ITV

Tag: Shaharyar M Khan

  • Taj Sports’ Bukhatir assures efforts to give Pakistan TV cricket feed

    Taj Sports’ Bukhatir assures efforts to give Pakistan TV cricket feed

    MUMBAI: Will it, won’t it (Ten Sports)? Hold firm on the Pakistan cricket telecast rights issue that is.

    Dubai-based Taj Television, which manages Ten Sports and holds telecast rights for Pakistan cricket, has so far resisted pressures from India’s Prasar Bharati (managing Doordarshan and All India Radio) to get the matches telecast on DD as well.

     
    But if the news emanating from Pakistan is anything to go by, day by day, that pressure is building. Chairman of Taj TV Abdulrahman Bukhatir today had a three-hour meeting with the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Shaharyar M Khan over what else but Indias forthcoming tour of Pakistan. PCB chief executive Ramiz Raja, Taj TV chief executive Chris McDonald, CBFS chief executive Zahid Noorani and PCB marketing consultant Riaz Mahmood were also present at the meeting.

    According to a statement released the PCB, Bukhatir has been quoted as saying: “I assure the PCB of the sensitivity to the need for the people of Pakistan to which these matches on television in the largest possible numbers, and I assure that efforts are already well underway for PTV to carry the signal.”

    The question of course is if the matches can be shown on PTV, what happens if DD also demands the same “courtesy”. Stay tuned for more on the high-stakes game that is being played out over this issue.

  • PCB says will honour telecast deal with Ten Sports

    PCB says will honour telecast deal with Ten Sports

    MUMBAI: The Pakistan Cricket Board has denied a report in The News Pakistan which stated that it was reviewing the television rights deal it had signed with the Dubai based Taj Television Ltd, which broadcasts Ten Sports.

     
    “It is clarified that PCB will honour all existing contracts to which it is legally committed and that ancillary marketing contracts would be negotiated, openly and transparently, in the light of existing contracts,” said PCB chairman Shaharyar M Khan in a press release.

    The News also carried a report today headlined “PCB legally committed to honour existing contracts”. In the report, a senior PCB official is quoted as saying Taj had “conveyed to the board on Wednesday that it required cooperation from the board instead of confusing statements from it if it was meet its target of marketing the television rights of the Indian series to a wide international market.”

    Added Taj Television CEO Chris McDonald in another release: “Taj Television Ltd has entered into a valid and legally binding contract for the exclusive rights in India to the India tour as well as to all other international cricket to take place in Pakistan through 2008. We enjoy a very positive working relationship with the PCB and have met, and will continue to meet, all our contractual obligations to the PCB.”

    McDonald added that Taj’s “broadcast plans for the tour are in place and we are working hard to provide the viewers of India the best cricket production ever for this all-important series.”
    Taj Television had in march 2003 signed a $42.6 million deal with the PCB which gave it the rights to telecast all cricket matches in Pakistan for five years on its channel Ten Sports.

    Speaking to indiantelevision.com from Pakistan PCB media manager Samiul Hassan, while reiterating the PCB’s position, pointed out that should any other channel desire to telecast the matches it should deal directly with Taj Television. “Be it Sony or ESPN they will have to speak to Ten Sports as we have a contract with the network,” he said.

    Amongst the ancillary marketing rights that are being thrown open for bidding include radio, special events, ground and in-stadia advertisements.

    Khan has stated in the press release the PCB is cobbling together a team of independent marketing consultants to help it with its marketing and commercial deals during India’s tour of Pakistan. Two have already been hired. This includes former Pakistan Tobacco Co marketing executive Riaz Mahmood and the reputed Lahore-based lawyer Ahmad Hosain. Mahmood is currently the chief executive of the Board of Social Marketing Pakistan – now Greenstar – and has twice held the position of position of president of the Council of Marketing of Pakistan.

    Questions are being raised whether the PCB would wilt under political pressure from the Indian side – and coerce Taj Television to share the telecast rights with Indian state broadcaster DD. Especially considering the fact that the Indian government will want to tomtom how it has improved Indo-Pak relations in an election year and brought back Indo-Pak cricket after a long gap. DD offers five times more audiences than that is offered by Ten Sports.

    “We will deal with the situation when it comes,” proferred Hassan. “As of now we are committed to our legal contract.”