – ‘The Impact of DAS’ through which thought leaders, experts from the television ecosystem will share their thoughts, ideas, and say their piece on the subject. We are beginning with the impact of DAS on the sports broadcasting ecosystem.

Our expert for the section is Neo Sports EVP programming Mautik Tolia.

Excerpts:

How big an impact has phase I and II digitization made when it comes to subscription revenue?

Digitization has been a big step forward not just in terms of revenue but in providing secular access to viewers to more sports events, apart from just cricket. As India moves more and more to a multi-sport fan universe, digitization will continue to play in important role in increasing the popularity of all sports. Combined with the increasing market share of DTH platforms, which in turn enhances the reach of sports networks without whimsical interruptions (which were a constant feature in the analog domain) we at neo sports see other sports climbing to a 40 per cent share of revenue universe in 3 years time.

From sports broadcaster’s point of view are you happy with the two phases of digitization?

Doubtless there have been roll out issues and delays in implementation but on balance digitization has been a positive. It will be some time before more sophistication is achieved in packages and tiers, which will steadily take us to a CPS billing norm. Transparency in billing remains a challenge but we believe that too will be resolved in the next 2-3 years.

Is the sports broadcasting industry in a subscription positive scenario? Or we are still ad dependent?

From a 90:10 ad: subscription ratio 10 years back, the sports broadcast industry has probably moved to a 70:30 maybe even 65:35 ratio. This may even be 60:40 or 55:45 in the case of some networks. Due to significant ad spend on cricket, especially IPL this ratio will inch its way to maybe 50:50 in 3 years for the industry as a whole.

Are sports like Football, Badminton which are hugely popular but have very little room for advertisement profitable assets for broadcasters?

Aside of Cricket, the dominant sports are football, tennis, golf, hockey, badminton and motor sport. Except for Football and Badmnton, others have adequate ad break potential. At Neo Sports we believe that it is more a question of focus, ability and experience when it comes to monetizing sports other than cricket.

With phase III and IV scheduled do you see a substantial inclination in subscription revenue?

We see further momentum in subscription revenues, reach and secular access for all sports in phase 3 and 4.

How can a non cricket sport or a sport with least ad room turn profitable for broadcasters in India?

The profitability conundrum is more a function of irrational acquisition prices and lack of focus on monetizing all sports. We have seen at least one sports broadcaster recently pay over the top for rights that were being jettisoned by another and for which there may well have been no other takers. Ill informed and panic buying has resulted in lack of profitability for some. At Neo Sports we believe that intense discipline is required both with acquisitions as well as in monetizing assets. Wise spending may not make a sports broadcaster no 1 but there are plenty of sports rights constantly available, the universe of sports fans is rapidly expanding, advertisers are increasingly willing to spend on sports other than cricket and affiliate platforms understand that tens of millions of viewers are tuning into other sports – hence there is room for multiple sports networks and increasing opportunity for revenue and viewership expansion.

November 19, 2015
Bangladesh Premier League to air on Neo Sports from 20 Nov

MUMBAI: The Harish Thawani-run NEO Sports is headed east. The sportscaster has acquired the broadcasting rights of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) T20 tournament.

The third edition of the tournament is set to kick start from 22 November 2015. The opening ceremony is slated to take place on 20 November with some fabulous performances by Bollywood’s best.

The tournament which began in 2012 and continued in 2013 was not held in 2014 on account of financial complications. The rights for the Indian subcontinent were earlier with Star Sports.

But it was revived earlier this year and has attracted some good talent from cricketing nations the world over.

“It has been a good tournament over the past two season in terms of quality of cricket and players’ participation and hence we acquired its telecast rights,” says Neo Sports EVP programming Mautik Tolia.

The broadcaster says it will consider acquiring further seasons after the current edition. And over the next few days it is going to be pushing the telecast to viewers. “We will use our network as well as other broadcasters to promote the tourney. Also what we have witnessed so far the league has been hugely popular among youth and we will be targeting them through digital media too” asserts Tolia.

Elite Media Works’ Nitin Anand states, “We’re delighted to team up with Neo Sports this year as our media partners in India. Top class T20 cricket in a carnival-like atmosphere has proved a hit with fans everywhere and we expect the 2015 tournament to be bigger and better than before.”

The six team franchise tournament consists of Dhaka Dynamites, Chittagong Vikings, Barisal Bulls, Rangpur Riders, Sylhet Superstars and ComillaVictorians. The matches will be played at National Cricket Stadium and Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.

November 18, 2015
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.

March 23, 2015
Ten Sports to bring MotoGP to India; introduce new racing league

MUMBAI: The avenue for non-cricket sports properties like kabaddi, tennis, wrestling, and football, which saw a great start last year is set to grow bigger. The newest entrant is the niche sport Moto Grand Prix popularly known as Moto GP.

According to sources, Ten Sports has inked a five year deal with the sports property. Previously, Moto GP was a non exclusive property shared by three sports networks; Star India, Neo Sports and Ten Sports. But with the new deal coming in place and the two partners reaching a fine print, Ten Sports has gained an exclusive deal with Moto GP beginning from 1 February 2015.

If multiple sources are to be believed, there will also be a set of new programming and races wrapped around it including studio produced shows to propel the sport’s popularity in India. What’s more, the network is also looking to foray into introducing a new racing league in the country.

When contacted, Ten Sports officials denied the development.

On the other hand, the network is in a celebratory mood with the success of another property-World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). “The response has been fantastic as we have reached out to a mass audience via Facebook, Twitter Google Hangouts etc. When India was playing against Australia in Oz and we declaring we were going live with RAW, we were trending much above India playing with Australia on Twitter,” says Ten Sports CEO Rajesh Sethi. Ten Sports had decided to go live with flagship properties like RAW and specials like Royal Rumble during the early morning slot at 6:30 am.

“We thought we were not going to do well but received more than 900 emails with regards to it. I am happy the way our ad revenues are shaping too,” adds Sethi.

The network is also looking at the prospect of airing WWE in regional languages. Besides, with the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 and the network having the rights of Pakistan cricket, it is busy promoting the mega event in the neighbouring country and will be announcing its plans soon.

January 28, 2015
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.

November 15, 2014
No takers for India-Bangladesh tri series, yet

MUMBAI: With just two days to go for the India –Bangladesh one-day international (ODI) series, the Bangladesh’s official television rights holder, Gazi TV, is yet to get an Indian broadcaster on board according to a report in a daily today.

The report further mentions that Gazi TV has put a $ 1 million offer for the rights of the three-match ODI series which will be held on 15, 17 & 19 June. The offer was being customised for Star Sports but as of now it has not shown any interest and wants the price to be lowered.

The report quotes Gazi TV CFO Salahuddin Chowdhury saying that it has not received any confirmation from Star. “We don’t want to deprive the Indian fans of live action of the series, unless, something dramatic happens over the next two days, I cannot assure you that the matches will be telecast in India.”

With FIFA being aired on Sony Six, it is unlikely that the channel from the Multi Screen Media (MSM) kitty would be interested in telecasting the tri-series.

Also, Ten Sports and Neo Sports are currently occupied fighting the big bully Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in court. It’s safe to assume that they will also not telecast the matches.

However, there could be some good news for Gazi. India’s state owned broadcaster Doordarshan is open to a revenue-sharing deal.

The three matches will be played at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium at Mirpur.

June 13, 2014
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.

February 28, 2014
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.”

August 28, 2013
Sudip Roy is Neo Sports Broadcast senior VP, ad revenue

MUMBAI: Neo Sports Broadcast has appointed Sudip Roy as senior VP advertising revenue. He has over 16 years of broadcast ad revenue experience.

He replaces Raju Udupa. Prior to this, Roy was working with Media Content and Communications Services India (MCCS) as business head events and special features. He was responsible for ad revenue for all the news channels (ABP News-formerly Star News, ABP Ananda-formerly Star Ananda and ABP Majha-formerly Star Majha)

His career began with Zee Telefilms where he quickly rose to become the youngest branch head for all Zee Channels in Kolkata in 2001 and subsequently grew into the role of ad sales head for Zee Bangla in the Western region.

Post this, he moved to MCCS, where he was the part of the team that launched Star Ananda and was the top regional head from 2005-2008. He also conceptualised the uniform rate card for Star News, Star Ananda and Star Majha and was the rate card president for three years.

He then took over as the first business head of events, special features for these three channels and ensured that all events conceptualised were profitable.

Neo Sports Broadcast COO Prasana Krishnan said, “With his impressive track record in the broadcast industry and focus on profitability, Sudip is the ideal candidate to grow our business further and I welcome him into the Neo family.”

Roy said, “With multiple long term rights deals with leading global sports federations, Neo Sports is poised for growth in an exciting new era for sports broadcasting in India. It‘s been an exciting ride for me in the broadcast industry so far, and I look forward to working with the team to lead advertising revenue at Neo to new heights”.

June 10, 2013
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.

June 7, 2012