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Tag: Nimbus Communications

  • 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.

  • HC refuses stay on sports telecast ordinance

    HC refuses stay on sports telecast ordinance

    NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today refused to stay the operation of the ordinance asking private sports channels to share live feed of cricket and other sports events with public broadcaster Prasar Bharti.

    A division bench headed by Justice Vikramajit Sen adjourned the matter till 15 February for further hearing.

    Senior Counsel Dushyant Dave, appearing for Prasar Bharati, pleaded that the ordinance could only be stayed under extraordinary grounds.

    In any case, he argued, the conditions to share the live feed with the Prasar Bharati was part of the tender documents, and very much known to Nimbus Communications.

    The reply filed by the Government to the petition by Nimbus challenging the Sports Broadcasting (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharti) Ordinance 2007 said it had been made clear to the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) that any party getting the rights to telecast the matches would have to share the live feed with Doordarshan and All India Radio, the application filed by the government in reply to the private channel contended.

    Additional solicitor general PP Malhotra, appearing for the government, said the petition should be dismissed as it was not the fundamental right of Nimbus, who own Neo Sports channel to monopolise the telecast of cricket matches. In any case, Nimbus should abide by the contract it had signed in February 2006 to share the live feed.

    Terming it as “bad in law”, the petition had said, “The ordinance transgresses the constitutional limits and apart from violating the petitioner’s fundamental rights, it also interferes with the power of the court to review the circular enforcing the private channels to share the feed.”

    On 23 January, in an interim order, the court had allowed Prasar Bharati to download the feed of Nimbus Communications and telecast the India-West Indies ODI series in a delayed transmission of seven minutes on DD and broadcast commentary live on AIR.

    The High Court has decided to merge the hearing of the appeal by Prasar Bharati against this order, and the petition by Nimbus challenging the Ordinance.
     
     

  • HC hearing on Nimbus challenge to telecast ordinance on 12 February

    HC hearing on Nimbus challenge to telecast ordinance on 12 February

    NEW DELHI: Even as the Delhi High Court today refused to stay the operation of the ordinance promulgated last week making it mandatory for private sports channels to share live feed of any international sports event with Prasar Bharati, the telecast controversy is coming up for hearing in two different benches of the court on 12 February.

    Justice BD Sharma, who is hearing the appeal by Prasar Bharati against an earlier order of the court permitting seven-minute deferred telecast on Doordarshan, rejected the plea by Nimbus Communications, owner of Neo Sports, seeking a stay on the Ordinance.

    Nimbus informed the Court that it had filed a petition in the court of a division bench headed by Chief Justice MK Sarma challenging the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Ordinance and that court had fixed the matter for Monday.

    The Counsel for Nimbus Gopal Jain informed the division bench headed by Chief Justice MK Sarma that Neo Sports was challenging the ordinance, as it was arbitrary and unconstitutional.

    The private sports broadcast channel also contended that the Ordinance violates its fundamental right under Article 19 (1) that is rights to speech and expression and its intellectual property right.

    (Mr Justice Ahmed had yesterday questioned the Government’s reasoning in promulgating the Ordinance saying, ”The Rule of Law should not have been subverted,” even as the government said it would challenge any court order favouring Nimbus’ insistence on deferred telecast. Justice B D Ahmed had wanted to know why the government was so swift in bringing an ordinance and added that the whole thing left a bad taste in the mouth.).