ITV

Tag: WSG Nimbus

  • WSG-Nimbus pockets Sri Lanks cricket rights

    The Emerald island is going to see a lot of Harish Thawani, the promoter of media firm Nimbus Communications. The reason: Thawani has in partnership with the World Sports Group bagged the rights for Sri Lankan cricket for the next three years. The deal covers 14 tours and would involve 180 days of international cricket, reveals Thawani, who has emerged as one of the most important players of the sports rights business over the past two years.

    While he is unwilling to give any fix on the price that WSG-Nimbus put in to be the successful bidder for the rights, industry estimates are that they cost him close to $30 million. The other bidder TWI apparently was not willing to match the bid.

    The bid covers global telecast (both radio and TV) , sponsorship and stadium signage rights. Sources indicate that the final tab that WSG-Nimbus may have to cough up could be in the range of $45 million. WSG-Nimbus is a 50:50 joint venture between the UK based WSG plc and India’s Nimbus.

    According to industry sources, WSG-Nimbus is likely to cut a deal with Zee Sports as the latter is quite hungry to grab quality cricket content, or whatever is left of it. News Corp has got the telecast rights to ICC backed cricket. And close associate, ESPN-Star Sports, has the rights to almost all the international cricket matches in Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, England, West Indies, Pakistan.The only other player with cricket rights is Mark Mascarenhas of World-Tel who apparently has not found too many takers for the Bangladesh cricket property he has acquired for some $12 million for four years.

     

  • Zee takes fresh guard for the New Year, still eyeing sports

    Zee takes fresh guard for the New Year, still eyeing sports

    Zee Telefilms Ltd has lined up a new set of programmes for the Year 2001 and is planning to review its strategy and investment in the sports business. The programmes Zee has scheduled spans all its related channels and is in line with the recommendations made by consulting firm AT Kearney that the company restructure its various businesses while building some new core competencies. Towards that end, Zee’s Alpha brand of regional languages will also feature a wide range of new programmes.

     

    On the sports front Zee is working out new strategies after the huge setback it received in June in the bidding for telecast rights of all ICC-organised cricket matches. Despite posting the highest bid, it was arch rival Rupert Murdoch who walked away with the booty. That effectively killed off any hope Zee had of launching a channel in the near term.

     

    Zee, meanwhile, plans to create newer streams of content in soccer and cricket. The company’s board of directors was to meet on Friday to review the plans. Zee Chairman Subhash Chandra, in the company’s annual report for 1999-2000, had said: “We are giving a new impetus to sports, especially cricket and soccer.

     

    The company is also creating newer and newer streams of content in sports, particularly in soccer and cricket.” It is learnt that Zee Sports is the frontrunner to obtain the three-year exclusive broadcast rights from WSG Nimbus Pvt Ltd of Singapore, for international cricket played in Sri Lanka, according to the Business Standard.

     

    Zee is believed to have offered to cross-promote the event through its various channels including Zee TV and Zee News across the network. How Zee approaches its sporting ambitions this time round will make for interesting watching.

  • Prasar Bharati board seeks government intervention on sports telecast rights

    Prasar Bharati board seeks government intervention on sports telecast rights

    Sport. A programming property that keeps millions glued to their TV sets in India, especially when cricket and Tendulkar are in full flow. In recent times, pubcaster Doordarshan has been beaten back by private companies who have anted up top dollars to acquire prime sports events. Among the big events that DD has missed out on or has looked like it is going to are the Fifa World Cup which is in progress right now and the ICC cricket rights which are with WSG-Nimbus and Sony. 

    Irked by this, the Prasar Bharati board chaired by former space scientist Prof U.R. Rao, is calling for government intervention to make sure that DD is not left out of the sports loop. Sources indicate that the board is petitioning the Union government to bring in a law which will ensure that telecast rights of all important sports events accrue to DD.

    If the government does agree, it could deliver a body blow to sports rights holders, who have built up positions in events for the long term, says an industry observer. It’s quite possible that passing of the legislation could lead to protests and litigation.

  • Prasar Bharati board meets tomorrow, as time running out for DD to seal deal on cricket World Cup telecast

    Prasar Bharati board meets tomorrow, as time running out for DD to seal deal on cricket World Cup telecast

    The rather sorry deal national broadcaster Doordarshan has got for the ongoing FIFA World Cup seems to have galvanised Prasar Bharati to get proactive on the issue of terrestrial telecast of ICC-organised cricket matches.

    The board of Prasar Bharati, overseeing the functioning of DD and All India Radio, is meeting in New Delhi tomorrow to decide on the strategy to be adopted vis-a-vis the ICC-organised cricket matches.

    Sony Entertainment TV India has bagged the satellite rights for the ICC cricket for the region for the next six years, including the two next World Cups, from World Sports Group Nimbus for a reported sum of $ 255 million.

    According to industry sources, DD, which had earlier given a proposal of $ 90 million for the terrestrial rights, has come up with a new offer, which also includes revenue sharing with the organisation that undertakes the marketing of the cricket matches to be telecast on DD. Sources said that Nimbus Communication may do the marketing of the matches telecast on DD if a deal is struck.

    A Prasar Bharati official said: “We are still very interested in acquiring the terrestrial telecast rights.”

    The offer from DD had been 70:30 (WSG Nimbus:DD) per cent revenue sharing between Prasar Bharati and the company which will sell airtime.

    Now, according to new information available, WSG Nimbus has said if revenue sharing is to happen from the first dollar earned, that it would have to be in the ratio of 85:15 per cent. WSG Nimbus has said a 70:30 revenue sharing deal would be possible only when the telecast cost of $90 million is factored in, the rider being that sharing will happen only after this amount has been fully recovered.

    Both DD and WSG Nimbus are in a bind to seal a deal as there is an “exit” clause between Sony Entertainment and WSN that becomes effective on 15 June. This means that SET, which has the C&S telecast rights, will have to be offered the terrestrial rights (after paying an additional fee) which leaves open a real possibility that DD could lose any rights over ICC-organised cricket matches for six years, sources aver. If this were to happen, the massive public and political uproar that would certainly ensue needs little imagining.

    Quizzed on the pubcaster’s delayed response when it comes to telecast rights of sporting events, the official said that unlike a private sector company like a Star India or Zee or Sony Entertainment, Prasar Bharati still has to be careful when it quotes higher amounts of money as each and every decision of the Corporation can be questioned in Parliament. 

    But the source also indicated that feelers have come from World Sports Nimbus that it too is interested in having a relationship with DD. “These are encouraging signals and we are hopeful that tomorrow’s board meeting will be able to come up with some solution on cricket rights.” 

    Sony Entertainment Television few months back announced bagging the exclusive cable and satellite television rights for six years for live telecast in the sub-continent of ICC tournaments, including the 2003 and 2007 World Cups in South Africa and West Indies, respectively.

    Pointing out that this was a mega acquisition, SET India’s chief executive Kunal Dasgupta in a statement then had said: “This is the biggest deal in India’s television history and largest telecast or broadcast deal in the game of cricket, including the two World Cups and three Under-19 World Cups.”

    The cricket matches will be aired on SET Max channel where the programming is a mish-mash of Hindi films and cricket. The rights will allow Sony to beam over 300 days of international cricket including coverage of leading ICC championships. Sony beat others like ESPN for the cricket telecast rights for which bids were invited by WSG Nimbus some time back.

  • Sri Lanka cricket rights still rest with us: Nimbus

    Sri Lanka cricket rights still rest with us: Nimbus

    MUMBAI: Scotching media speculation to the contrary, WSG Nimbus asserted on Wednesday that it continued to hold the commercial rights for international cricket to be played in Sri Lanka over the next three years.

    A company release said WSG Nimbus had honoured all its obligations to the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL). While admitting that there had been differences between the two parties, WSG Nimbus said they were due to evidence of tour confirmations not being made available by BCCSL as earlier agreed upon.

    BCCSL and Nimbus have now modified their agreements to the mutual satisfaction of both parties and have signed a fresh deal which vests commercial cricket rights of Sri Lanka international cricket 2001-2003 with WSG Nimbus, the release said.

    It was in November 2000 that WSG Nimbus bagged the rights for international cricket in Sri Lanka for a period of three years. The deal covered 14 tours and involved 180 days of international cricket.