Sony to take on Star in the sports broadcasting space - Footy Updates

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Wednesday, 22 January 2014

Sony to take on Star in the sports broadcasting space

Sony Six, the sports and entertainment channel from the Multi Screen Media Pvt Ltd (MSML), is gearing up to take on star Sports in a bid to emerge as the leading sports broadcaster in the country. The company set up almost two year ago recently won the rights to the FIFA world cup in 2014 and 2018, which is expected to rake in revenues of Rs 100 crore for the company according to industry estimates.  

With the company bagging a number of rights including the lucrative Pepsi Indian Premiere League (IPL), FIFA World cup 2014 and 2018, Qualifiers for UEFA EURO 2016, European Qualifiers for 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, Total Non-Stop Action (TNA), The Australian Open Tennis Championship, The NBA, The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as well as The Indian Open Super Series and The India Open Grand Prix Gold in badminton, it could emerge on top in the domestic broadcasting space in the next few months, feel experts.

Sony currently has one channel offering sports as compared to six channels by Star and four by Zee. "Of course Star has an advantage since they have been around for long. We have been establishing ourselves over the past year and we are focusing on key areas such as IPL and FIFA and we will possibly see results a few months from now. We have tried catering to the Hindi masses in the past during IPL and we will see how to go about in the future," Prasana Krishnan, Business head at Sony Six said.

Sony's arch rival, Star TV India had earlier said that it was investing Rs 20,000 crore in the next three to five years to revamp its sports channel offerings. Star also plans to buy equity stake in properties like hockey and badminton and build them like it has done in the past by buying 30% stake in the Indian Football League.

"The portfolio for the current year looks good. We will start off with India's tour of New Zealand, followed by FIFA, then European Central Qualifiers and the Australian Open. If you see in terms of competition, we certainly consider ourselves among the top sports broadcasters in the country. India has a market which is big enough for multiple players. There is also potential for multiple sports in the country. We have identified a specific area for ourselves. Therefore, it is not that we are taking someone head on, but rather carving out a niche for ourselves," Krishnan said.

Sports broadcasters in India usually earn a major portion of their revenue through subscription unlike the general entertainment channels, which draw 60% of their revenues from advertising. India's sports channels have a market share of only 4% compared to 50% market share held by GECs. While cricket is predominantly the main sporting event, events such as the Indian Badminton league and football are slowly and gradually picking up pace.

"At this point Cricket is not making any money and broadcasters are suffering since the cost is high and the feed needs to be shared with Doordarshan. We are hoping that in the next 3-4 years as digitisation happens, sports broadcasting in India will pick up and fare better. Sony will need to start many more properties if they have to become relevant. Star and Zee have done than successfully in the past few years," said Abneesh Roy, Associate Director at Edelweiss Securities said.

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