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Tag: Star India

  • BCCI rights: Day 2 top bid ends at Rs 6032.50 crore

    BCCI rights: Day 2 top bid ends at Rs 6032.50 crore

    MUMBAI: The bid for the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) home matches has reached a whopping Rs 6,032.50 crore at the end of the e-auction process on day two according to India Sports TV’s twitter handle.

    The e-auction process will resume at 11 am on Thursday.

    The last bid on day two stood at Rs 6,032.50 crore for the consolidated rights–amounting to a per match value of Rs 59.14 crore. The figure has already bettered the Indian Premier League’s per match record value of Rs 55 crore.

    On Wednesday, the bids that were made public stood at Rs 4517.25 crore, Rs 4565.20 crore, Rs 5488.30 crore, Rs 5748 crore, Rs 6001 crore, Rs 6003.09 crore and Rs 6032.50 crore.

    And so the bidding for the 102-game BCCI FTP for five years (2018-2023) continues. There is a feeling within the BCCI that the final bid may touch the magic number of Rs 6,500 crore for the consolidated rights. 

    Bids for BCCI’s home rights close in on Rs 6000 crore

    As the bidding for the media rights for the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) home matches intensifies, the bid price has breached the Rs 5000 crore mark. According to Insidesport.co, the latest bid (in the round that concluded at 3:40 pm) was at Rs 5748 crore, translating into an astronomical Rs 56.3 crore per match. For the 2012-18 cycle, Star India paid the BCCI Rs 3851 crore or Rs 43 crore per match.

    Three companies – Star India, Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Reliance Jio—are currently in the middle of an intense bidding war for the rights, which include 102 international matches across 190 days in the 2018-23 cycle. The bidding started on April 3 and was carried forward to the next day when no successful outcome was reached on the first day of the e-auction.

    Three categories of rights have been put on sale by the BCCI–global television rights and rest of the world digital rights (GTVRD), digital rights for the Indian subcontinent alone (ID), and the global consolidated rights comprising worldwide TV and digital rights (GCR). As was the case with the Indian Premier League, if the global consolidated bid exceeds the sum of the GTVRD and ID, then that bid wins. If not, the individual bids–India television, global digital and India digital rights—will be deemed winners.

    The base price for the 2018-19 season for the GTVRD is Rs 35 crore, Rs 8 crore for ID and Rs 43 crore for the global consolidated rights. For the 2019-2023 tenure, the base price for GTVRD is Rs 33 crore, for ID is Rs 7 crore and Rs 40 crore for GCR.

    Also Read:

    Bidding takes BCCI home matches’ media rights to a new high

    BCCI strengthens IPL ACU, appoints Ajit Singh as head

  • Bidding takes BCCI home matches’ media rights to a new high

    Bidding takes BCCI home matches’ media rights to a new high

    MUMBAI: The race is on to capture the five year media rights to the Indian cricket team’s home matches (102 matches in India from June 2018 to March 2023)

    On offer are the television and rest of the world digital rights (GTVRD), Indian subcontinent digital rights (ID), and the global consolidated rights (GCR). And by end of yesterday (3 April), only three bidders – Reliance, Star India and Sony- were left in the fray in the e-auction for the GCR. The reason: the other bidders like Google and Facebook were disqualified as they did not have both a TV and digital presence.

    The BCCI on its Twitter handle, through the day, announced which way the price graph was headed. Star India, which had the rights from 2012 to 2018, had breasted the tape by quoting Rs 3851 crore for a total of 96 matches across formats and included internet as well as mobile rights.

    But according to BCCI’s Twitter handle, the e-auction bidding commenced with a price of Rs 43 crore per match and an annual payout of Rs 774 crore (in 2018-19); Rs 40 crore per match with an annual payout of Rs 1040 crore in 2019-20, Rs 40 crore and Rs 580 crore in 2020-21, Rs 40 crore per match and Rs 920 crore for 2021-22, Rs 42 crore per match and Rs 882 crore annually giving a total GCR bid of Rs 4176 crore.

    That bid was bettered soon with an offer of Rs 4201.20 crore. Another offer of Rs 4244 crore came in according to the BCCI Twitter account.

    Reports at the end of the day stated that the bidding went further northward with offers of Rs 4303 crore, Rs 4328.25 crore and Rs 4442 crore being the final quote just as the e-auction for day one ended. BCCI is being assisted by MJunction Services, Deloitte Haskins & Sells and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas to ensure transparency and compliance.

    The online auction will now resume today, 4 April at 11 am from the same stage.

    Experts opine the BCCI media rights figure could climb rapidly tomorrow and expectations are that bidders could up the rates to between $800 million to $1billion

    The BCCI would surely approve.

  • Star india signs superstar prosenjit as official ambassador for broadcast of vivo ipl in bengali on jalsha movies

    Star india signs superstar prosenjit as official ambassador for broadcast of vivo ipl in bengali on jalsha movies

    MUMBAI: Unparalleled in sports broadcasting in India, Star India is all set to reimagine the broadcast of the VIVO Indian Premier League 2018 by making India’s greatest sporting spectacle a never before experience for cricket fans across the country.  For the first time ever, Star India will broadcast live matches of the league in 6 languages – Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Bengali. The VIVO IPL will also be beamed LIVE in these 6 languages on Hotstar.

    With fans at the heart of the experience and to leverage the power of localisation, Star India has announced Jalsha Movies as the destination for the Bengali language broadcast of VIVO IPL 2018. Star India celebrates this announcement by launching a TVC featuring Bangla superstar and a big VIVO IPL fan, Prosenjit Chatterjee.

    The film opens with Prosenjit in his living room, looking for something. As he strolls about, he excitedly starts talking about possible match scenarios. As the film progresses, the viewer realizes that it’s his TV remote that Prosenjit is looking for, following which he reveals that VIVO IPL 2018 will be more special this year as the Bengali cricket fans will get to catch the Best vs Best action in their mother tongue, Bangla! The driving thought behind the initiative is that the pride of watching your favorite sporting spectacle in your own language is an experience like never before.

    Mr. Prosenjit Chatterjee, while commenting on his association said, “I’ve always been a cricket enthusiast and VIVO IPL has been one of the tournaments I look forward to every year. I’m excited about my association with Star India for VIVO IPL 2018 and looking forward to enjoying the best of cricketing action in my mother tongue.”

    West Bengal is a unique market with high affinity to language content and very distinctive viewing habits. Star India’s strong presence in the state has helped the broadcaster understand the pulse of the Bangla cricketing fans. The film with Mr Prosenjit Chatterjee is an extension of Star India’s belief to give the Bangla sports fan more personalised content and further enhance the universal appeal of VIVO IPL by reaching out to their viewers in their own language.

    The 11th edition of VIVO IPL starts on Saturday, April 07, 2018 with defending champions Mumbai Indians taking on Chennai Super Kings.

  • Hotstar unveils subscription pack for IPL, live sports

    Hotstar unveils subscription pack for IPL, live sports

    MUMBAI: Hotstar has come up with a pleasant announcement for sports lovers with new annual sports subscription package. With an annual of Rs 299, subscribers can track all live sports including the matches of IPL.

    In history of IPL, this is going to be first ever digital broadcast of the premier cricket league. Earlier Star India stated that the IPL 2018 will be broadcast simultaneously on Star Sports and Hotstar after bagging IPL media rights. Besides, it will telecast the matches in six languages.

    The all sports plan from Hotstar has been announced prior IPL as the speculations say it will help the platform to get more subscribers. The lucrative subscription will provide sports access to entire sports portfolio of Star India.

    Each time non-paying users log on to Hotstar to watch a match, they will be able to see 10 minutes of live IPL feed free and then encounter a pay wall

    All Airtel and Jio customers, however, can watch the IPL live feed free.

    Also Read:

    Star to air IPL on 10 channels, in 6 languages; live on Hotstar

    Star India to introduce VR for IPL 2018

  • Star India, Airtel Digital TV bury the hatchet

    Star India, Airtel Digital TV bury the hatchet

    MUMBAI: Direct-to-home (DTH) operator Airtel Digital TV and Star India, in the aftermath of a public spat, have joined hands and reached an agreement.

    “Airtel Digital subscribers will continue to get uninterrupted access to all of Star’s programmes including Vivo IPL, following an agreement reached between Star and Airtel. Both parties would like to assure their subscribers that the two companies are committed to bringing more and more high-quality content and experience to their consumers,” Star India tweeted on Saturday.

    The move will ensure that the Airtel Digital TV consumers will get access to Star India channels, which includes the Indian Premier League (IPL) telecast on Star Sports network.

    Earlier, both parties had decided to opt for reference interconnect offer (RIO) or a la carte deal as the negotiations on renewal was not moving forward. Had the agreement not been reached, Star channels would have been removed from Airtel Digital TV’s packages.

    The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) had directed Star and Airtel to either enter into a negotiated agreement before 31 March or else go the RIO deal will come into effect from 1 April.

    After the TDSAT order, the two parties indulged in a virtual slugfest running ads and scrolls accusing each other of being unreasonable. While Airtel accused of increasing prices of its channels Star retorted back by asking Airtel Digital TV subscribers to switch to other platforms to get Star channels without any additional cost.

    The agreement between Star and Airtel had expired on 31 October. The previous agreement was extended by Star during the period of negotiation.

    Also Read:

    Airtel Digital TV hits back at Star India

    Airtel Digital TV disconnects Star India channels

    Star India urges Airtel Digital subscribers to switch

  • Broadcasters express displeasure over BCCI’s match rates: Report

    Broadcasters express displeasure over BCCI’s match rates: Report

    MUMBAI: With the BCCI rights up for grabs after being postponed to 3 April 2018, Star India and Sony Pictures Sports Network (SPSN) are expected to slug it out to win the bid. Both broadcasters have, however, written to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) making their displeasure known in regards to the upcoming India rights as reported by CricketNext. The main reason, report says, is that the BCCI wants the media rights winner to pay the same amount for matches involving two visiting teams playing on Indian soil.

    Star India, in its letter, which CricketNext claims to have possession of, has written, “The average viewership on Indian matches is significantly higher than on non-India matches (as surveyed during the Asia Cup in 2016). Even an India match with a non-Test playing nation generates more viewership than two major Test nations playing each other. The bidder is expected to attribute the same per match value to any such match without any realistic possibility of recovering such value. Paying the same per-match value for India matches and non-India matches is not commercially viable. We request the BCCI and the CoA to reconsider their position.”

    SPSN has also expressed similar sentiments in its letter, says the report. “These last-minute changes on the bid documentation and the online bid is making it difficult for us to prepare for the bid on 3rd April. As you know, there are a lot of calculations and modelling that goes into a bid preparation and these last minute changes create so much uncertainty. One issue that is particularly of concern is regarding tri-series in India organised by the BCCI. The clarification says all matches will be valued the same. This means an India-Afghanistan-Bangladesh or an India-Bangladesh-Zimbabwe will be valued equally with an India-Australia-South Africa. This quite frankly is illogical. Advertisers and even the viewing public do not value these matches equally and for the BCCI to consider all of them as having the same value does injustice to bidders. We would earnest request BCCI to reconsider,” SPSN’s letter to the BCCI reportedly said.

    Star India paid Rs 3851 crore for the India rights to broadcast the matches from July 2012 to March 2018 leaving behind the closest bid of Rs 3700 crore by Sony Pictures Networks (SPN). SPN also lost out to Star India for the Indian Premier League after televising the cash-rich league from 2008 till 2017. SPN, however, has bolstered its cricket pipeline after bagging the broadcasting rights from Cricket Australian and the English Cricket Board in the subcontinent, taking its tally to seven Test-playing nations.

    “The whole idea was to strengthen our overall leadership position,” Rajesh Kaul, the president of SPN’s Sports and Distribution Business, had said last month. “ECB was a very important and integral part of the strategy. While Australian cricket happens during the winter here, cricket in England is during the summer. There is a very encouraging trend of other sports also getting traction in this part of the world but cricket is still the largest. And to have that dominant leadership position in cricket was very, very critical for us.”

    Also read:

    BCCI sweetens the pot for bidders of India rights

    BCCI invites bids for e-auction of India rights

    BCCI invites brands to acquire third-party rights for IPL

  • Uday Shankar sole media exec in top-100 powerful Indians list

    Uday Shankar sole media exec in top-100 powerful Indians list

    MUMBAI: Sharing the space with the likes of Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Mukesh Ambani and Virat Kohli is the torchbearer of the Indian broadcast sector, Star India’s Uday Shankar. Indian Express’ list of most powerful Indians has ranked him at 69, making him the sole representative of the entire broadcast industry of the country.

    Those who made the top 100 include people from various walks of life–politicians, Bollywood actors, businessmen and cricketers. In December 2017, Shankar was bumped up from the position of Star India CEO and chairman to 21st Century Fox Asia president. Taking pride in Shankar’s work, 21 Century Fox executive chairman Lachlan Murdoch and CEO James Murdoch commented, “Uday’s new role will enhance our strategic focus across all of Asia and enable us to further capture opportunities, building on the transformation Star India has driven in our most important growth market.”

    Under Shankar’s leadership, Star India has grown by leaps and bounds. In September, Star successfully won a Rs 16,347.50 crore bid for IPL’s global media rights across platforms. He also leads the company’s video business across entire Asia for both Fox and Star and is closely involved with the parent company’s key leaders, including Rupert Murdoch and his sons, on key strategic initiatives in the region.

    Holding the reigns of a global media powerhouse, Shankar has expanded Star India into regional language channels and produces close to 17,000 hours of content each year in eight languages. Shankar’s mantra for success has been to string together a group of high-calibre executives who understand the territory and carry out the work precisely.

    The network has grown into two major areas–entertainment and sports. The latter has seen the inclusion of several non-cricketing properties, thanks to Star, such as Pro Kabaddi League, Indian Super League and leagues for sports like table tennis, badminton, etc. Lately, the network has even carved a niche for itself in the OTT space with Hotstar.

    Also Read :

    Comment: The rise and rise of Uday Shankar

    Uday Shankar becomes president of 21st Century Fox, Asia

  • Regulatory hurdles prompt Star to telecast IPL’s Kannada feed on Star Suvarna Plus

    Regulatory hurdles prompt Star to telecast IPL’s Kannada feed on Star Suvarna Plus

    MUMBAI: Star India’s attempts at securing an exclusive sports channel for its Kannada viewers is unlikely to see the light of day this season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The launch of Star Sports 1 Kannada has presumably been put on hold due to regulatory hurdles and, instead, the Kannada feed of the IPL 2018 matches will be broadcast on Star Suvarna Plus.

    Star India had applied for a name and logo change application to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) to launch Star Sports 1 Kannada in place of Channel V. Since the approval has not yet been granted, the broadcaster has announced that Star Suvarna Plus as the destination for the Kannada coverage of matches. The planned date to launch Star Sports 1 Kannada was 16 November 2017.

    Channel V started as a pure-play music channel before switching to general entertainment and then back to music. As the channel was searching for its identity, its audience slowly and steadily shifted to other channels and platforms. In a public notice dated 26 October 2017, Star India informed viewers that Channel V would continue to remain available in its current form to all viewers across all addressable platforms (DAS, DTH, IPTV and HITS). Moreover, at an event in Delhi in January this year, Star India MD Sanjay Gupta declined to comment on the status of Star Sports 1 Kannada and added that it was still at the planning stage.

    Star India will broadcast live matches of IPL 2018 in six languages—Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Kannada. The league will also be streamed live in the languages on Hotstar.

    To build the excitement, Star India has launched a TVC featuring Kannada movie star Shiva Rajkumar.

    Commenting on his association with the IPL, Rajkumar said, “I’ve always been a cricket enthusiast and enjoyed playing and watching cricket right from my childhood. Vivo IPL has been one of the tournaments I look forward to every year. I’m excited about my association with Star India for Vivo IPL 2018 and looking forward to enjoying the best of cricketing action for the first time in my mother tongue.”

    The eleventh edition of Vivo IPL starts on Saturday, 7 April 2018, with defending champions Mumbai Indians taking on Chennai Super Kings.

    Also Read :

    IPL 2018 gets a makeover with Star India

    Star ushers in IPL’s new era with a bang

    India set to roar in unision with the launch of the VIVO IPL 11 #BESTvsBEST Anthem

    Star India roars with IPL’s second national campaign

  • Airtel Digital TV hits back at Star India

    Airtel Digital TV hits back at Star India

    MUMBAI: “Liar.” That’s what DTH platform Airtel Digital TV has called India’s leading TV network Star India. In a statement put out earlier yesterday, Airtel said that it was shocked by the “malicious, misleading, defamatory campaign based on blatant lies being run by Star India. There is no truth whatsoever in Star TV’s assertion that Airtel Digital TV is unilaterally increasing prices of Star TV’s channels across its packs.”

    Airtel has further clarified that it is Star TV, which is asking for an unreasonable hike in rates and passing on such a steep hike in charges to customers in the form of higher pack rates is not an option for the DTH company. “Since Star TV has taken such an unreasonable stand, Airtel has been forced to take Star channels on a reference interconnect order (RIO) basis at a high cost.”

    The operator has added that all key Star standard definition channels will continue to be available to existing customers as part of their existing packs with no increase in price. The DTH platform has further said it will continue to provide Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 1 Hindi to all eligible customers. Finally, it has stated that all popular Star high definition channels (HD) will be available as part of select packs with other Star HD channels being offered on an a la carte basis at the price charged by the broadcaster.

    The two have been sparring over content pricing that Star India has been asking from Airtel. Last week, Star India ran a campaign exhorting Airtel Digital’s subscribers to switch to other platforms following which the latter posted its riposte.

    It’s quite likely we have not seen the last of this fracas. Keep reading indiantelevision.com

    Also Read :

    Star India urges Airtel Digital subscribers to switch

    Airtel Digital TV disconnects Star India channels

  • Star India urges Airtel Digital subscribers to switch

    Star India urges Airtel Digital subscribers to switch

    MUMBAI: The slugfests were bound to happen in TV distribution. The time for agreement renewal is nigh between distribution platform operators and broadcasters with content contracts coming to an end. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) proposed  tariff  and interconnection agreements are being passed  around from the High Court of Chennai to the Supreme Court and back without any resolution.

    Earlier this month, the Star Network issued a disconnection notice to one of India’s better-managed DTH operators Airtel Digital in an announcement that made waves in TV distribution circles.  Now, with the spat between the two continuing, India’s leading TV network has taken the fight to Airtel’s camp.

    It has started a digital campaign-for now at least-asking the DTH player’s subscribers to switch to other distribution platforms. Says the network on its Twitter handle: “Attention Airtel Digital  subscribers! Star has not increased channel tariffs. Airtel Digital TV  is misleading you and unilaterally increasing the prices of Star channels. To continue watching high quality Star entertainment switch to new DTH/cable operator now.”

     The digital  video,  which is doing the rounds on social media, has a voiceover that states: “You used to pay Rs 200 for the HD pack on Airtel. Now why are you being charged Rs 1,000? You can still get the same price for the same HD channels at around Rs 200! Change to another service provider. To get Star channels in a packet, make the switch.

    The video then lists operators like DEN, Fastway, SUN, Hathway, GTPL and Tata Sky that Airtel subscribers can opt for.

    We will have to wait and watch how Airtel responds to this direct attack. Will it buckle and give into the rates that Star India is asking for? Or will it hold firm and wait to see if the broadcaster will blink first?

    After all, Star has a lot at stake with the IPL coming up in the next fortnight. And it has to recover the humungous amounts it is pumping into the most prized cricketing property globally!

    Keep reading indiantelevision.com for further updates!

    Also Read:

    Airtel Digital TV disconnects Star India channels

    TDSAT tells Airtel DTH, Star to negotiate

    Tata Sky woos new customers with free Star Sports channels