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The West Indies rights is for all telecast in the Asian
market. The rights were previously with ESPN Star Sports.
The West Indies deal was signed on Monday, Taj Television
Ltd (Ten Sports' holding company) CEO Chris McDonald
told indiantelevision.com. Taj has reportedly won the
rights from Rupert Murdoch's Sky Broadcasting. Although
just signed, the deal takes effect from March 2004 when
England tour the West Indies.
As reported earlier on indiantelevision.com, Ten won
the Pakistan cricket rights in March. Ten Sports beat
out bids from Transworld International (TWI) - who previously
held the telecast rights - ESPN Star Sports and World
Sport Nimbus to seal the Pakistan deal. The deal signed
between the Pakistan Cricket board (PCB) and Taj TV
gives Ten rights to all international matches hosted
by the PCB for five years from April 2003 till the end
of 2008.
With West Indies in the bag, Ten Sports holds the rights
for all the major non-White cricket nations, Pakistan,
Sri Lanka and the West Indies (India cricket rights
are with national broadcaster Doordarshan). Additionally
there is Sharjah and Morocco, both of which are one-day
centres that belong to Taj promoter Abdurrahman Bukhatir.
Elaborating on the implications on the latest rights
acquisition and other issues, McDonald says, "We are
now the number one channel on sports in India, and that
includes cricket." McDonald pointed out that Ten Sports
alone would show a total of 213 one-day international
cricket matches over the next four years while ESPN
and Star Sports would have a combined total of 213 matches.
Ten expects to capitalise on the resurgence that hockey
is witnessing in India with the national squad having
won back-to-back tourneys in Australia and Germany.
Coming up next month is the live telecast of the Champions
Trophy being held in The Netherlands. There is also
the Olympic qualifying tourney in early 2004, McDonald
said.
Admittedly though, it is the WWE wrestling that provides
Ten with its daily ratings fix. McDonald said Ten hoped
to get in another WWE tour into the country this year
as was done last year (in November).
Commenting on a post-CAS scenario, McDonald said Ten's
pricing of Rs 14 was less than half of what was being
charged by ESPN or Star Sports (Rs 29 each). In such
a scenario, Ten would become a far more attractive option
for the consumer than the competition, McDonald asserts.
Click
here for comparision of sports rights held by ESPN Star
Sports and Ten Sports
Also Read:
Taj
TV bags Pakistan cricket rights
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