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Tag: Ten Sports

  • TAM week 31: Zee TV and Sab only gainers amongst GECs

    TAM week 31: Zee TV and Sab only gainers amongst GECs

    MUMBAI: Third and fourth position holding Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) Zee TV and Sab emerged as the only gainers in the GEC category in week 31 of TAM ratings.

     

    While Zee TV went up from 147 GRPs to 153 GRPs, Sab saw a smaller ascend as it went up from 143 GRPs to 146 GRPs. 

     

    On the other hand, Star Plus continued its leadership in GEC category despite witnessing a decline in its ratings. The table topper’s ratings went down from 232 GRPs to 229 GRPs. Second placed channel Colors registered the highest decline amongst all the GECs as it went down from 224 GRPs to 202 GRPs. 

     

    Life OK held its fifth position with 122 GRPs down from 126 GRPs. Sony and &TV spotted at sixth and seventh slot with 103 and 62 GRPs respectively.

     

    On the sports channels’ front, Ten Sports continued its run at the number one spot despite falling down from 25 GRPs to 18 GRPs, whereas cricket specialist from the same venture Ten Cricket secured the second berth with 10 GRPs. Star Sports 2 booked the third slot with 6 GRPs.
     

    Nick led the kids genre in week 31 with 54 GRPs, whereas Pogo garnered 52 GRPs and perched on the second spot. On the other hand, Cartoon Network with 37 GRPs secured the third slot.

     
    Colors’ Mahayudha, Sasural Simar Ka and Swaragini with 3.55 TVR led the tally of top programmes, followed by Zee TV’s Kumkum Bhagya, with 3.52 TVR. Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashma on Sab with 3.47 TVR held its third berth. Colors’ Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi booked the fourth berth by registering 3.44 TVR while Star Plus’ Ye Hai Mohabbatein with 3.12 TVR grabbed the fifth spot.

     

    Click here for the full list of top programs

     

    Click here for the full viewership analysis

  • Ten Sports undisputed leader in sports TV viewership courtesy WWE

    Ten Sports undisputed leader in sports TV viewership courtesy WWE

    MUMBAI: Ten Sports has been dominating sports television ratings week after week with the only exception being when team India hits the lush green cricket field and another broadcaster is relaying it. That’s the only time when Ten Sports loses the top berth. 

    So what helps the channel garner such high ratings? In three powerful words, it’s the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

    As per S-group (an analytical arm of TAM media research) analysis, Ten Sports is the leader in the sports genre with average weekly viewership of 28 GRPs in the last four weeks. The closest competitor this week was Sony Six, which garnered half the viewership.

     

     

    Ten Sports global CEO Rajesh Sethi and his programming team are the main reason behind that. Repetitiveness is the biggest enemy of quality content, it kills the flair and develops a scenario of same programme, different day. However, the smart programming strategy of Sethi and team has successfully managed to avoid that for over a decade now.

     

    Close to 85 per cent of Ten Sports’ viewership comes from the telecast of WWE matches alone with a duration dedication of only 25 per cent.

     

     

    Sethi asserts, “Ten Sports Network has been the home of World Wrestling Entertainment in India since 2002. Over this period, WWE broadcast has evolved significantly with an increased focus to deliver quality to viewers. The broadcast delay from USA to India has completely been reduced. Ten Sports is now offering WWE RAW live in India. The initial inhibitions that the time difference will affect viewership numbers has been dispelled with very good ratings for the Live airing, which airs Tuesday mornings at 5.30 am India Time.”

     

    Ten Sports has sealed a five-year deal with WWE, which makes the fight sport their exclusive asset till 2019. Both Ten Sports and WWE came together in recent times to launch numerous on-ground initiatives to popularize the sport in India.

     

    “The new agreement between WWE and Ten Sports has seen a host of new initiatives taken by the broadcaster. New shows have been introduced with Ten Sports bringing popular show Main Event to India from January of this year. NXT, which brings the best action from upcoming WWE Superstars and Total Divas, a WWE reality show have been getting a major push from a marketing standpoint and not only existing viewers are taking to this programme but these shows are helping cater to new audiences,” adds Sethi.

     

    He further informs, “RAW and Smackdown, the established marquee shows of WWE continues to garner great ratings. With prime time airings getting ratings of almost 1 TVR, we can safely say that WWE has established itself as a leader in sports entertainment. These numbers are second only to LIVE India Cricket and WWE is closing this gap as well. Ten Sports reaches around 150 million households across the Indian sub-continent and garnering such ratings in a very diverse and unique market like India for an American product like the WWE speaks volumes to what Ten Sports has done over time to making this product acceptable at first to an Indian to now becoming a part of the viewer’s habit.”

     

    Ten Sports has started offering these flagship shows in shorter versions, including a customized one hour RAW programme called RAW Sunday Dhamaal.

     

    RAW Sunday Dhamaal is positioned as a weekend premier show with a local flavour tailor-made for the Indian audience. There has been a new studio designed solely for the show with popular faces anchoring the show. Bollywood is a religion in India and Raw Sunday Dhamaal has consistently been using Bollywood and top celebrities to engage fans and add a new flavour to the shows. This marriage between WWE and Bollywood has seen celebrities including Akshay Kumar, Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor in the RAW Sunday Dhamaal studios. WWE Superstar and 2015 Money In The Bank winner, Sheamus will also make an appearance on RAW Sunday Dhamaal soon.

     

    “WWE in other languages and a push on digital platforms is also priority for Ten Sports. Smackdown has launched in Hindi and this weekend airing is being well accepted by new viewers. With India being such a diverse market, Ten Sports is targeting a specific territory by territory approach to launching shows in different languages. Ten Sports and Zee Group, whose channels have a presence across 650 million households across the world will use group regional channels and will in due course, broadcast more WWE shows across multiple languages creating an increased affinity towards WWE. This approach will take WWE to the hinterlands wooing a new, non-traditional viewer base. On the digital front, VOD offerings on tensports.com along with leveraging social media from increased interaction and engagement with fans are the priority areas,” he informs.

     

    Fans selected through contests have been rewarded with the opportunity to not only interact with WWE superstars and divas but travel to watch WWE LIVE events across the globe.

     

    Further, as per the analysis carried out below, the viewership coming from WWE matches has been on an increasing trend for the past four years. From 5.7 GRPs in 2012, WWE obtains 9.2 GRPs per week in 2015. This analysis has been done for every 1000 minutes of WWE telecast so as to normalize the duration factor.

     

     

    The ad rate of a 10-second slot during normal WWE programming fluctuate between Rs 60,000 – 80,000 while for a Wrestlemania or Summerslam sometimes it touches Rs 1 lakh mark too informs a source closely dealing with WWE’s media planning.

     

    Baseline director & co-founder R Ramakrishnan feels that WWE is here to grow. “WWE is an evolving property, not only television viewership but licensing and merchandising will also grow. Live events will play a vital role in the growth. We saw Big Shaw and John Cena travelling to India and both Ten Sports and WWE will endeavor in launching several new initiatives. Credit must be given to Ten Sports for smartly handling the property over the years,” he opines.

     

    WWE is one of the very few American sports, which is widely spoken about in India. Kids start with WWE card games and then gradually with age change to Playstation and X-box. After United States and United Kingdom, India is the largest market for WWE. Khali’s induction in the sport has already raised the bar and got more people talking about the sport India.

     

    Overall World Wrestling Entertainment has a lot of room for growth and Ten Sports will certainly leave no stones unturned to generate as much revenue as they can from the sport.

  • Ten Sports unveils new logo; targets Rs 20 crore revenue from Ind-Zimbabwe series

    Ten Sports unveils new logo; targets Rs 20 crore revenue from Ind-Zimbabwe series

    MUMBAI: Sports broadcaster Ten Sports, which is airing the India vs Zimbabwe ODI series that kickstarted today (10 July), has also unveiled its new logo on the occasion.

     

    After the dismal performance of the ‘Men in Blue’ in the Bangladesh tour, this India tour of Zimbabwe has become an all-important series for both the audience as well as the broadcaster. What’s more, the broadcaster is targeting ad revenues in excess of Rs 20 crore from the series.

     

    Ten Sports and Taj TV global CEO Rajesh Sethi, “It is a step forward in consolidating all the channels under one uniform network and project the organization value to strive further, break new grounds, surpass our limits and achieve the unattained. The belief is articulated in our new network logo design which is synonymous to all kinds of sports and its belief of genesis to victory and the idents and new design was developed completely by the internal team.”

     

    The network also informed Indianelevision.com that an elongated and extensive research was conducted by the internal team before launching the logo.

     

    Sethi further added, “The interest in this series is very high, which is visible through the fact that around 60 per cent of our inventory has already been sold, this in spite of not having the more sellable names in the team. We are able to command a rate of Rs 3 to 3.5 lakh between ODIs and T20s per 10 second. We expect the revenue for this series to be well over Rs 20 crore with brands like Fogg, Karbonn and Pay You already being associated with the series,” said

     

    What could very well be the beginning of the end for the Dhoni era, this series pitches players who have been on the fringes or are making comebacks under a new captain. Zimbabwe that gave a respectable performance against Pakistan in May can’t be treated as push overs any more.

     

    As official broadcasters of the event, Ten Sports is looking to tap into the vast opportunity that the series brings along.

     

    On the production front, the channel has started its studio show Straight Drive, which will boast of star analysts such as Arun Lal, Atul Wassan and Charu Sharma. The show will see pre, mid and post-match round ups.

     

    To market the series, the channel has tied up with the upcoming movie Drishyam. It is also conducting fan engagement activities like contests and quizzes on various social media platforms.

     

    The channel feels that this could well and truly be the moment of truth for the evolution of cricket in the country and the series presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the ‘New Blues.’

  • Sony Six bags broadcasting rights to India vs Sri Lanka 2015 test series

    Sony Six bags broadcasting rights to India vs Sri Lanka 2015 test series

    MUMBAI: In a US $ 3.2 million deal, Multi Screen Media’s (MSM) sports venture Sony Six has acquired the rights of India vs Sri Lanka three test match series. The series to be held in Sri Lanka, will take place between 12 August, 2015 and 1 September, 2015.

     

    This 20-day tour includes three test matches to be held in the cities of Galle, Colombo and Kandy and will be shown live and exclusive on Sony Six.

     

    Sony Six and Sony Kix business head Prasana Krishnan said, ”We are delighted to partner Sri Lanka Cricket Board as the official broadcaster of the series. The fixture between the two Asian giants is one of the most sought after and keenly followed contests in cricket and we are proud to be bringing it live to our viewers. And it will be interesting to watch how the Indian squad fares under Virat’s aggressive style of leadership.”

     

    Sri Lanka Cricket chairman Sidath Wettimuny added, ”Sony Six has established itself as one of the most exciting sports channels in the industry and we are thrilled to be associated with them for this test series. The channel’s track record in showcasing premier sporting properties further cemented our decision in making them our broadcaster partner in bringing the high-quality sporting action. Through this deal, we believe we will be able to expand and reach out to a wider and newer audience.”

     

    It can be noted that the broadcasting rights for the Sri Lanka Cricket Board are with Essel Group’s sports arm Ten Sports. However, this series is a back up for the curtailed West Indies vs India series which ended mid way due to organisational differences between West Indies players and their cricket board. Subsequently, as the series was not a part of the calendar initially, it was not a part of the official broadcasting deal between Sri Lanka Cricket Board and Ten Sports.

     

    With the rights of the test series going to Sony Six, several reports linked it to the alleged differences between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra. Clarifying the networks stand, Ten Sports CEO Rajesh Sethi told Indiantelevision.com, ”Firstly, this has nothing to do with BCCI- Subhash Chandra relationship and we have a very cordial relationship with the Sri Lanka Cricket Board as well.”

     

    He further added, ”This series was not a part of the deal and hence separate bidding took place, which is absolutely normal and technical. We also did bid for the series but we have to understand that it is a three test match series, with no ODIs or T20 matches and hence going ballistic was not our strategy. If it was a full-fledged series with Test, ODIs and T20s, we would have aggressively pushed for it.”

     

    According to Sethi, the duration and format of the series does not allow the broadcaster to monetize the property well. Besides, the weather under which the test series will be played will have an impact on the broadcaster. Paramount possibilities of rain enhance the chance of interruptions and that’s something which will be on advertisers mind too.

     

    The series is highly important as Team India will go all guns blazing to write off the critics and restore fans’ faith after its debacle in Bangladesh. It should also prove to be one of the most vital one for Virat Kohli as he captains the India squad in what will be his first ever complete test series. Not just that, legendary batsman Kumar Sangakkara will bid adieu to the world of cricket after the series. So competition, agony, history and team spirit can make the series an exquisite experience for the cricket lovers.

  • India vs Bangladesh series helps Star Sports to take top slot: BARC ratings

    India vs Bangladesh series helps Star Sports to take top slot: BARC ratings

    MUMBAI: Television audience measurement body Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC) ratings for week 25 week proves that cricket is the undisputed champion when it comes to sports content consumption.

     

    In recent times Ten Sports, courtesy to WWE and its special programs have been consistently leading the list of top viewed sports channel. But the India VS Bangladesh series helped Star Sports to dethrone Ten Sports and grab the pole position.

     

    Star Sports 1 which relays the English feed garnered viewership of 42,364 (000s sum), the Hindi telecast of the series helped Star Sports 3 garner 38,679 (000s sum) to bag the second position.

     

    Ten Sports declined to third berth with 37,483 (000s sum).

     

    In the general entertainment category (GEC) category, Star Plus with 406,084 (000s sum) remained comfortably at the top spot followed by Colors with 340,709 (000s sum). Zee TV with 254,699 (000s sum) booked the third berth while Life OK with 245,804 (000s sum) was slotted at number four. PK movie helped Sony Entertainment Television (SET) to grab a berth in top five, the channel registered 236,328 (000s sum) to secure the fifth slot.

     

    Coming to the top programs, Amir Khan starrer PK emerged as the top viewed program in the GEC space with 103,33 (000s sum), followed by Star Plus’ Saath Nibhana Saathiya with 6,803 (000s sum).

     

    Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai from the same broadcaster grabbed the third slot with 5,272 (000s sum). On the other hand Colors’ Sasural Simar Ka and Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat secured fourth and fifth slot with 4,990 (000s sum) and 4,641 (000s sum) respectively.

     

    In the English news space Times Now with 445 (000s sum) lead the tally followed by India Today Television with 315 and NDTV 24/7 with 185 (000s sum).

     

    Meanwhile CNBC TV 18 continued to lead the English business genre with 165 (000s sum) followed by ET Now with 130 (000s sum), NDTV Profit and NDTV Prime with 59 (000s sum).

     

    On the other hand Hindi News genre observed dominance of Aaj Tak as the channel garnered 31,566 (000s sum) to book the top slot. India TV followed at second slot with 26,042 (000s sum) while ABP news grabbed the third berth 25,474 (000s sum).

  • BARC wk 24: No change in ranking order of Hindi GECs

    BARC wk 24: No change in ranking order of Hindi GECs

    MUMBAI: The pecking order of the Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) remained the same in the week 24 of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) ratings.

     

    Star Plus continued to rule all the way with 383533 (000’s) sum followed by Colors with 342535 (000’s) sum. Zee TV stayed steady at number three with 242265 (000’s) sum while Life OK took the fourth position with 234784 (000’s) sum. Last but not the least, Sab clocked 187356 (000’s) sum.

     

    Amongst the top three programmes, Star Plus’s Saath Nibhaana Saathiya turned out to be a clear winner with 6213 (000’s) sum. Colors’ two shows topped the list and occupied number two and three spot respectively. Thus, Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat registered 5044 (000’s) sum and Sasural Simar Ka noted 4610 (000’s) sum respectively.

     

    Sports category too did not witness any new winners this week. Though Ten Sports continued to hold the number one spot with 58221 (000’s sum), Star Sports 3 and Star Sports 1 were perched at the second and third spot with 29996 (000’s sum) and 28189 (000’s sum) respectively.

     

    Talking about the top three programmes in the sports category, while Ten Sports WWE Specials 2015 – Money in the Bank topped the chart with 1254 (000’s sum), Bangladesh vs India 2015 ODI’s Series Live – 1st ODI on Star Sports 3 garnered 1206 (000’s sum). In Star Sports 1 too, Bangladesh vs India 2015 ODI’s Series Live – 1st ODI   reported 1046 (000’s sum).

     

    In the Hindi news broadcasting space, Aaj Tak continued its stranglehold with 31491 (000’s sum). India TV claimed the second spot with 27603 (000’s sum) followed by ABP News at number three with 25186 (000’s sum).

  • BCCI calls off Zimbabwe tour citing issues with Ten Sports

    BCCI calls off Zimbabwe tour citing issues with Ten Sports

    MUMBAI: Issues between the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) and broadcaster Ten Sports remain unresolved. As a fallout of this, the BCCI on 22 June made known its decision to call off the forthcoming tour of Zimbabwe.

     

    Along with the tussle in the broadcast rights according to reports, the decision was also taken citing the fatigue factor of Indian cricket team players.

     

    India were scheduled to play three ODIs and two T20 Internationals in Zimbabwe from 10 July this year.

     

    There were a cloud of uncertainty over the tour due to the broadcast issue, which prompted Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) to issue a a press release on 21 June that it may be postponed for next year. The release further added that it was hopeful of going ahead with India’s tour and that it was in constant contact with both the BCCI and Ten Sports to resolve the issues prior to the series.

     

    “There have been reports that an issue over Zimbabwe Cricket’s broadcasting partner is threatening the forthcoming India tour to Zimbabwe. The position is that ZC is in constant contact with both the BCCI and Ten Sports, over issues which should be resolved before the tour,” the ZC release said.

     

    “If the matters take too long to resolve, ZC and the BCCI might mutually agree to push the tour to next year,” said ZC chairman Wilson Manase.

     

     

    At the time of filing this report, Ten Sports officials were unavailable for comment.

  • Chrome Week 25: Religious category sees max decline, infotainment leads growth chart

    Chrome Week 25: Religious category sees max decline, infotainment leads growth chart

    MUMBAI: Week 25 of opportunity to see (OTS) data collated by Chrome Data, Analytics and Media depicted a decline in Religious category in Hindi speaking marker (HSM). The category declined by 1.3 per cent.

    On the other hand, English News channels and English Business News channels shared the second position in top OTS losers chart witnessing 0.4 per cent decline in the eight metros. The other decline was registered by the Kids category, as it dropped 0.3 per cent all over India.

    Meanwhile infotainment category emerged as the top gainer in week 25 with 1.2 per cent all over India. Sports category followed infotainment with 0.4 per cent growth all over India followed by Hindi GEC with 0.1 per cent in HSM. English movies category also registered 0.1 per cent growth in the eight metros.

    In terms of OTS in GEC category Zee TV led the tally with 96.2 per cent in HSM followed by Colors (96 per cent), DD National (95.5 per cent) and Star Plus (95.1 per cent) in the same market.

    Times Now leads the OTS in the eight metros with 78.6 in the English News category, while the business news category is led by CNBC Awaz with 80.3 per cent in same geography.

    DD Sports with 74.6 per cent availability in all India market emerged as the leader in sports category as per data collated by Chrome Data, Analytics and Media. DD Sports is followed by Ten Sports with 67.6 per cent.

  • ‘ISL and I-League will complement, not threaten each other:’ AIFF’s Kushal Das

    ‘ISL and I-League will complement, not threaten each other:’ AIFF’s Kushal Das

    MUMBAI: The Rs 700 crore deal between All India Football Federation (AIFF) and IMG-Reliance, signed after the contract termination between AIFF and Zee Sport, gave IMG-Reliance the opportunity of kick-starting a new football league in India namely the Indian Super League (ISL).

     

    The 15-year deal between AIFF and IMG-Reliance signed in 2010 will subsequently conclude in 2025. The deal gave IMG-Reliance exclusive commercial rights to sponsorship, advertising, broadcasting, merchandising, video, franchising, and rights to create a new football league.

     

    Naysayers termed the emergence of ISL as a threat to traditional I-League but Television Audience Measurement (TAM) ratings for the 2014 -15 season sang a completely different tune.

     

    I-League, which was telecast on Zee’s Ten Sports and Ten Action, garnered 79 TVTs in 2014-15 season which is 13 per cent more than 70 TVTs of the 2013-14 season. In terms of TVRs, the league registered 11 per cent growth in the current seasons.

     

    Speaking exclusively to Indiantelevision.com AIFF general secretary Kushal Das says, “I-League’s growth this year is really encouraging and it proves what I have always been saying that both ISL and I-League will complement each other and there is no chance of one posing threat over other. This year the growth has been because of various reasons. Infrastructure played a vital role, quality of matches were good and the players wanted to leave a mark so that they could have a bigger opportunity and that’s where ISL helped. Overall, it has been a very positive year for the League.”

     

    The conclusion of 2014-15 season also marked an end to the 10 year broadcasting deal with Ten Sports. The league had no advertiser on board in the current season. When asked if the network will bid again for the asset Ten Sports CEO Rajesh Sethi says, “I-League is an organised mechanism, which reflects the national interest. In England we have English Premier League and this edition of I-League has been a major encouragement. The interest level was high, we witnessed 20000 attendance in the final and football is more widespread across the nation now. So it’s no longer Bengal, Kerela and Goa… it’s all over the country. ISL at a macro level has increased the pie of football and all these factors make I-League an interesting prospect. Hence we will be of course going for it and see how things are.”

     

    Football viewership in India was descending at a brisk pace till ISL came into picture. While in 2012 it was 137 GVTs, in 2013 it dropped to 127 GVTs. However, the emergence of ISL in 2014 heaped it up to a mammoth 215 GVTs, which is only second to cricket. Not only GVTs, in terms of cumulative reach, football in India reached to mammoth 637 million viewers, which forced advertisers to pay attention to the sport.

     

    “The only way for football in India is upwards. The sport will witness a 360 degree growth. After the success of ISL, advertisers are looking at the sport with a different vision. I don’t know if I–League singlehandedly can turn out to be a highly revenue generating asset for broadcaster but overall if bundled properly, it may turn out to be an interesting prospect. However, having said that I feel that football will witness a holistic growth,” asserts a senior media planning expert.

     

    It now remains to be seen which channel becomes the screen for I-League and if both the leagues can ensure prosperity at the same time. Overall after the 1950s, it’s the first time that football is becoming a prime force in the sports fraternity.

  • Essel registers various entities, rebel league to unfold soon?

    Essel registers various entities, rebel league to unfold soon?

    MUMBAI: Gone are the days when cricket was played between 22 players, officiated by two umpires on a lush green cricket field. The sport is way bigger now and involves entities galore. An increase in the number of television channels changed the entire playing field and slowly but surely the game emerged as a million dollar pie that everyone wanted their fingers in.

     

    While Star India has the broadcasting rights of Indian cricket, it is also a strong contender to acquire the telecast rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL) when it is up for grabs in 2017. On the other hand, Multi Screen Media, which currently is the official broadcaster of the IPL, will try every possible trick in the trade to keep the goose that lays golden eggs to itself. 

     

    However, cricket is not a one on one battle anymore. Dr. Subhash Chandra founder of Essel Group and the father figure in Indian television industry has also evinced his interest in cricket and hinted towards establishing a new cricketing entity, which makes cricket a triple threat battle.

     

    Essel Group has reportedly registered various companies in different countries and also established a domain called www.worldcricketcouncil.co.in, which supposedly is a rebel entity of the International Cricket Council (ICC). 

     

    A detailed report in The Guardian reveals that “the domain names registered by the Essel Group including worldcricketcouncil.co.in and cricketassociationofengland.co.in and that their origins have all been traced back to a Ten Sports employee-senior IT manager Deepak Srivastava.”

     

    The group speculatively approached heavyweight players like Micheal Clarke, Ross Taylor and Correy Anderson. Not surprisingly, the developments have irked ICC officials and this was a prime point of discussion when they met for a board meeting in Dubai. The ICC has voiced its concern on the developments and declared investigation against rebel registrations. Apart from company registrations, ICC is said to have begun investigating the registration of website domain –worldcricketcouncil.co.in by an employee of Ten Sports. Moreover, there is growing concern within the ICC about the formation of a rebel world cricket body. 

     

    “In fact, Cricket Australia was the first to bring to notice these fishy proceedings when they objected to the registration of a new company – Australia Cricket Control Limited, late last year. Other company names bearing resemblances to New Zealand Cricket, Cricket Scotland and website domains similar to that of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have been registered since then,” ICC said in a bulletin.

     

    When questioned about the developments, Ten Sports – the sports venture of Essel Group – CEO Rajesh Sethi tells Indiantelevision.com, “First things first, there is no new league coming up. We need to get that clear. We as a group (Essel Group) keep exploring new territories and our research signifies sport as one of the interesting areas. And while we speak of sports, football and cricket certainly hold the pole position. So it’s just something that we have been doing since a long time and there is nothing new. It’s immature to call it a league at this stage.”

     

    According to a cricket expert, a new global cricketing entity, if established properly, will certainly impact the pitch of IPL, which is the largest source of income for the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) and that can be one of the prime motive behind Dr. Chandra’s aggressive push for cricket. “Essel Group in the past also made various efforts to challenge fast growing BCCI and Indian Cricket League is one of them, which ignited the thoughts of a tournament like IPL. Chandra’s vision cannot be questioned. However, on the other hand BCCI won’t make life easy for him as we witnessed during the ICL days. Essel Group has tasted failure once and this time they are certainly aware of what can go wrong or where the risk lies so this time it won’t be that easy to put them down. Overall it will be a worthy scenario to witness,” the expert opined.

     

    The year 2014 saw the emergence of numerous sporting leagues, which are all directly dependent on advertisements and sponsorship. In a scenario like this, the biggest question that arises is whether there is enough room to accommodate Dr Chandra’s second innings in cricket.

     

    Sharing his viewpoint of how advertisers would react to a development like this and if brands would like to associate themselves with a rebel entity, Maxus managing partner head of the north and east regions Navin Khemka says, “Well, whether the league is rebel or pro has no impact on advertisers. Promoters want a platform that can ensure exuberant reach and that will only come if you have competitive matches and quality players. The way the sporting calendar is currently shaped, I don’t see room for one more cricket league because it will be very tough to find a slot where key players are available.”

     

    Another senior executive from the media planning fraternity adds, “A new cricket league will find it extremely difficult to fit into the current competitive scenario and advertisers, who want cricket as platform will go for the likes of IPL, Champions League, T20 World Cup and other available flagship cricket tournaments. If a brand wants to explore beyond cricket, then there are many other emerging leagues that are promising enough. In my opinion, unless it has something new and exclusive to offer, one more cricket league will find it difficult to make a mark on advertisers.”      

         

    No doubt that the entire sports fraternity will be keenly focused on what unfolds from the Essel Group stable over time and whether Chandra succeeds in making a substantial mark in his second innings.