As
the Fifa World Cup heads for its grand finale tomorrow between
perennial favourites Brazil and a determined Germany, some
tallies are already being made. B4U Networks, which bought
the terrestrial telecast rights from holder Taj Sports, says
it managed a good profit from the event.
Speaking
about the deferred telecast on national broadcaster Doordarshan,
Says B4U's chief distribution officer Debashish Dey: The
tournament was not only a great brand building exercise
for us, but we broke even and even managed a tidy profit
out of it."
Responding
to doubts as to the how much brand benefit was garnered
from it considering that B4U's name only appeared in the
credits, Dey said the telecast on DD1 with repeats on the
36 regional kendras (centres) was benefit enough.
Dey said 70 per cent of the inventories had been sold and
this was because the 11 pm timing was ideal if one considered
that soccer viewing essentially had a male audience. Dey's
contention was that it was only from 11 pm onwards that
the TV remote was in the male hands. His point being that
earlier than that it was the woman of the house that decided
what was to be watched.
Ten (Taj Entertainment Network) Sports, which held the rights
for India, had sold the terrestrial telecast rights to LMB
Holdings (promoter of B4U Networks). B4U then thrashed out
an an agreement with DD that cleared the way for the deferred
telecast on DD of four matches and a daily highlights capsule.
As per the terms of the deal between Taj and LMB, the terrestrial
rights allowed for transmission of four full games - the
opening game, two semifinals and the finals on a six-hour
delayed telecast. They also included a daily hourly highlights
package, also on a six-hour delayed basis.
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