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Tag: Star Sports

  • Pro Kabaddi League season 2 pushed to July

    Pro Kabaddi League season 2 pushed to July

    MUMBAI: The Pro Kabaddi League was a surprise package last year wherein the sport managed to grab eyeballs on television and heavy presence of audience at the stadiums too.

     

    While the first edition of the league was held from 26 July to 31 August 2014, League promoter Anand Mahindra had said on the day of the finale, “We are very happy with the response for the League and Kabaddi and so will be back as early as March 2015.”

     

    However, now official sources have confirmed to Indiantelevision.com that the second edition of the League will not be kicked off in March but during the same window period as last year, i.e July to August 2015.

     

    The reason for the shift in schedule is being attributed to the evident clash with this year’s biggest sporting spectacle, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.

     

    Official broadcaster of the World Cup, Star Sports is also the broadcast partner for the Pro Kabaddi League. With Star Sports having its hands completely tied up with the Cricket World Cup, the League’s second season will now only kick off in the July to August 2015 period.

     

    Pro Kabaddi League was conceptualised by Mahindra and commentator Charu Sharma through their venture Mashal Sports. Sharma, known for his knowledge of the game, will also be seen playing the role of a cricket commentator during this edition of the World Cup.

     

    The last maiden season of the league was won by Abhishek Bachchan owned Jaipur Pink Panthers, which defeated Ronnie Screwvala owned U Mumba. Sources also confirmed that the second edition will not see any additional franchises taking part.

  • “Working with channel partners globally to make this a widely covered WC”: Uday Shankar

    “Working with channel partners globally to make this a widely covered WC”: Uday Shankar

    MUMBAI: This year’s mammoth ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 will soon begin and host broadcaster Star Sports is gearing up its production to make sure that people who have access to the live pictures from more than 200 territories around the world, enjoy a spectacular experience on their viewing platforms.

     

    Star India CEO Uday Shankar speaking on the networks broadcast plan said, “Star won’t rest on its laurels and would ensure that fans feel closer to the game and their heroes, like never before. We will be working closely with 45 of our channel partners across the globe, making this one of the most widely covered ICC Cricket World Cup.”

     

    Shankar further commented that four production teams with seven state-of-the-art technology kits will cover the action from each of the 49 games across the 14 stadia in Australia and New Zealand in 44 days, to create an exciting visual spectacle for fans all around the world.

    “Whatever the outcome in cricket’s greatest face-off in Australia and New Zealand, this edition of the Cup promises to be bigger and better,” he added.

     

    Star India will broadcast the World Cup in seven languages, brought together by Star’s expansive world feed, Hindi and regional commentary panel consisting of 13 former skippers, 20 World Cup winners and 26 World Cup semi-finalists. The production of the World Cup will be in the high definition (HD) format and audiences will enjoy the riveting experience as each and every match will be covered by at least 29 cameras, including Ultramotion cameras, Spidercam at 13 matches and the drone camera at all the knock out matches. Technology in use includes Real Time Snicko and LED stumps. Other innovative features will be introduced for the latter stages of the event.

     

    For the first time ever cricket will be covered using 4K technology. To bring its viewers closer to the game, Star Sports will produce live coverage of seven matches in 4K, including the semi-finals and the final.

     

    Meanwhile ICC chief executive David Richardson said: “We expect the World Cup to be the most viewed cricket event in the history of the game. With a great line up of commentators and innovative features, it promises to be an event to remember and the biggest and greatest sporting event anywhere in the world this year.”

     

    Richardson also said that for those who can’t be there in person, Star Sports and its broadcast licensees’ coverage will ensure that 2.5 billion people can view every single game from across all 14 venues in Australia and New Zealand.

     

    In addition to the live coverage of the 49 tournament matches, Star Sports will also produce live broadcast coverage for the warm-up matches from Adelaide and Sydney.

     

    The live broadcast will feature more than 30 commentators. These include Wasim Akram, Russell Arnold, Michael Atherton, Ian Bishop, Allan Border, Ian Botham, Simon Doull, Rahul Dravid, Damien Fleming, Sourav Ganguly, Sunil Gavaskar, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Dean Jones, Nasser Hussain, Brendon Julian, Nick Knight, Brett Lee, David Lloyd, Sanjay Manjrekar, Damien Martyn, Mpumelelo Mbangwa, Tom Moody, Shaun Pollock, Rameez Raja, Mark Richardson, Michael Slater, Ian Smith, Scott Styris, Mark Taylor, Shane Warne, Mark Waugh alongside Harsha Bhogle, Mark Nicholas and Alan Wilkins.

     

    To complement the television coverage, live online and mobile streaming will be visible on digital channels of most official broadcasters, while starsports.com will also stream the matches live in territories where television broadcast is unavailable.

     

    In Australia, national broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation will be broadcasting all matches live while CrocMedia will provide live coverage of all Australia matches, the semifinals and the final. In the other host country New Zealand, Sport Radio will provide radio coverage. Outside of the host countries, the event will have ball by ball commentary from the BBC (UK), All India Radio (India), SLCB (Sri Lanka), SABC (South Africa), 107 FM (Pakistan) and Channel 2 (Middle East and the USA).

     

    ICC has also tied up with news access agencies SNTV, Perform and Thomson Reuters to provide news broadcasters around the world with 90-second match highlights, subject to these highlights being used in bonafide news programmes within 24 hours of end of the relevant match, for editorial purposes only.

  • Star takes World Cup promotion to a different level

    Star takes World Cup promotion to a different level

    MUMBAI: The official broadcaster of Cricket World Cup 2015 for Indian subcontinent – Star Sports – is leaving no territory uncovered. The sports venture of Star India in association with Lowe Lintas + Partners has already unveiled a youth-centric campaign titled, #wontgiveitback, for the upcoming tourney. Soon after that the broadcaster roped in Amitabh Bachchan – the man with the deep baritone voice – as commentator. Bachchan will make his commentary debut during the India – Pakistan match on 15 February, 2015.

     

    When questioned about the developments, sources in Star revealed, “Amitabh Bachchan’s inclusion in the commentary panel is a joint promotional activity between the upcoming movie Shamitabh and Star. Amitabh Bachchan has a great voice, and his joining the commentary panel is a huge achievement.”

     

    As per information available with Indiantelevision.com, Bachchan is likely to be joined by Kapil Dev and Harsha Bhogle on the panel.

     

    The #wontgiveitback video, through word of mouth, has gained appreciation as well as criticism. The video depicts aggressive team India responding back to opposition’s sledging and arrogance, they state they will give it back whatever oppositions puts against them. But they won’t give the World Cup back.

     

    When asked about the entire preparation of the video Lowe Lintas + Partners’ national creative director Arun Iyer said, “We made the video keeping the entire country in mind but special attention was given to attract the youth of the nation. Aggression and attitude were the major elements we tried to depict. The video resulted in a lot of talk, with many criticizing the video terming it irrelevant considering the current performance of the Indian team. But what delights us is the fact that there is a huge portion of cricket lovers who liked the video irrespective of team India’s current performances.”

     

    Star has already taken substantial steps to make the marquee event bigger and better and if sources are to be believed then Star Sports is soon going to launch another video focusing on the India – Pakistan match. With 10 days to go, the broadcasters are getting as innovative as possible to make the event a national blockbuster.

     

  • Star upbeat about World Cup

    Star upbeat about World Cup

    MUMBAI: Not long back television was the only source of audio visual entertainment, and for Indians the biggest entertainment was the Cricket World Cup. After the 1983 World Cup victory of Kapil Dev led India in Lords finale, cricket became bigger than a sport; it established itself as a religion. A religion that follows no narrow fragmentation or communal barriers. A six from the bat of Indian batsman was cheered by all, close moments saw prayers to respective God’s in different ways but for one unified reason. Victory got smile, defeat resulted in agony.

     

    Cricket World Cup is indeed a festival of unity in India celebrated throughout the country. With development and growth in the number of television sets in the country, it became a key medium to connect with the mass and World Cup emerged as the biggest event in the second largest populous country of the world.

     

    India is one the largest market and the conversion ratio of advertisements to sale is also maximum in this country and hence during Cricket World Cup creative and captivating advertisements are launched by big brands to enhance their reach. Subsequently the broadcaster charges huge amount for a 10 second slot. 

     

    Reportedly during 2011 Cricket World Cup ad rates reached new heights, India’s tryst with Sri Lanka in the Cricket World Cup final set new record for rates of television ad spots. Official broadcaster ESPN Star Sports (ESS) charged Rs 23-24 lakh for a 10-second slot from last-minute advertisers whereas during league matches it was Rs 3.5 – 4 lakh. The Indo – Pak semi finals cost advertisers Rs 18 lakh for a 10 second slot.

     

    The biggest cricketing extravaganza is knocking at the door and ad inventory is filling fast, but there are a lot of issues to be debated before investing for the event. 

     

    Cricket in India has reached an abysmal low with Supreme Court intervening to restore the integrity of the sport. Several players’ name also came under scrutiny and no clear verdict was sentenced, so the honesty of players is also a matter of concern for the fans. World Cup 2015 will be played in Australia and New Zealand and would be extremely difficult for Indian viewers to restrict themselves to television due to odd timings. Moreover heartthrob of billion Indians and the God of cricket – Sachin Tendulkar – will not be playing this edition of the World Cup. Investors can play safe by investing on IPL, which will start days after World Cup and hence the commercial value of the tournament is ought to be questioned. 

     

    Commenting about the commercial interest of the World Cup, Madison Media COO Karthik Lakshminarayan says, “Various factors like current performance of team India, odd timings, upcoming IPL and the fact that it is the end of a financial year the commercial preparation of the event may take a back step. But World Cup still is an important event and if India performs well things may change dramatically.”

     

    Maxus head of the north and east regions Navin Khemka is of a different opinion. “All I can say is that despite all the challenges World Cup is the marquee event in cricket. This World Cup is also seeing the emergence of new advertisers who are traditionally not big, but are emerging on cricket. Earlier we would have a sense of key categories who will dominate the game. That is changing; it shows the aspirations of a new India taking shape to be a part of the biggest sporting event,” he says. 

     

    Announcing the initiatives, Star India COO Sanjay Gupta had earlier said, “The World Cup is the biggest event for Indian consumers. The last edition was watched by 90 per cent of TV viewers in the country, making it the largest aggregation of consumers possible. With India as the defending champions, the whole country is set to follow the team’s defence of its title in Australia and New Zealand and we, at Star, plan to make this World Cup, a ‘Cup for All’. We will introduce many firsts and innovations in sports broadcasting to take the great game of cricket to the next level and provide an unprecedented viewing experience to the millions of cricket fans in India.”

     

    The broadcaster has already announced Amitabh Bachchan’s entry as a commentator. Moreover this edition of the tournament will be telecast in regional languages, which opens the door for regional advertisers to air their commercials. First time brands like Nestle, Marico,Yepme.com, Paytm, Raymonds, Pidilite, Lloyd have joined the usual cricket partners.

     

    As per sources, Star is selling a 10 second ad slot for more than Rs 4 lakh and the ad inventory consists of over 40 sponsors from various fields.

     

    Ad rates during such marquee event floats with progress, as cricket is a game of uncertainty. And if India starts performing well the ad rates will also reach new heights. It remains to be seen if the tournament manages to retain its charisma and develops as a big thing in cricket crazy nation.     

  • ICC Cricket World Cup: Experts give thumbs up to Star’s geo targeting strategy

    ICC Cricket World Cup: Experts give thumbs up to Star’s geo targeting strategy

    MUMBAI: Beginning 14 February, the ICC Cricket World Cup is going to be this year’s biggest sporting spectacle to be jointly held in Australia and New Zealand. As national brands scurry to invest and make their presence felt, official broadcast network Star India has extended the opportunity for brands with a regional presence too. Star has created multiple sponsorship and spot buying options tailor-made for different feeds allowing advertisers for the first time ever to buy different cuts and air creatives in different languages to target their audiences sharply. The network is evidently looking at geo targeting.

     

    The World Cup this year will be telecast on 12 channels and in six different languages. While eight sports channels from the network’s stable will broadcast the event, the others are Star Vijay (Tamil), Jalsha Movies (Bengali), Asianet Movies (Malayalam) and Suvarna Plus. 

     

    A Star official said that the network is looking at exploring two options. Firstly, brands with higher budgets can pick for national advertising, which will have different ad spot rates. Secondly, if a brand wants to communicate to only a select audience in markets like Chennai, West Bengal or Tamil Nadu, it can advertise on these regional channels of the network. The network is currently in talks with more than 100 brands especially those from the e-commerce segments, in different markets including tier II and tier III markets.

     

    Geo targeting advertising firm Amagi co-founder Srinivasan K.A says that sports feed in limited languages was one of the biggest problems for brands who were keen on investing in cricket. “They were unable to invest due to lack of structure in geo targeting and languages. If a particular brand had to run a Hindi ad campaign, most of South India would not comprehend it completely,” he says.

     

    While ad rates on the national channels are being sold for close to Rs 4.5 – 5 lakh for a 10 second slot, the regional channels will command a price tag close to Rs 1 lakh or less for a 10 second spot. Brands like Nestle, Marico, Yepme.com, Paytm, Raymonds, Pidilite and Lloyd have already come on board.

     

    Srinivasan finds the strategy as a wonderful opportunity for local brands. “This allows specific brands with limited budgets to come up with specific campaigns in particular markets and advertise for this massive property. At the same time they can seek to tap the audience that they want,” he adds.

     

    How well could this strategy work? “This was previously tried and tested by Sony Six during last year’s FIFA World Cup and was a massive success on Sony Aath, which provided Bengali feed for the matches. Viewership too shot up,” he informs.

     

    Celebrity and sports management firm, CAA KWAN COO, Indranil Das Blah finds the move welcoming too for brands that do not have a huge pocket and want to look at advertising in specific markets. “While the price of advertising on Star Sports Tamil feed for example could probably be one tenth of what the national feed would be, the strategy makes sense for both Star and the local brands because it gives you less spill over,” he says. 

     

    But will brands look at team India’s current performance in the tri series before investing? “Yes there is a bit of a worry about India’s performance. However with the format of the World Cup, unless there is a huge unmitigated disaster, the top eight nations will make it to the next phase. Besides, the World Cup gives you highs that no other cricket tournament does. So that gives some surety to advertisers to go ahead and invest in the World Cup,” concludes Blah.

  • Hero Hockey India League 2015 unveils new ‘Ladoh To Aise’ campaign

    Hero Hockey India League 2015 unveils new ‘Ladoh To Aise’ campaign

    MUMBAI: Last year saw the emergence of many sports leagues and it definitely hasn’t stopped there. The countdown to the third season of the Hero Hockey India League has begun. Its official broadcaster Star Sports and the organizers Hockey India have launched their new campaign, with the tagline – ‘Ladoh Toh Aise’ (Fight Like This).

     

    As part of the new campaign, two TVCs in Hindi have been shot. Interestingly, the director of the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Chak De! India, Shimit Amin returns once again to India’s national sport. Amin is the creative director of the new Hockey India League campaign.

     

    The campaign brief seeks to reach out the ‘brave new and emerging Indian,’ one who is fearless and determined to create his own identity. As a change agent, the new Indian doesn’t believe in walking the conventional path but charting his own legend and history. Resolute in his belief, the brave new Indian is ready to fight the world to realise his dreams.

     

    The brief further elaborates that the HIL is the battleground for such brave Indians. By giving them the platform to fight for what they feel is right, it seeks to showcase their expertise and prove their mettle on a grand stage, which will be watched by millions in India and abroad.

     

    The first film features India and Delhi Waveriders’ captain, Sardar Singh and the second has the vivacious Indian and Uttar Pradesh Wizards’ goalkeeper, PR Sreejesh. The first film showcases Singh as an individual who, since childhood, is always the first one to step forward to any situation and is a born leader. The situations range from entering an orange orchard through barbed wires to entering a wrestling arena to fight against a heavyweight champion.

     

    On the other hand, the second film showcases custodian Sreejesh as a calm and fun guy, who sings his way through any stressful situation. He is seen performing an aerial and bike stunt while singing the folk song ‘surangani’, both with equal ease. The different facets of these men are two approaches of the brave new Indians in the league – ‘Ladoh Toh Aise.’

     

    Star Sports creative communication head Juju Basu along with his team members comprising Vaibhav Chib, Vikas Dubey and Charles Chakkunny were part of the campaign. Red Ice Films was the production house that shot both the films. The film, featuring Sardar Singh, has been directed by Basu while the one with Sreejesh has been directed by Surya Balakrishnan.

     

    The matches of the league will be telecast live on Star Sports 2, Star Sports 3 and Star Sports HD2 channels, while its website starsports.com too will carry the live coverage of the matches at 6:45 pm beginning from 22 January. 

     

    Six teams, Dabang Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh Wizards, Kalinga Lancers, Ranchi Rays, Delhi Waveriders and Punjab Warriors will compete in the third edition to bag the winning title.

  • Hero ISL reports viewership of 429 million across the nation

    Hero ISL reports viewership of 429 million across the nation

    MUMBAI: Hero Indian Super League (ISL), a joint venture by IMG-Reliance and Star India has created history in India with a record- breaking reach on television, in stadia and digital.  

    As per the TAM data, an aggregate of 429 million viewers from across the nation tuned in to watch the inaugural season of Hero ISL live on their televisions screens, making it the second most-watched sport in the country after cricket. Over 1.5 million fans watched it on ground, in-stadia, making it the fourth most attended football league in the world. Stadia were packed close to full capacity with attendance averaging about 26,000 fans per match. 

    The league cut across demographic boundaries and captured the imagination of a diverse fanbase, with women and children accounting for 57 per cent of the 429 million viewers.

    The Hero ISL was telecast live on eight channels in five different languages cross the Star India network. The league was also aired on starsports.com which had more than 32 million visits recorded during the tournament, surpassing the online audience even for the FIFA World Cup 2014. Across web, mobile and app, starsports.com recorded over 17 million online video views through the course of the tournament. The final match played between Kerala Blasters FC & Atletico de Kolkata recorded 1.6 million online visits. 

    Talking about the league’s success, Star India CEO Uday Shankar said, “Launched with the aim of helping football take root among the country’s masses, the Hero ISL was backed by an aggressive broadcast plan to bring an unparalleled football experience to the viewers. Our intent was to awaken the passion of football and create the birth of a footballing nation. The resultant success of the Hero ISL justifies it as the right platform for tapping the passion for the sport that exists in India. As we gear for a bigger and better second edition, I would like to thank our partners IMG- Reliance, AIFF, all the club owners and more than 400 million fans for making this dream a reality.”

    On 20 December 2014, the Hero ISL finale, held at DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai, had about 37,000 fans in attendance. The crowning of the first Hero ISL league champion was also watched by 57 million viewers, 2.4x of the reach of 2014 FIFA World Cup final, culminating the over two months long league. The final, with an average TVT of 1418 among M 15+ ABC, registered as the highest rated match of the tournament, 11 per cent higher than the opening match of the tournament. In the social media front, Hero ISL created a total of 2.2 million conversations with more than 275,000 unique authors, generating 11 billion potential impressions. #ISLfinal trended at #2 worldwide on Twitter, and Atletico de Kolkata at #1 in India on Facebook on the day of the finale.

     

    According to IMG-Reliance Chairperson Nita M Ambani, the success of Hero ISL is a realisation of the dream of a billion including Indians to experience and embrace the beauty of football. She said, “The beautiful game has successfully captured the imagination of people of India and we have experienced the joy of watching the birth of a footballing nation. Hero ISL has been geared towards one overarching objective— to develop football across the country in a systematic and holistic manner, and its success will spur the development of Indian football. I extend my gratitude to the people of India for their love and support.”

     

  • Aircel Chennai Open gears up for its 20th edition. Mind It!

    Aircel Chennai Open gears up for its 20th edition. Mind It!

    Mumbai: The year saw many sports being launched in the country, reconfirming the belief that sports bug has bitten the country.

    While India saw two new tennis leagues, Champions Tennis League and the International Premier Tennis League, being introduced, the Aircel Chennai Open slated to begin from 5 to 11 January 2015, will be in its 20th edition.

     Aircel remains the title sponsor till 2016, the platinum sponsors include Government of Tamil Nadu, Indian Bank, United India Assurance, Murugappa Group and Indian Overseas Bank. The official partners are FedEx, Ricoh, KGS , FIAT, The Hindu, Hyatt Regency, TATA water Plus, Billroth Hospitals, Air Asia, Wilson, Reliance Footprint, and Chennai Live FM. Tennishub.in will be ‘Official Merchandise Partner’ of the tournament.

    Star Sports had bagged the broadcast deal for three years for the Open till 2016. Fans can watch the live telecast of group stage, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals of the open on its channels and live streaming will also be available on starsports.com.

    The tournament, which first began in 1996 and owned by IMG and organised by IMG Reliance, has set a budget of Rs 12 crore. The title sponsor provides 42 per cent of the revenue which is five crore, the other sponsors bring in 37 per cent of the revenue amounting Rs 4.5 crore, the broadcast partner brings in 17 per cent of the revenue share, which is close to two crore while the ticket revenue is pegged close to Rs 50 lakh.

    For this year’s edition the assembly of talent includes four top-25 players and three 2014 ATP World Tour Award winners who will be participating. These include world number four and defending Singles champion Stan Wawrinka, Feliciano Lopez, Roberto Bautista Agut, and former Champion Janko Tipsarevic, returning to competitive tennis after surgery and granted a wild card. India’s Somdev Devvarman and Ramkumar Ramanathan have been granted wild cards

    The tickets of the tournament have been priced at Rs 5,000, 3,000 and 1,500 on the tournaments official ticketing partner, bookmyshow.com.

    Speaking about the three tennis league in India, GroupM ESP national director entertainment sports and live events Vinit Karnik says, “The Champions Tennis League may need some improvement, while the IPTL has created a mark in terms of visibility because of the big stars . Tennis is still considered to be a premium sport. Therefore, one needs to build affinity for the sport, since the affinity levels are low because there are not many people playing the sport. Therefore consistency, in terms of ratings, viewership and followers will not be there for the three leagues.  But these three are trying to create enough buzz that at least the urban youth start playing tennis.” he concludes.

     

  • RIO to affect Star’s sports and niche channel distribution: MPA

    RIO to affect Star’s sports and niche channel distribution: MPA

    MUMBAI: Star India’s new distribution approach has been the talking point for the industry. And now highlighting the same is Media Partners Asia (MPA) in its new report.

    Post the announcement of Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO) deals by Star, most multi system operators (MSOs)in order to keep both content cost and churn under check, opted to carry Star’s key Hindi channels on the base pack, along with free-to-air channels and lower RIO rate channels such as Nat Geo. In certain markets, 1-2 relevant regional channels have been bundled in the base pack.

    Not only this, many of the niche channels (English cluster) have been moved to higher or expanded basic tiers or available on a-la-carte basis.

    “This will adversely impact channel reach and viewership. However, the revenue losses on these channels will be partially compensated by reduction in carriage fee costs,” says MPA in its report.

    MPA, however sees a bigger risk, potentially to Star’s sports channels, as sizeable investments have already been made to creating non-cricket sports leagues leveraging Indian soccer and badminton.

    “These leagues are still in their infancy and require maximum distribution reach,” points out MPA.

    It further goes on to say that in cricket too, Star will broadcast the ICC World Cup in February 2015. However, according to MPA, with all India matches, semis and finals also available to viewers on public broadcaster Doordarshan, Star may have to rethink its incentive schemes in order to maximise its distribution of sports channels.  

    MPA estimates that the commercial rollout of package could take at least two to three months (completing in the early half of Q1 2015) and in the meantime, the delay will put pressure on the distribution of Star’s niche channels.

    “New channel launches for Star could also become equally challenging as it loses the luxury of having 100 per cent sampling on the cable platform,” it reports.

    In conclusion, Star’s new distribution strategy, will be a true acid test of consumer demand for its portfolio of channels. Viewership trends over the coming weeks will reflect such demand.

    “On a positive note, the outcome will help Star to prioritise and rationalise its content budgets, which have swelled across multiple genres, in recent years,” opines MPA.

  • Bibhash Jha quits Star Sports, joins Siti Cable

    Bibhash Jha quits Star Sports, joins Siti Cable

    MUMBAI: Multi system operator (MSO) Siti Cable has roped in Bibhash Jha as its head-content & carriage. Jha in his capacity will provide a fillip to the growth momentum of Siti Cable. The MSO is taking giant strides in this exciting phase of digitisation and Jha will play an instrumental role in this leap from analog to absolute digitisation.

     

    Jha has over 20 years of distribution work experience with 15 years at Star Sports India, where he played an instrumental role in the transition of ESPN channel to Star Sports India. In 2007, he played a key role in the launch of new sports channel Star Cricket. Under his ambit, a separate vertical of MSO business was created which was profitable in its very first year of operation. He was also responsible for the distribution of sports channel for Star on pan India basis.

     

    Siti Cable executive director and CEO VD Wadhwa said, “We are delighted to have Bibhash Jha on board. With his rich experience of broadcasting & distribution business, he brings to us a competitive edge in strategizing business and accomplishing organisational goals.”

     

    Jha will be based at the Corporate Office of Siti Cable, Noida.