| MUMBAI:
2009 was the year to be in a different industry. ESPN-Star's billion dollar investment
in cricket's Champions League made the Dubai property market look a safe bet.
The IPL riches were diverted into the pockets of South African travel agents.
In the ICC's showpiece event, India's world champion 20-20 team batted so slowly
they turned into the No. 1 Test team. India's hockey team fell so low, the world
rankings needed a second page. The Commonwealth Games promises India Gold medals
for bad publicity and even WWE's Khali lost whatever it was he'd won the year
before. Add
that to world economic woes, rampant news channel piracy, illegal websites, Pakistan
cricket, rain in the West Indies and having to move house, and you've got my year
to forget.
On
the positive side, 2010 is the year of the big event for Indian sports channels.
The Hero Honda hockey World Cup, the IPL, the ICC 20-20, the FIFA soccer World
Cup, the Commonwealth Games, India's tour of South Africa and the Asian Games
all tumble after each other. The
advertising incomes are looking healthier, DTH numbers are growing month on month
and the range of big non cricket events can help change the perception that only
cricket delivers value. 2009
was the year when hardly any major new sports deals were done in India. The one
exception was Nimbus's extension of the BCCI contract, a smart piece of negotiating
by the Nimbus team that perhaps signifies a levelling of expectation from the
cricket boards. That reality check on price is needed, but the doom and gloom
on the value of Test and ODI cricket has been overplayed. The ratings still deliver
remarkably consistently for meaningful cricket between well balanced teams in
whatever format of the game. One
of the less heralded legacies of the "Lalit Modi era" has been the quiet
removal of the concept of each Test playing side playing each other Test playing
side home and away. Zimbabwe and Bangladesh's best chance of seeing India these
days is by booking a holiday in Goa. The BCCI is happy to travel to the smaller
cricketing nations (giving Bangladesh and Zimbabwe the boost of TV and sponsor
income), but they're not going to waste their precious home games on one-sided
matches. It might not suit the ICC, but it works for both the BCCI and the other
boards. 2010
should finally see the unveiling of cricket's next six-year plan of fixtures,
and what will hopefully see a "flight to quality". More matches that
promise even contests between well matched sides rather than meaningless three-day
Tests and ODIs that are won by the toss. 2009's
seen plenty of talk of defending Test match cricket. My pet obsession is seeing
how many Test matches are being scheduled to play Monday-Friday, as if designed
to stop people watching them. The only people these matches suit are the administrators
who get home for the weekend. Hopefully 2010 will see success in the pink ball,
day night experiments and we will be on the way to Test cricket being played in
prime time. The
best piece of rescheduling I've seen for some time is the Pakistan-Australia Tests
in July 2010, which will now happen in England and will make the matches happen
in prime time for the sub-continent audience. At a stroke, they become much more
valuable for the sport as so many more people will be able to watch them. Pakistan's
varied itinerary also saw the debut of Dubai Sports city as an international stadium.
It's round the corner from my house, so I am slightly biased, but I believe it's
the best cricket stadium in Asia for the viewing public. One of my hopes for 2010
is that it gets to see some regular cricket rather than sit as a dusty monument
to Dubai's dreams. Away
from cricket in 2009, the world hockey federation (the FIH) have shown faith in
India to deliver a hockey World Cup that can revitalise the sport in the country.
The evidence so far has been remarkably positive. Investment from sponsors (via
the Commune agency) has poured in and the Hero Honda World Cup will be a true
opportunity for the Indian game. The
Indian team are showing signs of progress (third in the champions challenge).
Hopefully, home conditions and passionate crowds can work in their favour and
the final of the tournament in March will overshadow the start of the IPL on the
same day. Zee
Sports deserves full marks for bravery in their attempt to showcase Indian football.
Plenty have tried and failed to turn the undoubted passion for Indian football
into a marketable property. The emotion and quality on show at the Nehru Cup in
2009 is an indication that this is not a lost cause. However, the sport needs
to learn from the positive qualities of the Nehru Cup. Full crowds, matches to
care about, prime time content all come together as part of the equation that
can make the sport work. International
football is certainly gaining ground in some areas of India, even if the viewing
figures don't really back that statement up. Premium Indian advertisers are beginning
to spend on the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and the BPL. Wealthy
Delhi and Mumbai kids all seem to have an English or Spanish football shirt in
their wardrobe, and the FIFA world Cup in South Africa should be a superb event. The
international football market is licking its lips at the prospect of an Indian
audience buying more of those shirts. The research doesn't currently support the
emotion. Premier league and UEFA Champions League figures are showing no signs
of growth, but they are showing signs that people care more. The
soccer World Cup can only help the process in 2010. I do believe ESPN-Star overpaid
with their $48 million bid for three years of Premier League football from 2010-2012,
but I remain very happy to watch them every weekend. One
of the sporting stories of the year for 2009 came in a sport that I care very
little about. Formula 1 tends to leave me cold, but I love an underdog. As a result
Vijay Mallya's Force India perked even my interest with their achievements in
2009. To take a podium place and come so close to a first place was remarkable,
particularly when you see the sort of funding that the big teams have. As we move
towards an Indian Grand Prix and the new circuit on the edge of Delhi, then there
is considerable potential for growth around Indian motorsport and its talented
young drivers. Indian
golf has some passionate supporters in the industry and 2010 promises more Asian
tour events in the country as well as more Indian golfers succeeding on a world
stage. Again, from a television industry perspective, we don't really see the
numbers on a weekly basis but the passionate and committed golf viewer certainly
wants more, and the current structure of Indian sports channels does not fulfil
that need. Though
sporting prowess on the field has a remarkable effect on the value of what we
show, the real test for the Indian market is how quickly television sport is allowed
to move away from being an advertising supported industry
to a subscriber supported
industry. The
lack of accountability and the issues with collections in the cable industry has
frustrated the growth of the Indian television sports business. DTH is a true
sign of hope, with a viewer choosing and paying for his channel rather than a
cable operator choosing for a viewer, and only occasionally paying. The closer
that paying relationship between the end consumer and the sports channel, the
more chance we have of justifying varied and stimulating content that people actually
want to watch. Indian
sports television has come a long way in the last 15 years since I sat watching
Chinese football on Prime Sports but unable to watch the Premier league. Yet there
is still huge amount of quality sport inside and outside India that is not seen
on TV by an Indian audience. The World Athletics Championships, the Spanish football
league, the Ultimate Fighting Championships, the European hockey league, the American
NFL are all events that some people in India want to watch, but currently cannot
do so. The rest of the world is now watching in HD, but India is watching in 4:3,
not even in widescreen. Free
the sports channels from the limitations of Trai (Telecom Regulatory Authority
of India) pricing, and the doors will open to even better experiences. Control
the piracy, encourage innovation. Allow variety of sporting experience, encourage
quality of production. Filling each hour of live sport programming with advertising,
squeezing back the screen every ball of a cricket match does not deliver the quality
of viewing experience that an audience deserves. Let's
hope that 2010 allows sports channels the legislative freedoms to offer premium
products at premium prices and take Indian sports TV into the 21st century. | 
