ITV

Tag: SPN Star Sports

  • BCCI tender panel meeting inconclusive on India rights

    BCCI tender panel meeting inconclusive on India rights

    MUMBAI: The India telecast rights intrigue continues. In what has come as no surprise to many in the industry, the crucial meeting of the Tender Committee of the Board for Cricket Control in India (BCCI), which took place in Chennai this morning, failed to come to any conclusions as to which party — Zee Telefilms or ESPN Star Sports — was the rightful claimant of the most prized possession on Indian television today.

    Cricket board president Jagmohan Dalmiya and other senior office bearers of the BCCI, including Jyothi Bajpayee, Kishore Rungta and Tamil Nadu Cricket Association president N Srinivasan are among the senior members in this committee. However, BCCI secretary SK Nair, who is also in this panel, is away in England attending a meeting of the ICC, agency reports have said.

    What remains to be seen is whether the BCCI’s Marketing Committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow, at which the rights winner was earlier expected to be announced, throws up anything more conclusive. From this vantage, something definitive from the Indian cricket board, which is a divided house on the telecast rights issue, looks increasingly uncertain. This committee includes Dalmiya and former BCCI president AC Muthiah, among others.

    While Zee Telefilms has offered $260 million, ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) has come up with an offer of $230 million to the BCCI for four years. SET Max, Prasar Bharati and Ten Sports have also put in their offers. But they were way behind the two main contenders.

    The fight between Zee and ESS is for the live television and radio broadcast rights for international matches to be played in India for the next four years

  • ESS’ ratings for FA Premier League Asia Cup

    SINGAPORE: Ratings for the FA Premier League Asia Cup confirm that Asian football fans are passionate about the tourney regardless of the teams playing.
    An official release informs that the average ratings for the live matches of the first-ever Premier League sanctioned event outside England which aired on ESPN Star Sports (ESS) across Asia and which featured top-level Premiership clubs, are comparable to that of regular season English Premier League (EPL) matches.
    While clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal currently drive the popularity of the EPL in Asia, it appears that interest in the clubs who played in the tournament in July and other lesser known clubs is not far behind.
    Peoplemeter ratings for the broadcasts of the live matches played by Newcastle United, Chelsea and Birmingham City during the four-day tournament enjoyed ratings consistent with those seen during live broadcasts of EPL matches from the 2002/2003 season on ESS, the release states.
    In Singapore for example, live broadcasts of EPL matches during the 2002/2003 season enjoyed an average of 4.7 Television Rating (TVR) points among males 15+ with cable. EPL matches featuring any of the three teams who played in the tournament also enjoyed an average of 4.7 TVR points while average ratings for a live FA Premier League Asia Cup got 3.5 TVR points.
    The ratings in Hong Kong show similar consistency with live EPL matches and live matches played by any of the three Asia Cup teams enjoying an above 5 TVR point. The average ratings for the Premier League Asia Cup matches were 2.2 TVR points.
    The 2002/2003 season, saw Newcastle and Chelsea each enjoying over 6 TVR points for at least eight matches during the period. Birmingham City saw five of its matches enjoying over 5 TVR points. This is comparable to Arsenal who ended the season with 11 matches enjoying at least 7 TVR points, Liverpool with nine matches and Manchester United with 18 matches.
    The release adds that the EPL is the most widely distributed sports programme across Asia. It is seen in over 150 million homes on the ESS network with eight of 10 people with cable in Asia tuning in to the 2002/2003 EPL season.
    According to Peoplemeter data, a single EPL match delivers reaches 167 per cent more viewers than all Asian cable news channels combined. While Asia’s sizeable out of home audience remains unmeasured by in-home Peoplemeter measurements, research indicates that 64 per cent watch the EPL outside their homes every week.
    Looking ahead, the popularity of these football clubs is expected to rise fuelled by the popularity of the League itself. Viewership of EPL among males 15+ with access to cable and satellite, is projected to grow by 63 per cent from the current 249 million to 407 million over the next ten years.