Tag: Star Sports

Hathway can bundle Star channels: TDSAT

MUMBAI: The Star India and Hathway Cable & Datacom case regarding the former’s various channels has got an interim relief from the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).

As per the order passed on 28 July, TDSAT has asked both Hathway and Star India to enter into cost per subscriber (CPS) deals, starting August. According to this deal, the multi system operator (MSO) will pay Rs 27 per subscriber to the broadcaster for its entire bouquet, which includes entertainment and sports.

It can be noted that earlier Hathway had two separate deals with the broadcaster- one for its sports channels handled separately and the other for the entertainment channels, which was handled by the now dissolved joint venture MediaPro.

The Rs 27 CPS deal is a mid way arrangement proposed by TDSAT as against Hathway’s demand for Rs 22 per subscriber deal and Star’s Rs 31 per subscriber deal. This means that the MSO has to pay an additional amount for the sports channels now, on a set top box deal, as compared to the RIO deal earlier.

In its interim order, TDSAT has also clarified that Hathway has all the right to bundle the channels the way it feels right. However, the MSO will have to include at least one channel in one/any bouquets that it offers to its subscribers.

The issue had gained magnitude when Hathway decided to remove Star Sports channels from its base pack to create a separate sports pack and also provide them a-la-carte. The broadcaster objected to this move and took the MSO to the court.

Meanwhile, the court has asked Hathway to clear its dues from April to July this year. This can be calculated at Rs 23 per subscriber for its entertainment channels and RIO for its sports channels together. While Star claims that this amounts to a total of Rs 27 crore, according to Hathway officials, the price is still being worked out. The total amount has to be paid by 30 August. A Hathway official says, “We are disappointed with this particular point as we believe that Rs 23 is much higher than the amount we would have actually paid to Star India as per the agreement between Star and Zee for price sharing after the split of MediaPro.”

A source from Star India says, “Hathway was not paying us because of lack of clarity in the payment deals of sports and entertainment together. With this order, the integrated CPS has been recognised.”

However, both parties agree that this case cannot be taken as a basis for future deals with others. According to officials from both Hathway and Star, the Rs 27 CPS deal cannot be applied to other distribution platform operators.

The case will next be heard on 11 August.

July 29, 2014
Pro Kabaddi League set for flag off tomorrow

MUMBAI: They are a bunch of five well built and unruly boys. At first glance they will easily pass off as bullies. Lazing around near the school entrance they try to find a target and zero down on a small scrawny lad. Busy hugging a glass bottle filled with the choicest cookies, the lad is soon surrounded by the mini-thugs. Trying hard to sneak away, the poor boy mutters beneath his breath and in single leap jumps through the coterie of boys thanks to one of India's oldest sports – Kabaddi! A booming voice then announces that life too is just like the desi game where winners are those who choose to go on, not giving up.

This isn’t a short film but a TVC created ahead of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL). The core thought of the campaign is ‘Jeet Te Hain Wahin Jo Haar Nahin Mantey’. Thanks to the initiative of corporate biggie Anand Mahindra, through his company Mashal Sports (he is the co promoter along with commentator and his brother in law Charu Sharma) and broadcaster Star Sports, the historic game is finally getting its due. The PKL has the patronage of the International Kabaddi Federation, Asian Kabaddi Federation and Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India.

On Star’s association with the league, Star India head of sports business Nitin Kukreja says, “We are very excited with the league coming up. It is a game that is to be seen and experienced. We have a great on and off ground campaign that is taking place to promote the game. We will use the best production values for the game.”

It had similarly taken up the challenge of promoting the game of Hockey through Hero Hockey India League earlier in 2014.

The 60 match tournament will be telecast during prime time on Star Sports 2, Star Sports 2 HD, Star Gold and starsports.com with commentary both in English and Hindi.

Initially 10 second teasers were launched with power packed visuals of the games and the tagline #Guessthegame. More than 15 TVCs including teasers, mini reveals and the thematic campaigns, created by Ogilvy & Mather, are being promoted across all channels of Star Network and starsports.com. The network has also roped in Bollywood star Salman Khan in one of them, a co-promotion for his film Kick.

The campaign is targeted at the eight franchise cities of Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Patna, Pune, Vizag, Jaipur and Bengaluru. Hoardings have been extensively used to drive the league visibility in all these cities. The PKL has booked spots on FM radio stations such as Radio Mirchi and others for the radio campaign which features an anthem composed by Dhruv Ghanekar.

While Kyazoonga is the online ticketing partner for Kolkata, Delhi, Jaipur, Bengaluru and Pune, Bookmyshow is the partner for Mumbai and Patna.

On the digital front, Star says it will be live-streaming the league on starsports.com. The #JeetegaWahi campaign held on 18 July was trending at number one in India, claims the channel. Since then, there have been contests for online fans, which have also sought to demystify the rules of the game.

A prominent media planner said that advertisers had yet to be finalised for the first season, at the time of writing. He says advertisers will be playing a wait and watch game to see how the league takes shape. Advertising interest will be propelled post the league, he adds.

Unilazer Sports CEO Supratik Sen which owns the U-Mumbai team when speaking to indiantelevision.com says, “We have a certain level of expectation from advertisers. We will come up with a strong base price during the second season of the league.”

Leading corporate companies and individuals have ended up owning the eight franchises. They are: Kosmik Global Media for Bengaluru, Kalpathi Investments for Chennai, Rana Kapoor of Yes Bank for Delhi, Abhishek Bachchan for Jaipur, Kishore Biyani of Future Group for Kolkata, Ronnie Screwvala, Unilazer Sports for Mumbai, Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank for Pune and Core Green Group for Vizag.

As reported earlier by indiantelevision.com, each of the franchise will have to shell out anywhere between Rs 4 crore to Rs 5 crore annually including a nominal franchise fee. During the auction, the pool cap for each of the teams was Rs 60 lakh. Patna Pirates bagged the costliest player for this season in Rakesh Kumar for Rs 12.80 lakh. The prize money for the league meanwhile is Rs 1 crore.

Mashal Sports will keep 80 per cent of the revenue from the central pool with the eight franchises. Marketing partner World Sport Group will receive 10 per cent, while the remaining 10 per cent will be retained by Mashal Sports for organising the league. It is estimated that Mashal Sports will incur an annual expenditure of Rs 10 crore to Rs 15 crore.

With one day to go before the league kicks off in Mumbai, one hopes that Indian audiences who have been chanting Dhoni Dhoni or Sachin Sachin will start muttering Kabaddi, Kabaddi, while watching what we believe promises to be an exciting first season for a sport which most of us have at sometime or the other played.

July 25, 2014
ISL player draft sees buys worth Rs 24 core

MUMBAI: The high octane two day Hero MotoCorp Indian Super League (ISL) player draft saw Rs 24 crore being spent by teams for purchasing the players of their choice.

IMG Worldwide global business development football Jefferson Slack said, “We saw a vision three and a half years ago to help build football in India. The premise of which was based on the fact that Indians already are football fans. Partnerships with foreign clubs have brought in money and opportunities which we hope will help in the long run.”

Star network, which is the official broadcast partner for ISL is hopeful of a meaningful journey. Star India sports business head Nitin Kukreja said, “We are hoping to create a new ecosystem, a new league and help grow a second sport in India. We will use never seen before production values for this League.”

Day two of player draft saw the teams finally bidding for the best domestic talents for the last time. Delhi Dynamos picked Adil Khan, Manish Bhargav, Govind Singh, Jagroop Singh, Steven Dias, Anwar Ali and Manandeep Singh.

Atlectico de Kolkata selected Sanju Pradhan, Kinshuk Debnath, Lester Fernandes, Subhasish Roy Chowdhury, Baljit Sahni, Climax Lawrence and Nallappan Monhanraj.

Team Bengaluru chose Abhishek Das, Jayesh Rane, Abhijit Mondal, Anthony Barbosa, Dane Pereira, N P Pradeep and Jaison Vales from the pool.

Kerala Blasters went ahead and picked Avinabo Bag, Sandip Nandy, C.S Sabeeth, Luis Baretto, Milagres Gonsalves, Ramandeep Ringh and Renedy Singh.

Team Mumbai meanwhile decided to go with Rohit Mishra, Ishan Debnath, Nadong Bhutia, Asif Katiyal Peter Costa and Llalrin Fela.

Team Pune chose Deepak Devrani, Tapan Maity, Arindam Bhattarcharya, Anupam Sarkar, Pratik Shinde, Lalit Thapa and Mehrah Wadoo.

Team Goa will comprise Mandar Rao Desai, Romeo Fernandes, Peter Carvalho, Holicharan Narzary, Pronay Halder, Prabir Das and Rowilson Rodrigues from its I- league tie up with local clubs.

North East United football club too announced its team composition with Pritam Kumar Singh, Milan Singh, Robin Gurung, Allen Deory, Redeem Tlang, Seimeinlen Doungal and David Nghaite.

With the two day draft policy for domestic players getting over, the focus will shift to the teams now announcing some big international names for their respective squads.

July 23, 2014
Star Sports fuels team YUWA’s aspiration to play the USA Cup

MUMBAI: STAR Sports successfully completed a fund-raiser campaign that turned the dream of the immensely talented girls from YUWA into reality, as they participate in the coveted football tournament USA Cup, to be held in Minnesota from July 15 to July 19. The USA Cup is one of the largest youth tournaments in the world with more than 1000 teams participating.

YUWA, an NGO based in Jharkhand and led by an American national Mr. Franz Gastler, uses football as a platform to combat child marriage and human trafficking in India and instils confidence and skills in young women affected by such social evils. The girls from YUWA, with their incredible talent and unflinching dedication, have victoriously crossed over several hurdles, fighting multiple ills that plagued their lives, such as poverty, malnutrition and gender-discrimination. They have deeply inspired millions around the world with their achievements, as they made the headlines last year by bagging a Bronze medal in an international youth tournament, the Gasteiz Cup held in Spain.

The girls from YUWA never failed to persevere and relentlessly made countless efforts under the rigorous training from their mentors to participate in the globally prestigious football tournament, USA Cup. While the girls battled against all odds with their hard work and focus to reach greater heights, travelling to the United States for the tournament was the only obstacle in their way. STAR Sports, committed to spurt sports development in the country at the grassroots level, stepped in to support the girls to participate at the games. The network further went on to tell the deeply inspiring tale of the girls through a gripping TV campaign in the month of May to muster mass support, creating a cycle of attracting more funds. Corporate organizations and people across the length and breadth of the country happily came forward to help Team YUWA realize their dream journey to the US.

In addition to Star Sports funding the travel the campaign gathered funds from major corporations, such as market research firm Quantum, DTH service provider Tata Sky, electronic major Lenovo and people from all over the country through a web-based crowd-funding platform called Ketto.

Mr. Nitin Kukreja, President – Sports, STAR India, expressed his delight on this achievement, “We are extremely pleased to have led this initiative to a fruitful conclusion. The story of the YUWA girls touched our hearts and we wanted to make an honest effort to fulfil their dream of participating in the USA Cup. We, at STAR, truly believe that sports have the power to transform the lives of people and Team YUWA is a great example of it. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish the girls great success and hope that they have a good time out there.”

This initiative by STAR Sports comes in-line with the media conglomerate’s promise of creating local heroes in the country and spawn a new sporting culture. As part of this commitment, STAR has also heavily invested in nurturing international and national leagues for various sports such as hockey, football and kabaddi.

Mr. Franz Gastler, Founder and Executive Director, YUWA said, “I’d like to say a huge Thank You to Star Sports from all of us at Yuwa for the work they have done. The campaign has been a huge success since its launch and I can’t understate how much buzz has been created around Yuwa in this short amount of time. Our inbox has been flooded daily with messages of support. We’re truly proud to see the brand Star Sports on our jerseys”

Team YUWA will be India’s only representative in the USA Cup, which allows teams to participate under various age groups across 9 years and 19 years.

July 9, 2014
Ortel Communications to launch HD services

MUMBAI: Cable TV subscribers in Odisha will soon get to watch Hindi soaps in high definition (HD) provided they have an Ortel cable connection. The last mile owner (LMO) with 520,000 subscribers, Ortel Communications, has received its first batch of HD set top boxes (STBs) that will be deployed to digital TV households soon.

1000 STBs from Skyworth are currently docked out of the 25000 boxes ordered. Priced at Rs 2000 to Rs 2500 per STB, the service will be launched within one month. “We are preparing a pack of 15 HD channels comprising popular channels of all major broadcasters for launch date. This will include channels like Star Plus, Star Sports, Sony, NGC, Movies Now, Colors etc,” says Ortel Communications CEO BP Rath.

The headend capacity currently only allows the LMO to have 15 HD channels; however it plans to add more channels soon. “We intend to increase our capacity to around 250 SD and 50 HD channels in the next one year or so,” informs Rath. The LMO currently offers 200 SD channels. The pricing will be competitive with the DTH platforms. Though the final pricing for the HD channel pack hasn’t been finalised as yet, it is expected to be below Rs 100 per month with an initial three month free trial period.

While Rath doesn’t expect good revenues from the service this year, he is optimistic of it being considerable next year. “We expect revenues from HD to kick in from Q3 of this fiscal, though not significantly. However, we expect to do Rs 2 crore to Rs 3 crore revenue next year,” adds Rath.

It is pertinent to note that Odia channels don’t have HD services but Rath is optimistic that in the future there would be Odia HD channels as well. “Viewing of English and Hindi content in our markets is very sizeable and that will drive the HD services. In any case, the channel list will be similar to DTH operators and we will not be in any disadvantageous position,” claims Rath.

Ortel currently has about 75,000 digital subscribers which it is looking at increasing to about 250,000 by the year end.

July 1, 2014
Star Sports bags India Bangladesh ODI rights

MUMBAI: The suspense has ended finally. Sports broadcaster Star Sports has acquired the broadcasting rights for the tri-series between India and Bangladesh. The sports broadcaster got the rights from Bangladesh Cricket Boards official media partner Gazi TV.

As reported earlier, Gazi TV officials were apprehensive about finding a media partner in India and were reportedly in talks with star Sports to bag the telecasting rights.

Sony Six already has its hands full with the ongoing FIFA World Cup and wasn’t too keen on bagging the series. With BCCI and sports channels: Ten Sports and Neo Sports fighting it out in the court, it was unlikely that the two would bag the rights.

According to media reports, Star Sports had offered Rs 50 million per match, which was too less according to Gazi TV. Thus, with Star Sports being the only player it was expected that they only would bag the rights.

The three match series began on 15 June and will be played on 17 June and culminate on 19 June in Dhaka.

The English commentary match will be shown on Star Sports 1, Star Sports HD 1 and starsports.com, while the Hindi will be aired on Star Sports 3.

June 14, 2014
Star Sports and KidZania collaborate to empower kids

MUMBAI: Star Sports and KidZania have collaborated and co-created a unique platform for kids that will help nurture children’s self-confidence through exposure to a real-life TV show experience.

The Star India Studio activity at KidZania Mumbai simulates a working television production facility allowing kids to role-play and understand various nuances of television broadcast, providing them with a remarkable opportunity to truly understand how life is on the ‘other side of the TV screen’ and showcase their abilities. The activity is in tandem with KidZania’s unique proposition of edutainment – learning through role-play and real-life experiences.

As a part of this initiative, kids visiting KidZania were encouraged to audition and five children were selected to be part of an expert panel siscussion on the Star Power special segment hosted by Manish Batavia. The show was recorded at the Star India TV Studio establishment at KidZania Mumbai and is scheduled to air on 25 May 2014 in English on Star Sports 1 & Star Sports HD1 and in Hindi on Star Sports 3.

The innovative content package from Star will see kids offer their fresh perspective on the most followed sport in India – cricket as well as provide a light and entertaining segment for viewers of the show ‘Star Power’.

“We, at Star, are always on a look-out for innovative content opportunities to provide our viewers with sports broadcast experience like never before. To achieve this objective, we are delighted to have partnered with KidZania to create a special segment for kids on STAR Power,” said Star India sports business head Nitin Kukreja.

He further added “It will be refreshing to hear kids give their innocent perspective on the game of cricket for a change and hopefully this segment will inspire budding anchors to come forward and express themselves.”

Commenting on this partnership, KidZania India chief marketing officer Viraj Jit Singh, said “KidZania is all about, empowering, inspiring and educating children through real-life ROLE-PLAY experiences and we look at partnering brands that help bring realism and authenticity to our activities. This exceptional opportunity with Star has helped further build our promise of “real experiences”. It’s allowed kids to build self-confidence and encouraged creativity as they transferred their experiential learning from the activities at the Star TV Studio at KidZania to a real life TV Show.”

May 23, 2014
India to become a Kabaddi nation with Pro-Kabaddi League, this July

MUMBAI: Kabaddi for long has been neglected as a sport in India. Or at least that has been the popular notion. But here are some interesting stats: there are over 4,000 clubs in the country, with live spectator audiences attracting over 50,000 people for a single game. Without the need for expensive infrastructure, 700,000 schools play the sport. Astonishingly, at a global level, 32 countries are affiliated to the International Kabaddi Federation (including Germany, Italy, Japan and Korea).

But now with the launch of the Pro Kabaddi League by Mashal Sports and the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) the prospects of this indigenous game seem to be changing for the better. To be held between July-August, this year, the game is doing all that it can to gain eyeballs.

With sports broadcaster Star Sports bagging the broadcast rights for the Pro Kabaddi League, the sport is looking at greater visibility. Star India COO Sanjay Gupta, after the channel got the broadcast rights had said, “Our association with Kabaddi is in line with our stated objective of transforming the sports landscape and enabling the growth of a multi-sport culture in India. Pro Kabaddi will build an ecosystem that can potentially take this game to the next level. We plan to offer an immersive and engaging experience for the Kabaddi viewers.”

The league will be played on specially developed mats, in state of the art indoor stadiums across eight cities. Top Kabaddi players from across India and the globe will participate in a show of intense competition and sporting camaraderie. Having Star Sports as the official broadcast partners for Pro Kabaddi league will help bring the game to life on television with super audio-visual transmission quality. The game and the event are designed to take television by storm.

There are leading corporates and individuals who have ended up owning the eight franchises. They are: Kosmik Global Media for Bangalore, Kalpathi Investments for Chennai, Rana Kapoor of Yes Bank for Delhi, Abhishek Bachchan for Jaipur, Kishore Biyani of Future Group for Kolkata, Ronnie Screwvala,Unilazer Sports for Mumbai, Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank for Pune and Core Green Group for Vizag. By roping in Abhishek Bachchan as one of the franchise owners, Mashal Sports plans to use all tools at their disposal to make the game more attractive.

Each of the franchise will have to spend between Rs 45–50 million annually which includes a nominal franchise fee.

With media rights partner frozen, the sports management company is eyeing one title sponsor, three co-sponsors and some partners. The company will share 80 per cent of the revenue from the central pool with the eight franchises. Marketing partner World Sport Group will receive 10 per cent, while the remaining 10 per cent will be retained by Mashal Sports to fund the expenses incurred for organising the league.

It is expected that Mashal Sports will incur an annual expenditure of Rs 100-150 million on the league.

The Pro Kabaddi matches will be preceded by a player auction, where each team will be getting an equal opportunity to build its squads. Almost 100 players will be auctioned, out of which 72 players will be Indians and the rest will be international players from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, South Korea, Italy, Germany, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

These players have been shortlisted by the International Kabaddi Federation as well as the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India, giving the amateur Kabaddi players a chance to perform at a professional level. The prize money for the league is a lucrative 10 million rupees ($165,800) which many hope will add prestige to the league.

The league promises to take the sport to a whole new level of prominence and ensure that stars such as Navneet Gautam, Ajay Thakur, Rajaguru Subramanian and Rakesh Kumar become the new sporting heroes of Kabaddi.

The lineup of sponsors for the league has not been revealed as of now. But Pro Kabaddi will have robust social media marketing strategies. Sports enthusiasts, in India and all around the world, can keep track of the match.

Each franchisee will not only have their team colours and star players, but also create their own fan following with innovative media outreach strategies, scores, players as well as participate in the game through social media platforms such as the Pro Kabaddi league website www.prokabaddi.com, twitter handles @ProKabaddi #ProKabaddiRevolution and Facebbok page Prokabaddi.

May 9, 2014
ICC World T20 2014: Most watched international T20 tournament

MUMBAI: The recently concluded ICC World T20 2014 has emerged as the most watched international T20 tournament ever on television as well as the digital platform in India. A record 13.31 crore people across the country watched the mega sporting event, according to data provided by TAM.

There has been a 23.4 per cent higher viewership than the 2012 edition and more than 57 per cent compared to the 2010 edition. As per standard industry conversions, around 39 crore Indians watched the ICC World T20, this year.

The 2014 edition has generated a record 1222951 TVTs. This is almost 45 per cent higher than the 844400 TVTs generated during the ICC World T20 2012 edition. The six India matches in ICC World T20 have generated 672861 TVTs which again is a record for any ICC World T20. India matches during the 2012 edition had generated 396801 TVTs. The TAM data is based on ICC World T20’s broadcast on SD channels Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 3 across the country, with the target group of CS 4+.

Meanwhile on the digital platform starsports.com, the video streaming of ICC World T20 has garnered unprecedented traction on the digital domain. The ICC World T20 final between India and Sri Lanka on starsports.com attracted a record 19.3 lakh unique individuals watching video on the destination, delivering an unprecedented 37.6 lakh visits. Also video streaming of the same event on starsports.com generated 2.24 crore visits.

Overall, starsports.com attracted more than 80.9 lakh users during the fortnight long tournament delivering more than 2.24 crore visits. The consumer interactivity on starsports.com is growing at a dramatic pace. During the last 4 matches played by India, a total of 101 million live minutes of video was consumed by users with an average of more than 30 minutes per live view.

Star India head of sports business Nitin Kukreja said, “Our aim is to consistently re-shape and enrich consumer experience. During this edition, we introduced innovations like the LED stumps; there was increased focus on analytics and graphics to augment consumer engagement. The invitation to the consumer was done via a high decibel ‘Duniya Badlegi campaign’ which generated global level engagement. We are enthused with the positive feedback on the unprecedented production and broadcast effort. This will motivate us further to set even higher benchmarks in the future.”

April 22, 2014
Videocon d2h launches three new packs focusing on Star Sports

MUMBAI: Videocon d2h has launched three new subscription packages in the mid level price segment targeted at sports lovers.

The three new packs launched are: ‘Gold Maxi’ which is priced at Rs 260 per month and will consist of 328 channels and services including sports channels like Star Sports 2, Star Sports 3, Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) like Star Plus, Colors, Zee TV, Sony etc, Hindi movies channel like Max, Zee Cinema etc, Hindi news channels including Aaj Tak, NDTV India, IBN 7, India TV and regional language channels comprising all Marathi, Bengali, Odia, Punjabi, Assamese and Gujarati channels and services.

The second pack launched is the ‘South Silver Maxi’ which will cost Rs 205 per month. The pack consists of 308 channels and services which includes sports channels like Star Sports 2, Star Sports 3 and all Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada language channels. The third is the ‘South Gold Maxi’ at Rs 270 per month. The pack comprises 364 channels and services includin sports channels like Star Sports 2, Star Sports 3, all Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada channels and popular Hindi GECs.

“We have always been focused on offering customer centric packages and entertainment solutions. These new packs have been designed keeping in mind the requirements of consumers and his preferences of channels like Star Sports 2 and Star Sports 3. Consumers will now have more choice than ever before,” said Videocon director Saurabh Dhoot.
Videocon d2h CEO Anil Khera added, “We have launched three new packs, giving our consumer the convenience of choosing the packs as per his requirements. As sports is a religion in India, we have included two major sports channels Star Sports 2, Star Sports 3 in these new subscription packs at affordable prices.”

April 11, 2014