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PRASAR BHARATI BAGS INDIAN
CRICKET RIGHTS
The result was as expected. Last week, the
Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) awarded the five
year rights (1999-2004) to telecast international cricket
matches from India via satellite and terrestrially to Prasar
Bharati. At the finish, the fight was between ESPN-Star Sports,
Zee TV, and Sony Entertainment and DD. But DD beat the other
three by a long distance. This is despite long-standing complaints
from Indian viewers that DD's telecast quality on cable TV
networks is the pits.
The BCCI said that it had taken the reach of
DD, which it had placed at about 54 million Indian homes,
as the primary deciding factor. The state-owned broadcaster
also agreed to pay the cricket board Rs 2,270 million (US$
54 million) for five years covering 135 days of international
cricket and 21 days a year of major domestic cricket tournaments
telecasts. The bids from ESPN-Star Sports, Zee TV, and Sony
Entertainment were between Rs 1,250 million and Rs 2,000 million
though the latter two say they were willing to top the DD
offer. Once a decision was taken to take DD's reach into consideration
the other broadcasters withdrew their offers. The BCCI contract
does not allow DD to share, assign or sell the rights to anyone
else.
Prasar Bharati CEO Rajeeva Ratna Shah in an
interview during a sports programme on DD that the broadcaster
will sign on a production firm to help it in the telecast
of the matches. TWI, which had earlier been producer for the
cricket match telecasts on ESPN-Star Sports, has already said
that it is willing to sign on with any company that gets the
contract.
Additionally, DD is likely to farm out airtime
sales for the cricket telecast to a private company. The front
runner in this race is Nimbus Communications, which sold commercial
airtime for the broadcaster during the telecast of the World
Cup Cricket tournament on DD.
It's possible that DD may not be able to make
money from advertising revenues alone and hence may be forced
to take the pay TV route for its satellite broadcast of the
cricket matches. But it could prove a tall order for the network
as it has been having problems getting the cable TV trade
to carry its primary channels DD I and DD II on the prime
band. Dealing with India's well-spread out and disparate cable
TV operators is no easy task.
The loss of the cricket telecast rights is
likely to have an impact on ESPN-Star Sports fortunes in India
though it has the rights to telecast cricket from several
other countries. Already, the channel is reeling from the
imminent departure of its India managing director R.K. Singh
who is expected to join Zee TV as a co-promoter and help Subhash
Chandra in rolling out the Zee digital bouquet over the next
few months.
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