Pro Kabaddi season 2 to kick off on July 18

Pro Kabaddi League, which was a success in 2014, will be back with its second season on 18 July, 2015 with the opening leg to be held at National Sports Club of India (NSCI) in Mumbai.

The opening game will pit the two finalists of last year, U Mumba take on reigning Champions Jaipur Pink Panthers.

The league promoted by Mashal Sports and Star India with the backing of the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India and International Kabaddi Federation, will feature 60 games played across 37 days in 8 cities.

It's Kabaddi time for Star - buys 74% stake in Pro Kabaddi

Star has acquired 74 per cent stake in Pro Kabaddi League. The value of the deal is not known. Star, which is the official broadcaster of the league, will now have control over the entire league as a majority owner of Mashal Sports.

This is the second time Star has got itself involved in the league directly. Earlier, it had formed a joint venture (JV) with IMG Reliance to start the Indian Super League (ISL), with 40% stake in franchise-based football league- ISL.

Star to air Hero ISL in 5 languages

The upcoming Hero Indian Super League (ISL) is all set for a mega start as Star India will broadcast it live across eight television channels in five languages. It will also have a multi screen experience on starsports.com.

 

With this move, Star India will have a potential to reach around 85 per cent of India’s television audience says the channel.

 

The league will be televised on Star Sports 2 (English), Star Sports 3 (Hindi), Star Sports HD 2 (English), Star Gold (Hindi), Star Utsav (Hindi), Asianet Movies (Malayalam), Jalsha Movies (Bengali) and Suvarna Plus (Kannada) while there will be live streaming on www.starsports.com. Asianet Network runs channels in Kerala and Karnataka and is fully under Star India.

Hero ISL to kick off on Oct 12, Live on Star Sports

Arsenal legend Freddie Ljungberg and Spanish World Cupper Luis Garcia will be the centre of attention when Mumbai City FC kick off the inaugural Indian Super League on October 12, Sunday, 7pm at Atletico de Kolkata, in a tournament that will feature 61 games spread across 70 days.

The opening match will be played at the historic Salt Lake Stadium.

 

The league stage will witness 56 games on home and away format, followed by a two-legged semi-finals and the final scheduled for December 20.

59 matches will be see kick off at 7pm and 2 matches on  December 9 and 10 will start at 5pm.

All the action will be live on Star Sports 3 in Hindi, Jalsha Movies in Bangla, Star Sports 1, HD1 in English and live streaming on starsports.com.

FIFA World Cup schedule in IST & DDNational, Sony Six coverage plan for Brazil 2014

Hindi commentary fans DD1 will air 

opening match, semis & final in Hindi

Here is the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 schedule with timings in Indian Standard Time. 24 matches will be aired in 9:30pm slot, 13 matches in 12:30 am slot, 16 matches in 1:30 am slot, 10 matches in 3:30 am slot & a match at 6:30 am.

Sony Six & Sony Six HD will air all 64 matches in English, 56 matches will be aired on Sony Aath in Bangla. Sony has also launched LivSports.in to live stream FIFA World cup.

There will be no Hindi commentary despite rating & research showing huge success of soccer Hindi commentary. However pubcaster DD National will air opening match, 2 semis & final in Hindi with Novy Kapadia & Ghaus Mohammed calling the game.

T20 World Cup 2014 to break all cricket broadcast records

Television coverage of the Twenty20 World Cup is all set to break all previous ICC events' broadcast records. Covered, produced and distributed by the ICCs global media rights partner and host broadcaster Star Sports, will have a potential reach of more than 1.8 billion viewers with live pictures shown by 29 broadcasters -- both figures the highest ever for an ICC event.

Though it will be shown in more than 20 languages, with pictures going across Europe via Eurosport and as far as Norway, Nepal, Afghanistan and the Pacific Islands, but only one Indian language; Hindi which will see more viewership than any other language.

The production will be among the most sophisticated ever too, with 28 cameras, including seven ultra-motion cameras, Spidercam as well as graphics with key analytics, all of which will take the viewer right to the heart of the action.

Ten Sports to air Sri Lankan cricket till 2020

Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) and TEN Sports have signed a seven year deal to broadcast SLC’s international cricket matches. The deal will run through till March 2020. This includes multi-platform media and sponsorship rights globally. 

Through its network of international affiliates and other broadcasters worldwide, content will be distributed in over 100 countries.  Apart from English, TEN Sports will also be broadcasting the matches in Hindi and other regional languages.

71 percent viewers watched sports in Hindi

After Hindi, Bangla & Tamil  up next

English was the language of sports commentary when it started in India in the early 1940s on All India Radio. The listenership was limited to the English-speaking class. It was in the late 1950s that cricket commentary in Hindi made a beginning. Commentary in the language of the people took the game of cricket to the hinterlands.

The dominance of sports commentary in Hindi continued till the mid-1980s. Live commentary of India winning the 1975 Hockey World Cup & the 1983 cricket world cup were heard by most cricket fans in India in Hindi.

For the older generation, the names of commentators in Hindi such as Jasdev Singh, Suresh Saraiya, Narottam Puri and Ravi Chaturvedi still bring back memories of the 1970s and early 1980s when words created action happening on the cricket field.

Ten Action to air Junior Hockey World Cup in Hindi

Accepting demands of hockey fans Ten Sports network has decide to air Junior Hockey World Cup in Hindi on Ten Action. All India matches involving team India & play off matches will be in Hindi. All the action will be English on Ten Sports live. All league matches featuring India will be played in prime time slot at 8:00 pm. Hockey is the Ten Sports Network’s second Hindi offering after cricket. 

From 6-15 December, sixteen of the finest junior international teams in the world will fight it out for the Junior Hockey World Cup in the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, with hockey giants such as Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Argentina, Korea,  Pakistan and host nation India  among the challengers.

Ten Sports network's India vs South Africa series coverage plan

Three ODIs and two Test matches India’s tour of South Africa series will be live on Ten Sports in Hindi & Ten Cricket and  Ten HD in English. Ten Sports will also be monetising the Internet rights for the series, as it will be live streaming the matches on its website.

“With the viewer becoming more and more demanding like any other nation, and rightfully so, there is a viewer base that is looking forward to Hindi commentary and then the usual English commentary feed. Thus, we are only trying to reach out and satisfy the needs of our viewers and keep everyone glued to the action being played out on their screens in the language of their preference.” says Rajesh Sethi, CEO of Ten Sports Network.

Which cricket commentary is better – Hindi or English?

BCCI directly controls English feed

If you are a fan of text book commentary, you might argue, English commentary is better than Hindi and it has better talent.  But hold on! It is Hindi commentary which has huge numbers and editorially completely independent from Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Add to it, huge subscription revenues it brings to Star Sports Network. So if you love having options then which cricket commentary is better - Hindi or English? 

The BCCI produces the world feed and hires English commentators. And there are strict do’s and don’ts for English commentators.