2013: Sports channels begin to challenge the traditional rules

By Peter Hutton : Joint CEO of sports media rights company MP & Silva

Peter Hutton is Joint CEO of sports media rights company MP & Silva)

Read more at: http://www.televisionpost.com/television/2013-sports-channels-begin-to-challenge-the-traditional-rules/ | TelevisionPost.com

Peter Hutton is Joint CEO of sports media rights company MP & Silva)

Read more at: http://www.televisionpost.com/television/2013-sports-channels-begin-to-challenge-the-traditional-rules/ | TelevisionPost.com

Peter Hutton is Joint CEO of sports media rights company MP & Silva)

Read more at: http://www.televisionpost.com/television/2013-sports-channels-begin-to-challenge-the-traditional-rules/ | TelevisionPost.com

Welcome to the Year of the Star cricket series featuring the Star Indian cricket team on Star Sports. Quite a last 12 months for Uday Shankar and Nitin Kukreja’s team at Star—they’ve built on their inherited sports business with dynamism and an intent to be local and relevant. In the last year, a huge spend on the next three years of the English Premier League football and a leap into the darkness of the hockey franchise world has shown a continued determination to challenge the rules of the Indian sports traditions. 

Those rules certainly needed re-writing with all the sports channels dragged into losses by the relentless inflation of cricket rights. Now we wait to see if Star can rewrite the rules on collections of revenues with sports as the battering ram of their whole entertainment business. What can’t be disputed is the way that they’ve used the entertainment channels to help cross-promote and build the bigger event to a wider audience.

Sachin’s last Test was a human interest story that transcended sport, and I’m sure the support of the Star network helped maximise the value of that emotional goodbye. Star also deserves credit for their investment in digital content that makes multiple games or multiple views of a sports event available.

Hindi & Indian Languages to take sports to next level : Star India Sports Prez

Star Sports presented a unique series of Knowledge Sessions - the India Pro Leagues Forum 2013 in New Delhi. STAR India President – Sports Nitin Kukreja delivered an engaging and insightful keynote address at the inaugural session of the summit, elaborating on the growing appetite of the Indian sports fans and the enormous growth potential of sports in the country.

Does ‘sport’ in India really begin and end with ‘Big Boys’ Cricket’? Or do we just see it that way? Across the length and breadth of India, there are strong communities and pockets of interest where people are passionately engaged with local sports and local players - football in Bengal, hockey in Punjab and Orissa, badminton in Hyderabad, basketball played in schools and table tennis played in clubs, colleges and offices across the country.

This weekend it’s raining football : pick your match on TV

UEFA champions League first leg is over and teams are back to face their well known domestic rivals. Indian sports channels will air some of the best action across the European League and for desi football fans, we will get to know if East Bengal become the second Indian club to enter AFC cup semi-final when they face Semen Padang in AFC Cup quterfinal second leg on Tueday. Manchester City vs Manchester United is the marquee clash of the weekend. All the clashes, timings and channels are to keep yourself up-to-date so that you don’t miss any of the action.

ESPN will telecast Sultan Johor Cup Hockey from September 22

Gone are the days when hockey fans would rarely get to watch live action. Indian young guns will be seen live taking on England, Korea, Malaysia, Argentina and Pakistan in 3rd Sultan of Johor Cup. 


ESPN will telecast 3rd Sultan of Johor Cup Hockey tournament live which begins at Johor Bahru in Malaysia from September 22-29 with Hindi commentary. Olympian Jagbir Singh & Sunil Taneja will be calling the games for viewers back home. 

Sports channels are trying to reduce their dependence on expensive and limited cricket properties and betting big on other sports, hockey is one such sport. 

Sept 14 is Super Soccer Saturday: A dozen football matches live on TV

Transfer season is over and we are back on the pitch. Indian sports channels have 12 big matches live on this Saturday. All the clashes, timings and channels are here.

Ten Sports to broadcast Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games

Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games will be aired in India and neighboring countries on Ten Sports Network. The CWG Organizing Committee has sold Indian subcontinent broadcast rights to Taj TV - the Dubai-based broadcaster owned by Zee, which runs Ten Sports, Ten Cricket, Ten Action, Ten HD and Ten Golf.
  

Glasgow 2014 games will also be aired on pubcaster DD Sports and DD National in Hindi and English as it is mandatory to share live sports feeds of national importance with public broadcaster.

Star Sports 2 to air NKP Salve Challenger Trophy

2013 edition of the one day cricket tournament NKP Salve Challenger Trophy will be aired live on Star Sports 2 & ESPN HD starting September 26. The tournament is played just before the start of Ranji Trophy season, with the purpose of showcasing the talent that the country has, as well as providing opportunities for younger players to make an impression.

The venues and teams for the four day tournament are yet to be announced. Earlier all matches were to be played day-night. But thanks to timings clash with ongoing Champions League T20, all matches will now be played in day.

Calcutta Football League & IFA Shield on Jalsha Movies in Bangla : Star Sports is going local

In a bid to expand its footprint beyond film, Star India’s Bengali movie channel, Jalsha, has acquired exclusive broadcast rights of two football events : the Calcutta Football League (CFL) and IFA Shield Tournament. 

 The CFL, which enjoys the distinction of being the oldest football league  in Asia, will be broadcast live on Jalsha Movies starting 8 September,  4:00 pm onward. The upcoming season of the prestigious IFA tourney    too will be aired with the aim of ushering a new era in Bengal’s much       loved sport.

How IBL managed to strike gold against all odds

What went into transforming IBL from the league that
almost didn't make it to one of the success stories 

It is 11 am on an unusually sunny Sunday morning in Mumbai, but Ashish Chadha is still groggy. The previous night ended only at six in the morning for him. There was reason to celebrate for the CEO of Sporty Solutionz, which bought and ran the Indian Badminton League. Against all odds, the League had completed its first season successfully, and how. From the league that almost didn’t happen, it is being compared with the elephant in the room, cricket’s Indian Premier League, and perhaps more importantly, sans the controversies.

The smile on Chadha’s face betrays the relief at having defied the odds. The fates of the boxing and hockey leagues, which by all accounts, went down with a whimper, were still fresh in public memory. Sleepless nights weren’t new to him. In the last year, he has taken at least 300 flights, he says, trying to sell an idea that looked like reaching for the stars. It would either have to be a grand do or a feeble die.

Ten Action to air 75 I-League & 15 Fed Cup matches

Ten Action & Ten Sports to air

75 I-League & 15 Fed Cup matches

The country’s premier football tournament, I-League will kick off on September 21 with 14 teams in the fray.

A three-month window has been provided for the IPL-style football league in January-March next year. 

A total of 75 I-league matches and 15 Federation Cup matches will be telecast live on Ten Action and Ten Sports.

Defending champions Churchill Brothers will take on Salgaocar FC in the opening match of the 26-round league at Duler in Goa.

Five brands sign on-air deals for Bundesliga on Neo Sports

NEO Sports Broadcast has announced a list of sponsors for the German Football League.

The associate sponsors for the Bundesliga’s 51st season in 2013-14 are Airtel, Lava, Loreal, Bose and Nike. More brands are in the process of signing up the channel revealed.

                           

The number of sponsors announced is amongst the highest for any football league broadcast in the country. Through these associations, NEO has nearly sold out all inventories on the Bundesliga, the broadcaster claims.

Hindi commentary of BPL enhances ESPN Star Sports ratings

ESPN Star Sports seems to have hit the right notes with its viewers with the telecast of Barclays Premier League (BPL) this year. And it’s no plain statement. The broadcaster which is airing the football league in both English and Hindi this season has reported a 254 per cent jump in its ratings on the inaugural day. Not only this, the broadcaster also recorded a 105 per cent increase in its time spent per viewer on the day.

The league which went on air from 17 August on Star Sports and Star Cricket is also made available in Hindi for the first time. “We believe there is a huge potential for growth in football viewership and that Indian fans would love to consume non-cricket sports as well if the product is packaged well, communicated and presented in an interesting manner,” said ESPN Software India COO Vijay Rajput.

Behind the live telecast

For a cricket crazy nation it is just a matter of pressing a button on television remote to join the game. But a huge manpower and technical expertise are required behind the telecasting of cricket matches live from every venue to make it a worldwide fever.

Star Sports is the only cricketcaster which airs separate Hindi and English presentations. India has some 54.52 million DTH subscribes, 70% of them live in rural and small town India and this knowledge has inspired sportscaster Star Sports to air separate and quality Hindi presentation.

A team of around 200-250 people, most of them free lancers, works behind the scenes in making the footage available to the cricket fans across the globe. Instead of tendering production, BCCI has an in-house television production unit and the BCCI Broadcasting unit not only does the production for international home series, but also for the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Champions League T20.

Why Star Cricket is showing football?

News channels airing comedy shows or bollywood promotions are not uncommon scenes in India. But a cricket channel telecasting football seems a bit strange. 

Ongoing season of English Premier League is being aired on Star Cricket and Star Cricket HD at the moment along with Star Sports with Hindi and English commentary. Strange though it may seem, it is well thought out coverage plan of Star Sports Network.

This is how to change commentary feed of Star Sports channels

Star Sports network which has grown into a network of six channels - Star Sports, Star Sports 2, Star Cricket, ESPN, Star Cricket HD and ESPN HD, is now airing two commentary feeds, Hindi and English, on its four Standard Definition channels - Star Sports, Star Sports 2, Star Cricket and ESPN. 

EPL, hockey matches, badminton & Super Fight League  

available with dual commentary feeds on same channel  

While cricket has different Hindi and English presentations, other sports are aired with same presentation and dual commentary feed.

Hindi and English dual commentary feeds on the same channel are available for English Premier League, Indian Badminton League, Hockey matches (international matches and Hockey India League) and Super Fight League. Star Sports is planning to add Hindi feeds of other sports. Here is how you can choose your preferred commentary feed on Star Sports Network.

Court ruling at midnight and sports coverage changed for ever !

Hero Cup is remembered for Sachin's last over
but it changed Indian Sportscasting for forever

Hero Cup 1993 is remembered for Sachin Tendulkar’s last over bowling. South Africa needed 6 runs off last 6 bowls chasing 196 in the nail-biting final at Eden Gardens.  

Sachin bowled perhaps the best over of his career on 24 November 1993.  Even though it was his first over in this match. His leg spin did the trick and gave away just 3 runs. India won the match and the 5 nation Hero Cup.  

But this tournament went down in the history of Indian sports broadcasting as a turning point.

Star Sports' big game plan

Star is in the middle of spending Rs 5,000 crore on bootstrapping sports viewing in a country of some 650 million cricketcrazy consumers. In doing so, Star India team aim to make sports the new religion in the world's youngest population: by taking broadcasting to local-level tourneys; producing sports programming in Indian languages; expanding beyond cricket into sports such as hockey, football, badminton and, even, kabaddi; and powering digital delivery of content via the Internet. Star Sports has taken many cutting-edge decisions such as being the first broadcaster to launch high definition (HD) sports feeds or offering Indian language content in the sports genre.

So what is Star Sports' game plan ? "It's a very simple sociological insight, that passionate consumers of sports are, sort of, surrogate players of that sport," Uday Shankar, Star India Chief told Business Today

Barclays Premier League to be telecasted in two language options

With the football season nearing Star Sports network will now offer every football fan the opportunity to cheer their favourite players and teams with Hindi commentary along with English. Entire season will be aired on Star Cricket, Star Sports and Star Cricket HD with both the language options. 

          

For the first time Star Sports Network

will air on-ground Hindi football commentary

However, Star Cricket HD and ESPN HD channels subscribers will only be offered the English feed. Star Sports has roped in some UK based Indian commentators for Hindi commentary and has launched a campaign 'Join the Game' with Indian cricket team captain M.S.Dhoni as brand ambassador.

"The decision to offer viewers a chance to switch to Hindi commentary has been on the cards for a while now", says a release from sportscaster. To build up its new offering, the sports broadcaster has launched two shows Sports Active and Super Star Football with Ankita Anand as host.

Dhoni lends identity to football in India. Will it work for Star Sports?

Through the star cricketer's route, STAR Sports expects to get non-football viewers on to Barclays Premier League. The campaign urges Dhoni fans to 'Join the Game'. Will it work for Star Sports?  

Even if cricket is the biggest craze of the country and Dhoni, the biggest celebrity for it, can football gain popularity on the back of cricket? Will Dhoni's association make that big a difference to Barclays Premier League as a brand?

Commercially speaking, the man who leads the Men in Blue on the ground currently has more than 22 endorsements. Proving his entrepreneurial instinct, Dhoni has acquired equity stakes or key roles in the companies he endorses. He is not that highly urban and sophisticated brat. He appeals to the rural and semi-urban Indians in a very big way." 
Gaining traction with the rural/semi urban masses could also explain the channel's decision to launch Hindi feeds commentary for select 100 matches of the league.Why MSD? There is a two pronged reasoning to this, suggest brand consultants. 

Star Sports ropes in Dhoni to promote EPL in Hindi

Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni would be seen promoting soccer on STAR Sports network. The spotscaster Star Sports has roped in the Indian Cricket Captain as the brand ambassador of the Barclays English Premier League in India.

The campaign, build around the theme ‘Join the Game’, comes on the back of the sportscaster announcing the launch of Hindi presentation for the first time on EPL.

"A keen soccer enthusiast and a Manchester United fan, MS Dhoni will invite all sports fans to 'Join the Game' in a clutter breaking integrated marketing campaign which will be launched early next week. The campaign will have a strong on-air and digital media thrust," the sportscaster said in a release.