ITV

Tag: Sony Pictures Network

  • Star India beats Sony, Jio to win media rights for BCCI’s home matches

    Star India beats Sony, Jio to win media rights for BCCI’s home matches

    MUMBAI: You never know who  the winner is till the last ball is bowled in an India-Pakistan match. Since this morning most media were reporting that Star India was out of the race to pocket the media rights to the  Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI’s) home cricket featuring the Indian team. And that it was a two horse race between Jio and Sony Pictures Networks India.

    But the Uday Shankar-headed network  came out of nowhere in a  rapid sprint to the finishing line and breasted the tape to emerge the winner of BCCI’s  worldwide media rights sweepstakes. It thus strengthened its hold on television and digital rights to cricket in India, by coughing up a staggering Rs 6138.70 crore for the 2018-23 window.

    The broadcaster now holds the two most valuable broadcast rights in cricket, having bought the IPL global media rights for Rs 16,347.50 crore in September 2017 for 2018 to 2022.

    The battle for the BCCI home media rights finally ended today with the e-auction coming to a close after a three-way fight between Star India, Sony Pictures Network and Reliance JIO for the past two and half days. The BCCI will formally announce the winner of the rights at 5 pm today.

    The penultimate bid at the auction was Rs 6,111.70 crore. The first bid on day three was recorded at Rs 6,085.30 crore. Within minutes, the bid bar was raised by another Rs 26.4 crore.

  • IPL 2018: Team sponsorship deals may see an uptick

    IPL 2018: Team sponsorship deals may see an uptick

    MUMBAI: With barely two months to go before the eleventh season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) starts in April 2018, brands have begun their hunt to pick their favourite team to bid on and are rapidly putting together deals. The bigger team you pick, the more chances of your brand being visible on the field and earning you brownie points in the eyes of viewers and consumers. 

    A lot is riding on this year’s season for sponsors as the T20 tournament has gone on to become the fifth most popular sports event in the world with more than 335 million viewers and the number only seems to be increasing every year. Last year, Star India won the global IPL media rights for Rs 16,347 crore for a period of five years. Since this is the first time both the TV and digital rights are with a single broadcaster, better synergies can be drawn between the TV and digital campaigns.

    Gameplan Sports director Jeet Banerjee projects a rise in the sponsorships amount that brands will pay to teams this year as compared to previous seasons. “The amount will differ from team to team, but it will be in the range of 15-25 crores per annum,” he believes. 

    According to an industry source who did not wish to be named, however, principal sponsor deals this year between teams and brands could range from Rs 8-12 crore per annum, more in line with previous years.

    Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI), according to another source, are on their way to complete their inventory for the year 2018 with new sponsors and partners.

    As the five-year deal between MI and Videocon d2h has come to an end, a new innings for Samsung has begun this season. Samsung, which was the official partner for MI, has now become the team’s lead sponsor. The team has a list of official partners including Performax, Kenstar, Taiwan Excellence and Usha.

    Although Kingfisher is sponsoring all major teams this season as well,  Royal Rajasthan and Chennai Super Kings that are making a comeback this season are also interested in sponsoring with Kingfisher and the brand is in talk with teams to consider it.

    United Breweries Group chief marketing officer Samar Singh Shekhawat believes IPL is the perfect sport for the brand to invest in as the league is all about fun, glamour, colour, youth and energy. Because the brand is not allowed to do television and other traditional advertising for its product due to government regulations that prohibits any alcohol advertising on the platform, IPL works best for the company.

    The brand is considering a lot of on-ground activation this year and is working and debating with 3-4 agencies that have pitched presentations for UB.

    Radio station radio city 91.1fm’s five-year official partnership deal with the Mumbai Indians ended this year but is said to be in discussions with the team to renew the partnership.

    While CSK has Muthoot Finance as its principal team partner, the right chest of the team’s jerseys will bear the logos of India Cement, which has come on board as the team’s official cement partner, and Gulf, which is its official lubricant partner. Other partners include Nippon Paint as the official paint partner, Equitas as the official retail banking partner, HIL as the official partner and ACT Fibernet as the official connectivity partner.

    This season, Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) has water purifier brand Kent RO as its title sponsor while detergent brand Fena, Royal Stag and Lotus Herbals have come on board as official partners and will be featured on the team’s jerseys. The team, with its fresh squad, is planning to change its team name and shift its base out of Punjab.

    Sony Pictures Network successfully managed to elevate the IPL’s position year after year. The turn of events is going to be interesting now with Star India planning to make the IPL a six-month-long fiesta with new-age technology, putting fans at the heart of the experience.

    Also Read :

    Star ushers in IPL’s new era with a bang

    Star India gets IPL to change match timings for 11th edition

    IPL auction: Gayle to play for KXIP, Unadkat most expensive Indian player

  • Man Jit Singh, Andy Kaplan to depart Sony Pictures following restructure

    Man Jit Singh, Andy Kaplan to depart Sony Pictures following restructure

    MUMBAI: Two executives who were familiar faces in the Indian television ecosystem–Andy Kaplan and Man Jit Singh–are departing after decades of being with Sony Pictures Television Networks (SPT) and Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) in the US. A third executive Sheraton Kalouria, who was SPT president and chief marketing officer, has also been shown the door.

    The exits are a part of a reorganistion of SPE’s television and home entertainment businesses that CEO Tony Vinciquerra  announced through an internal memo.

    Kaplan spent a good 31 years with the company and was president of worldwide networks at Sony Pictures Networks and was one of the key drivers at its India TV network’s success story. Singh was president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and was helming the India operations for a good five years before handing them over to current SPN India CEO NP Singh and moving back to the US in 2014.

    The reorganisation has resulted in 18-year-old Sony vet and SPT president – distribution Keith Le Goy getting additional responsibility of home entertainment. He will report to Sony’s Motion Picture Group (MPG) chairman Tom Rothman on the MPG home entertainment business while continuing to have a line to SPT chairman Mike Hopkins on TV distribution.

    Hopkins has also taken on full responsibility of SPT’s network business–consisting of operations in 178 countries with 101 channels and 189 feeds–and all the heads, including NP Singh, will report directly to him.

    Kalouria’s departure has also led to a decentralisation of the marketing function and each team will report to the business unit they support.

    Addressing the company in the memo, Vinciquerra said: “I realise these changes are significant and will be an adjustment for many of you, but they are important in our efforts to strengthen SPE overall and make it more agile in today’s fast-moving environment.”

    Also Read :

    Man Jit Singh likely to continue as IBF president

    Sony Pictures Ent appoints Man Jit Singh president of Sony Pictures Home Ent

  • IPL 2018 gets a makeover with Star India

    IPL 2018 gets a makeover with Star India

    MUMBAI: IPL 2018 not only has a new destination channel but has changes that have been requested and accepted for the first time.

    It all started in September 2017 when Star India won the global IPL media rights for Rs 16,347 crore for the span of five years (2018-22). This is the first time when both the TV and digital rights are with a single broadcaster, which will result in the simulcast of the game without the groaning five-minute delay.

    For the first time, IPL will be live on 10 channels and Hotstar. On the digital platform, VR will be a key differentiator and will possibly help Hotstar to keep the fans glued on to it.

    For the previous seasons, Sony Pictures Network was airing IPL in two languages Hindi and English on Sony Six, Sony Max and their HD feeds. But Star is planning to telecast it in six different languages English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Kannada. The Kannada channel was still in the works some weeks ago.

    Star India recently managed to convince the IPL governing council (GC) to change the timings for the games of the league being held from 7 April to 27 May 2018. The 8 pm game will now begin at 7 pm while the 4 pm game has been pushed forward to 5:30 pm.

    Mumbai Indians co-owner Akash Ambani said that the time change will impact the team. “For us it is tough. Because people of Bombay work till 6:30-7 pm. It’s going to be impossible making it to a game at 7 pm. You are impacting the revenue. You are impacting the audience coming there. So we are objecting to that,” he said to Cricbuzz.com.

    IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla told Indiantelevision.com, “We have received the letter from Mumbai Indians. We haven’t taken any decision yet and it will be confirmed shortly.” But a week ago he confirmed to Indiantelevision.com that the timings have been changed.

    IPL 2018 will see mid-season transfer after seven games. The players who were not included in the playing 11 can opt for their mid-season transfer to other franchisees.

    The IPL GC announced that each IPL franchise can retain a maximum of five players from their respective current squads. Of the five players, a franchise can retain a maximum of three players through retention in lead up to the auction, and a maximum of three players through the right-to-match card during the auction. The other restrictions on player retention are: a maximum of three capped Indian players can be retained, and only two overseas players and two uncapped Indian players can be retained. For the first time, the player retention event was aired on TV and digital. The event was watched by 8.1 million people across the country.

    The salary cap for each team for the 2018 season has been increased from Rs 66 crore to Rs 80 crore (approximately $12.4 million). A franchise will be allowed to spend only Rs 33 crore on retentions ahead of the 2018 IPL auction, leaving it with just Rs 47 crore to spend at the auction.

    The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry is working on a proposal to make IPL available on Doordarshan and has asked the Sports Ministry to weigh in on the matter.

    The move will mean that Star India will have to share the live feed of the tournament with public broadcaster Prasar Bharati under the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act, 2007. Prasar Bharati runs Doordarshan and All India Radio. For this IPL will have to be categorised as a tournament of national importance at par with events like Olympics, Commonwealth Games and Wimbledon.

    Star India, for the first time, has also thought of starting international fan parks for the IPL and cricket lovers around the globe. Fan Parks were launched in 2015, initially in 16 cities. The 2017 edition of the Fan Park was held in 36 cities in 21 states, bringing fans across the length and breadth of India closer to their beloved sport. These included 14 new cities, like Bhubaneswar, Bareilly, Kochi, Ludhiana, Tumkur and Nagercoil which hosted the Fan Park for the first time.

    For the first time, fans were given a chance to vote for their favourite players on vivoiplelection.hotstar.com as a part of the ‘Election se Selection’ campaign on the network. The campaign, according to Star India MD Sanjay Gupta, received more than one lakh votes in less than 12 hours of its launch. Ajinkya Rahane and Krunal Pandya emerged as fan favourites after the final voting count before the auctions.

    Also read:

    Star ushers in IPL’s new era with a bang

    IPL auction: Gayle to play for KXIP, Unadkat most expensive Indian player

    Star India gets IPL to change match timings for 11th edition

  • Social media most significant for snackable content: NBA India MD

    Social media most significant for snackable content: NBA India MD

    MUMBAI: Cricket being the most watched and followed sport in the country, the National Basketball Association (NBA) has started the journey to make basketball the number two sport in India. With several sports gaining popularity, the NBA is aware that the goal is not going to be a cakewalk as the investment required is huge.

    The NBA has had steady growth over the past couple of years in India. The partnership with Sony Pictures Network India has been a good boost to the game and also helped in reaching to different regions in the country. It has also set up training centres in schools and recently started its fantasy league for fans. 

    According to the data provided by NBA India, the southern market contributed to 60 per cent of the viewership for the association in the country followed by the western region with 17 per cent market share in the previous season of 2016-17 (CS 2+). The northern and eastern regions contributed to 10 per cent and 13 per cent viewership, respectively.

    NBA India’s managing director Yannick Colaco, in an interaction with Indiantelevision.com, said that the core target remains youth and young adults and that the association believes that introducing boys and girls to the game of basketball at a young age will help in instilling in them positive values of the game.  

    Here are the excerpts:

    What, from your analysis, is the level of popularity of basketball in India?

    Basketball is one of the fastest growing sports in India. There has been incredible growth on popularity with respect to participation and consumption across multiple platforms. The game itself is simple to play and infrastructure light; all you need is a flat surface, a hoop and a ball.

    We have been extremely focused on growing the game from bottom-up and are thrilled at the response we have seen across the country in both participation of the programmes and adoption of the sport.

    How do you measure the success of basketball in India?

    We measure success in participation, especially among young boys and girls, and consumption. Basketball has to be grown the right way, from the bottom up, and its why we’ve invested significantly in grassroots. Our large scale in-school programmes such as the Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA has reached more than six million youth and trained over 5,000 coaches. We anticipate that programmes like this and many others will continue to fuel the growth of the game in the years to come. We also continue to provide greater access of the NBA to our fan base, inspiring more kids to play and increasing opportunities for our fans to engage with us.

    With our partners Sony Six, we bring 14 live games a week to fans in India and we’ve consistently clocked high double-digit percentage viewership growth year on year

    Is there more viewership on digital? 

    We are committed to providing greater access of the NBA to reach the largest number of audiences and keeping that in mind, we ensure our partner platforms work in synergy; they’re complementary rather than cannibalistic.

    Last season, we reached a record number of 125 million fans for NBA programming across India. While television is our largest distribution for live games, social media is by far the most significant distribution platform for us for what we call ‘snackable’ content such as dunks of the day, bloopers, NBA fashion, quick tips and so on. Just on Facebook, NBA India has reached more than 900 million impressions this season, engaging over 600,000 unique fans weekly and amassed more than 155.6 million video views over the course of the 2016-17 season. We also have this subscription network called League Pass, which is now more accessible to our fans than before.

    How much time does an average viewer spend on the NBA digitally?

    We are very successful in engaging our audience on digitally owned platforms. Be it through social media pages, the NBA destination, our mobile app or Sony LIV. The average time each user spends on the mobile app per week is 1 hour 12 minutes.

    How will the Fantasy Basketball league function?

    The NBA Fantasy game allows its users to create their own virtual team choosing their players and perform the role of a manager and accumulate points based on their selected players’ statistics in real life. The free-to-play game will offer a variety of prizes as rewards, including NBAStore.in gift cards, NBA merchandise and the opportunity to win a trip to the US to attend the 2018 NBA Finals.

    The NBA, globally, has tremendously successful fantasy partnerships across multiple players. We are thrilled to be partnering with Dream11, India’s largest fantasy gaming company, to launch a free-to-play daily fantasy basketball game.

    We have over seven million fans across social media in India and a high percentage of them are actively connected with us. With the NBA’s highly aspirational appeal, and an abundance of marketing assets locally (TV, digital, social, events and athlete tours), we expect a large number of NBA fans to contribute to the online fantasy game.

    Which are the top two teams based on their fan following?

    Success, in sports worldwide, drives a lot of fan affinity and the NBA in India is no exception. The Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics and the San Antonio Spurs received tremendous support and fandom last season.

    Are you planning commentary in languages other than English?

    We ran a pilot project last season in introducing Hindi in-game commentary for the 2016-17 Conference Finals and NBA Finals and the response was tremendous. This season, we are offering close to 100 NBA games with Hindi commentary on Sony Ten 3 and Sony Ten 3 HD.

    With the growing popularity of the NBA across the country, this move aims to engage a wider set of fans and enthusiasts with Hindi as their primary language.

    We are also extremely fortunate to have youth influencers fans such as actor and VJ Rannvijay Singh and popular culture stand-up comedian Gursimran Khamba who contribute as guest commentators on a regular basis.

    Do you see merchandising as a big play here?

    Certainly, we have witnessed a consistent growth in demand and purchases for NBA apparel and licensed product. NBA products are available in over 700 outlets across the country. We are committed to growing the culture of basketball along with the game and merchandising plays a huge role in bringing about that change.

    The NBA has several active global licensing partners in India such as Nike, Under Armour, 2K, EA, Tissot and Spalding. Our local licensing partners include Jabong, Jack & Jones, Iskcon Apparel and Dream11. 

    Also Read :

    Mairu Gupta and the art of building the NBA in India

    NBA and Dream11 to bring fantasy basketball to India 

    Sony Six: NBA preparing for Hindi commentary in three months

  • The BCCI India rights conundrum

    The BCCI India rights conundrum

    MUMBAI: With BCCI’s India media rights coming up in March, big broadcasters and digital players are readying their war chest of cash.

    The current holder, Star India, acquired the rights in 2012 at Rs 3851 crore for a six-year period across 96 matches. The amount comes down to an average of Rs 40 crore per match. Multi Screen Media (Sony) bid a close second with Rs 3700 crore.

    Last year, The Hindu quoted a BCCI official who said, “I wondered how Star India even agreed to pay that price for each of the three forms of internationals. The reserve price could be Rs 30 crore for home internationals, if not even lower, next year.” In the last couple of years, BCCI officials, both former and present, have made no secret of the fact that Star India would not agree to enter the India bid race if the reserve price for a home international match (including Tests, ODIs and T20Is) is set anywhere close to Rs 43 crore.

    Therefore, it is fair to assume that Star India struggled to make money on the matches. Supporting this argument, a media observer said, “We can’t say how much of the subscription revenue they would be apportioning to India team, because when Star sells its subscription bouquet, it is sold as an overall sports package, not right wise. If we compare ad rates vis-à-vis the rights acquisition, they have not made money.”

    Star India, in September 2017, hit all other bidders in the fray for a six with just one single mind-boggling global bid of Rs 16,347.50 crore to acquire the broadcast and digital rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the next five years. IPL is hotter than even international events. An IPL game will fetch Rs 55 crore per whereas an international match brings about Rs 40 crore. Star India might focus on making the IPL the biggest revenue-generating property in the world after the EPL and the NBA.

    According to industry sources, broadcasters will be looking at paying Rs 35 crore per match, touted to be a fair amount in current market standards, to the BCCI for the upcoming rights acquisition.

    Sony Pictures Network (SPN) India is likely to make a strong bid for the Indian cricket team home rights. We know that Sony already has the Rs 11,000 crore that it was ready to splurge on the IPL rights.

    The other contender, Dsport, is also rumoured to throw its hat into the ring for the BCCI rights. In an interview to Mint last month, Discovery Communication India SVP and GM Karan Bajaj stated, “We may look at putting cricket on Dsport next year after launching the general entertainment channel Discovery Jeet.” The channel even picked up the bidding document for IPL media rights but didn’t turn up on the bidding day.

    For digital rights, players like Facebook, Twitter, Reliance Jio, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, and Sony Liv will play a crucial role. Facebook was the highest bidder from the digital communication platforms for the IPL with Rs 3900 crore followed by Jio with Rs 3075 crore. Hotstar, which was launched in February 2015, wasn’t in the picture when Star India acquired the BCCI rights in 2012. 

    Meanwhile, Twitter and Amazon have gotten their hands on one of the most high-profile sports properties in the world, the National Football League (NFL). In the time to come, both players have vowed to dominate the live sporting segment on digital in India, too.

    The contract with Nimbus, before the rights went to Star in 2012, had a base price of Rs 31.25 crore per game for each of the three formats purely for the broadcast rights. The BCCI’s marketing committee had kept the base price at Rs 31.25 crore plus Rs 1 crore (i.e, Rs 32.25 crore) for an international game in the A category and Rs 33 crore plus Rs 1 crore (Rs 34 crore) for B category matches.

    Looking at the current scenario, broadcasters will have to cough up a reasonable amount, which can be in the range of Rs 32-38 crore, in order to be in profit. The fact that Star India may not agree to enter the India rights bid, if the reserve price for a home international match is set anywhere close to its previous bid, will help broadcasters such as Sony and Discovery to be in strong contention.

    Also Read :

    The year of big switch in sports broadcasting

    BCCI invites brands to acquire third-party rights for IPL

    Comment: Is BCCI lbw on Star’s sponsorship googly?

  • The year of big switch in sports broadcasting

    The year of big switch in sports broadcasting

    MUMBAI: This year has been nothing short of a roller-coaster ride for sports broadcasters. The industry saw it all–channel launches (pay as well as free to air [FTA]), rebranding, and battles for rights  for numerous domestic and international properties. Renowned properties changed hands while new ones also found a home in the country. It was a year that witnessed the less-fancied sports going from strength to strength in a market that has been dominated by cricket for far, too, long.

    Among the marque developments during the year was how the aggressive Uday Shankar and team stole the rights for the IPL by bidding for the entire package, rather than individual rights for digital and TV, like the rest of the bidders. What was also uncanny was the slender margin that it pocketed the property as compared to everyone else’s cumulative bid. Yes, it bid high, but has not Uday shown that he is the risk taker bar none on several occassions in the past by betting on sports like kabaddi, football, tennis,hockey, table tennis, badminton and encouraged the setting up of leagues for the poorer sports? And his efforts have borne fruit as these  have managed to rope in the viewers, advertisers and revenues. But his challenge will be to able to steer Star Sports in India in the aggressive manner he is known to do now that the India operations of Star India are in the process of coming under the Disney fold following their sale – along with other properties by the Murdochs  – to the mouse house. Star Sports meanwhile lost its leader Nitin Kukreja earlier this year when he departed to head one of the team owner’s franchise operations.

    Of course, streaming service Hotstar set its landmarks in terms of viewers that it managed to rope in for almost every tournment it rolled out.  Star Sports nearest rival now is the NP Singh headed Sony Pictures Networks India which let go of the IPL rights by bidding only for the television piece of the rights. Though its bid was higher than Star Sports’ it still did not manage to retain the rights.

    2017  was remarkable for the fact that digital players – among which figure Amazon, Facebook – are open to come head on with traditional television to snap up sports telecast rights. They of course lost to Star but who knows if they will become key game changers in terms of sports rights pricing going forward.

    The year was also remarkable for the fact that Chinese brands of mobile phones have put their might behind building sports in India by becoming sponsors for almost every major property. Either  OPPO or Vivo or some other brand has paid top dollar to be associated with Indian sport. Whether this bodes well or not only time will tell, but it would be good if Indian brands too get their foot into play.

    Launched in 2016, Veqta, India’s OTT subscription service dedicated to sports, got great traction for the first live property after the launch of the subscription package on Veqta. The boxing bout between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor and the digital campaign was a huge success, garnering around 1.4 billion digital impressions across various media. Within a month of activation of a subscription package, the platform crossed over 150,000 downloads. This made it clear that in India there is a big demand for alternative sports, apart from mainline sports like cricket, and there are people willing to pay for premium sports content.

    Let’s see how each broadcaster fared this year:

    Star India

    While it restructured its bouquet, Star Sports 3 SD and Star Sports 4 SD and their HD feeds went off air. The broadcaster bet big on a regional channel as well as going Hindi with Star Sports 1 Tamil and Star Sports 1 Hindi. Moreover, it also launched Star Sports Select 1 and Star Sports Select 2, taking the broadcaster’s sports bouquet to a total of 11 channels.

    Star Sports telecast Ultimate Table Tennis’ (UTT) inaugural season in 2017 to promote table tennis as a sport in India. The league played a pivotal role in achieving this objective by working in cohesion with the stakeholders: the Table Tennis Federation of India, the franchises, and the broadcaster. Unlike other major sporting leagues being run in the country like IPL and ISL, UTT had club-based franchises instead of the usual city-based franchises. 

    The broadcaster then took a dive into going FTA route with Star Sports First. The country’s first private FTA channel hopped on board FreeDish and got off to a roaring start in cricket-crazy India. This enabled sports fans and enthusiasts to watch their favourite sports in Hindi without paying any subscription fee. Rather surprisingly, Star Sports First contributed to 31 per cent of the overall viewership for Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) season 5. With the launch of Star Sports First, it increased its channel count to 12, thereby becoming the broadcaster with the most number of sports channels in the country.

    The broadcaster took the lead on cricket in the country by acquiring the rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) by comfortably winning it for $2.55billion for its global rights. Both the TV and digital rights for the next five years from 2018 are with Star. It will also be introducing virtual reality as a game changer.

    The digital ad revenue for the tenth season more than doubled as compared to previous season which was Rs 1.2 billion.

    Recent reports suggest that a caveat is being created to ensure broadcasters share their telecast with pubcaster DD for its terrestrial network and FreeDish. This would be made possible as and when the government formally issues a directive as both the law and information & broadcasting ministries were being consulted, under a regulation called the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act 2007.

    Sony Pictures Network (SPN) India

    SPN India started this year with the completion of the first phase of the acquisitions of Ten Sports from Subhash Chandra-led Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel). This involved a monetary transaction of $30 million out of the total $385 million in consideration. The second phase of the deal was mutually concluded by both the parties because of certain condition with Zeel’s receipt of the remittance of $ 36.32 million from SPN.

    SPN India roped Sachin Tendulkar as its brand ambassador for the sports bouquet. On the same day, Sony rebranded its sports portfolio by adding two HD channels Sony Ten 2 & 3 HD which took its total count to 11 channels in the sports cluster. Each channel picked its favourite sport with Sony Six and Six HD dedicating itself entirely to cricket while Sony Ten 1 and Ten 1 HD took to wrestling. Football was handed over to Sony Ten 2 and Ten 2 HD. Sony Ten 3 and its HD counterpart was given to all Hindi feed for any sport. International sports can be viewed on Sony ESPN/HD. Sony is also focusing on golf with Sony Ten Golf HD, which is a very niche market in India.

    SPN India, the official broadcaster (till 2017) of IPL, crossed the Rs 13,000 million mark in terms of ad revenue. After a decade of holding strong, it lost out to Murdoch’s Star India with its aggressive biding price which paled Sony’s proposition of Rs 11,500 crore for just India’s rights.

    The broadcaster also won the exclusive rights for the shortest format of cricket – the T10 Cricket League which is also its inaugural season. Sony has both the TV and digital rights for the league, hosted by the Emirates cricket broad.

    DSport

    DSport is a sports TV channel launched by Discovery Communications India specifically for the Indian subcontinent in February this year. The channel is focused on bringing the most live sports content, over 4000 hours, from around the world to audiences in India. Its wide portfolio of live sports content includes the exclusive rights for many of the leagues of wrestling, football, cycling, horse-racing, golf, tennis, motorsports, and many more.

    To name a few of the exclusive leagues in DSport portfolio are, wrestling properties including American Ring of Honor and Lucha Underground. The third edition of the HBL Pakistan Super League will be aired exclusively on Dsport.  Dsport also acquired the exclusive India broadcast rights of the inaugural edition of the Laver Cup as well as the ICC World XI Tour of Pakistan.

    TS Panesar was appointed as the business head in the second half of 2017.

    Nimbus Communication

    Launched in 2006, Neo Sports and Neo Prime have lost their sheen over the years. Their current portfolio includes leagues like FIFA Club World Cup, The Coppa Italia and Coupe de France in football. In tennis,Davis Cup and Fed Cup are the only two leagues the broadcaster owns. The broadcaster also owns some of the leagues from other sports like basketball, table tennis, motor racing, horse racing and many more.

    Conclusion

    The year 2017 was made memorable because of the shift in the ownership of IPL rights from Sony to Star, the country’s first private FTA sports channel, and the consolidation of other sports in the country. While plans are afoot by broadcasters for the upcoming year, here are some events to look out for in 2018.

    SPN India is likely to make an aggressive bid for the Indian cricket team home rights in a bid to shore up the rights for the few cricketing events with it. Star India is also expected to leave no stone unturned to acquire the rights with the vision of having a monopoly in the Indian sports and cricket industries. We know that Sony already has the Rs 11,000 crore that it was ready to splurge on the IPL rights. The BCCI is expected to open the bid early next year for a period of five years. Furthermore, to enhance the fan experience, Star India wants to make a mark with its first IPL edition and will introduce virtual reality for the 2018 season.

    The stage is set for a dogfight between the two big players in the sector–Star and Sony. Just the prospect of this off-field battle is mouth-watering. 

    Also read: 

    Comment: Does Star stand to gain or lose by sharing IPL with DD?

    Star’s Uday Shankar on distribution challenges, IPL, FTA vs. pay TV, innovations, Made in India content…and much more

    Star India to introduce VR for IPL 2018

    ISL piggybacks on EPL’s popularity to gain viewership

  • Sony ropes in Tendulkar as it rebrands sports portfolio, adds two HD channels

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Network is all set to rebrand its sports portfolio, including ESPN. SPNI’s bouquet of sports channels includes TEN 1, TEN 2, TEN 3 and Sony 6, which are set to see significant changes.

    SPNI has also roped in Sachin Tendulkar as its brand ambassador for sports. Sony has grouped its sports brands under the business vertical — Sony Pictures Sports Network (SPSN).

    With the addition of two HD channels, Sony TEN 2 HD and Sony TEN 3 HD, 11 channels dedicated to bringing the best domestic and international sporting action to viewers, Sony reinforces its position as one of the largest broadcasters of sports in the Indian sub-continent.

    Programming break-up of 11 channels comprising five SD and six HD channels:

    Sony 6 and Sony 6 HD —– Cricket

    Sony TEN 1 & Sony TEN 1 HD: Wrestling entertainment

    Sony TEN 2 & Sony TEN 2 HD: Football

    Sony TEN 3 & Sony TEN 3 HD: Sporting events in Hindi

    Sony ESPN & Sony ESPN HD — International sports

    Sony TEN Golf HD —— Non-stop golf action

    Also Read:

    ITW bags ad rights from Sony, India series sponsor & partners’ announcement shortly

    Sports channels ratings dive in week 26

    FIFA U-17 draw: Hosts India to take on U.S. in Delhi

    U-20 & U-17 FIFA ’19 bidding for host launched, Sony to telecast U-17 in seven countries

  • Sports channels ratings dive in week 26

    BENGALURU: After the culmination of the recent ICC Cricket Champions Trophy 2017 in the UK, the ratings of the sports genre has taken a huge hit, going by Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly data for Top 5 Sports channels and Top 5 Sports programmes (All India (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals).

    Until mid-year (week 26 of 2017: Saturday, 24 June 2017 to Friday, 30 June 2017), the top combined weekly impressions (CWI) of the top 5 sports channels peaked in week 23 (Saturday, 3 June 2017 to Friday, 9 June 2017) during which the sum of the weekly impressions of all the five channels was 1,450.328 million impressions. Weeks 24 and 25 saw a progressive decline in the CWI and week 26 has seen the combined ratings of the Sports genre plummet to a little more than a fourth (fall by 3.71 times) of week 23 ratings. Weeks 24 and 25 of 2017 saw the top 5 channels of the sports genre with 1,294.254 million impressions and 813.826 million impressions respectively.

    Going by BARC data, international limited overs matches- one day matches as well as T20 matched have been the highest number of Indian audienceeyeballs. Please refer to the figure below for combined weekly impressions of Top 5 channels of the Sports genre during the first 26 weeks of 2017.

    public://F_2.jpg

    Week 1 of 2017 saw the lowest CWI during the year until week 26 of 2017 with the top 5 sports channels registering a figure of just 171.251 million. Week 3 of 2017 during which the first and the second ODIs’ were played between India and England in India witnessed the genre garnering the highest CWI for the top 5 channels until week 23 at 811.22 million impressions. CWI of 750.335 was registered in week 5 when T20 matches were played between India and England in India. The CWI of the top 5 Sports channels then petered down until week 10 when the top 5 channels registered a total of 555.647 million impressions. This was during the India Australia second Test Match held in India.  Among the private broadcasters in India, it was Star India’s Sports channels that telecast the India England, the India Australia matches and the Champions Trophy 2017.

    Week 14 of 2017 saw the kick-off of the tenth season of the T20 cricket Indian Premier League (IPL 10 or IPL 2017). The IPL ran until week 21 of 2017. Week 15 of 2017 saw the top 5 channels of the Sports genre registering a total of 691.605 million impressions – the highest combined ratings for the Sports genre during IPL weeks. IPL was aired on Sony Pictures Network (SPN) channels.

     

  • Doordarshan in talks with Disney for kiddy content in evening slots

    MUMBAI: Doordarshan, which is gearing up to launch a kiddy channel as part of its bouquet, is said to be in talks with Disney for content aimed at youngsters in evening time-slots, according to a senior executive of the pubcaster.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Doordarshan DG Supriya Sahu, while asserting the organisation is planning a kids’ channel, confirmed that there’s a plan afoot to open a time-slot for such programming. “Some work is already on with Disney for the kids content,” she said, but hastily added, “It is (still) early to talk about it right now and an announcement would be made once things are finalized on this front.”

    This time-slot on a DD channel is being created, probably, to test waters and see the appetite for kids content before the launch of a full-fledged kids channel as part of its over 30-channel bouquet. Disney India could not be contacted for comments.

    According to earlier media reports, which quoted Sahu, India’s national broadcaster had drawn up a blueprint for FTA kids channel early 2017 made up of largely original and country-focused programming. She had said that the kids channel was part of pubcaster’s plans to launch FTA sports and kids channel for mainly viewers of DD FreeDish, a satellite-based service comprising DD and private FTA TV channels.

    However, some independent observers opined that DD wading into the kids’ content area is also part of the government’s plans to showcase programming that would reflect the Indian culture in a better fashion compared to mostly foreign content consumed by Indian children presently.

    At present, kids’ content available in India is from the stable of foreign players such as Nickelodeon, Turner, Disney, Discovery and lately Sony Pictures Network apart from some TV channels from India media companies such as Sun TV.

    ALSO READ:

    Doordarshan D-G Supriya Sahu says studying tie-ups & models as kids channel launch nearing

    DD’s kids channel could partner private players, launch this year