MUMBAI: Asian sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has announced two new appointments strengthening its Cricket Syndication Team.

Guy Le Grew, who previously supported the syndication team in his capacity as Assistant General Counsel will now assume the role of Director, Syndication. Assuming a wider commercial role, Le Grew will now be responsible for handling sales and client servicing activities in addition to providing acquisition and legal support on all cricket deals, with responsibility for territories in the UK and Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada and South Africa.

ESS senior VP corporate development, cricket rights Anurag Dahiya said, "I am delighted to have someone of Guy‘s calibre take a wider role in our team as we enter a new year. We look forward to leveraging his proven negotiation and commercial expertise to enhance our global relationships and activities."

Further to Le Grew‘s appointment senior manager of cricket syndication Sunil Manoharan has been tasked with a more independent role in managing clients in the territories of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, West Indies, Middle East and others, and will continue to coordinate various cricket event operations.

Both new appointments will strengthen ESS‘ Cricket Syndication Team with a further injection of legal, commercial, broadcasting and production experience.

Prior to joining ESS, Le Grew was based in the United Kingdom, where he worked as a Senior Legal Advisor in the Legal and Business Affairs team at Sky Sports, Britain‘s largest sports broadcaster. During his five-year tenure, he was responsible for delivering a full range of legal support across the business including the negotiation and implementation of a variety of acquisition, production and sponsorship deals, as well as providing extensive contractual and legal advice.

He has more than 12 years of legal experience, having started his career with Middletons Lawyers in Australia in the Corporate/Commercial Mergers and Acquisitions division. He then moved to the United Kingdom to a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland as In-house Corporate Legal Advisor and later moved to British Sky Broadcasting before relocating to Singapore to join ESS in January 2010.

Manoharan brings with him more than 15 years of Broadcast experience and prior to his current role in Sports Rights Sales and Management, he produced content for television including live sport, magazine shows and promos. Since joining ESS more than eleven years ago, Manoharan has specialised in live sports broadcasting with a particular focus on cricket, and has produced live cricket from most of the iconic cricket stadiums from around the world.

MUMBAI: Hyderabad-based DQ Entertainment (DQE), the animation, gaming, live action entertainment production and distribution company, has appointed SMC Entertainment as its rights partner in North America, Australia and South Africa.

With the appointment, SMC has acquired all North American TV, home entertainment, licensing and merchandising rights, as well as all promotional rights to the 52 x 11‘ episode CGI-animated Jungle Book television series along with a one-hour feature from DQ Entertainment International.

Said DQE Chairman and CEO Tapaas Chakravarti, "The success of our TV series The Jungle Book is validated by the quality of partners it has attracted globally. From licensing for TV broadcast to merchandising across a varied range of products, the property has met with huge success and appealed to a new generation of children across all nationalities. 

"We are delighted with the partnership with SMC for North America and South Africa and are convinced that they will do justice to this iconic brand. I am sure our beloved Jungle Book will see new highs in the hands of our new and able partners."

In addition, SMC has acquired the master toy rights for Australia and New Zealand and licensing and merchandising rights of for The Jungle Book for South Africa. The company would market the series at Kidscreen Summit and the New York Toy Fair in February 2012.

SMC Entertainment (SMC) is the recently launched entertainment and brand management division of global consumer products manufacturer Sun-Mate Corporation.

MUMBAI: FremantleMedia Australia (FMA) has appointed Jo Porter to the new role of director of drama. Porter will be responsible for the strategy and production of all drama content for FMA, and will report into FremantleMedia CEO Asia Pacific Ian Hogg.

Hogg said, "FMA has a long and successful heritage of creating leading drama productions which have been successful in Australia and around the world. Over the last three decades our company‘s pedigree in producing long running, best in practice drama is extraordinary. Reg Grundy pioneered programmes such as ‘Prisoner‘, ‘Sons and Daughters‘ and ‘Young Doctors‘, all of which were ahead of their time, along with ‘Neighbours‘ which is about to begin its 27th year on air.

"This is an outstanding testament to our existing capabilities in drama and we have very clear ambitions for the future. I can think of nobody better than Jo to build on our success and lead an expansion in drama production for FMA, as we look to export our stories and culture to the world stage."

FremantleMedia COO Gary Carter added, "Drama production continues to be a crucial component of our business internationally and the appointment of Jo Porter in Australia will have a global impact. Jo will collaborate with our Worldwide Drama team to develop Australian stories and productions for the international market. We are incredibly excited to have Jo on board."

Porter has spent much of her career with the Seven Network in Australia. She joined Seven in 1997 to establish and produce All Saints. The series quickly became one of the most popular dramas on Australian television, winning AFI Awards in 1999 and 2000 and a Logie Award in 2001.

MUMBAI: The chairman of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Local Organising Committee, James Strong, announced appointment of John Harnden as CEO of the Local Organising Committee for the event.

The 2015 Cricket World Cup will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand. Harnden is currently South Australian Cricket Association CEO. He was formerly Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games CEO, Australian Grand Prix Corporation CEO and Village Roadshow International Theme Parks CEO.

Strong said that Harnden had built a reputation over many years for delivering large scale international events and projects on time, on budget and to world?s best standard. "Coupled with his current role in cricket administration, this made John the perfect candidate for the job of chief executive. John is known and admired around the world for his strategic thinking, the personal commitment he brings to every task, his ability to build and lead outstanding teams and his willingness to work collaboratively with everyone involved in a project," Strong said.

Harnden said he was looking forward to starting work on the tournament. "Cricket is a passion for me from a personal and a professional perspective. I am delighted to be a part of the 2015 Cricket World Cup and look forward to working with James Strong and the rest of the Board as well as everyone at New Zealand Cricket and Cricket Australia. We will make this a real partnership across the Tasman," he said.

MUMBAI: Ten Sports has retained the broadcasting rights for the FIH Champions Challenge and Champions Trophy.

The top men?s team from around the world will play in both the tournaments, which are held under the aegis of hockey?s governing body FIH.

FIH Champions Challenge will be played at Johannesburg from 26 November - 4 December. FIH Champions Challenge is the second major event on the men?s calendar before the 2012 London Olympics.

The Champions Challenge features the eight countries ranked from ninth to 16th in the world. Eight teams competing, in the tournament are India, Belgium, Poland, South Africa, Argentina, Canada, Japan and Malaysia.

The tournament will see 24 matches played over six days.

Ten Sports will also be telecasting the FIH Champions Trophy 2011 to be played in Auckland from 3 -11 December. The eight teams competing, in world ranking order are Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Great Britain, Korea, New Zealand and Pakistan. The tournament will see 24 matches played over six days.

Ten Sports CEO Atul Pande said, "We are committed to bringing the best sports action to our viewers, and this new agreement with FIH for telecast of Champions Challenge and Champions Trophy , reaffirms our commitment to grow the sports business and consolidate our position as the leading sports broadcaster."

FIH president Leandro Negre said, "We?re delighted to bring these events to subcontinental audiences via Ten Sports. In particular, Ten Sports? support has allowed us to fully televise the Champions Challenge in the subcontinent for only the second time in its history."

Meanwhile, Nimbus is gearing up for its hockey league World Series Hockey (WSH), which launches in December. Neo Sports will air the event.

MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide Channels has announced that the latest series of motoring show ?Top Gear? will be coming to global television screens just days after the UK premiere transmission.

Kicking off with a new ?Top Gear? special in early 2012, series 18 will follow a maximum of 14 days after the UK transmission of the series on BBC Entertainment in India, Africa and Latin America and on BBC Knowledge in Poland and Asia.

BBC Worldwide Channels senior VP programming, TV channels David Weiland said, "It?s an important part of our programming strategy to bring as much of our acquired content to air as closely on our global network as it does in the UK. Top Gear is a hugely popular programme with viewers across all our territories and I?m delighted we are able to bring the latest series to them so close to the UK premiere transmission."

Sold to almost 200 territories worldwide, Top Gear achieves viewing figures of over six million viewers per episode when it premieres in the UK and is regularly the most downloaded programme on the BBC?s UK iPlayer, BBC Worldwide said. Since 2008, four international versions have been licensed by BBC Worldwide in Australia, Russia, China and the US.