Sports channels play gladiator game

MUMBAI: Sports channels and broadcasters are going for the big shots with cricket rights. ESPN has ensured a marathon innings by acquiring the telecast rights for all international cricket from Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and England till 2008.
SET Max bowled a googly by bagging rights for the coming World Cup and the next one, in 2007.Abdul Rehman Bukhatir’s Ten Sports, meanwhile, has the sheikh’s own Sharjah and Morocco Cups in its pocket. And although WWF wrestling, and not cricket, is their forte, the channel says it will soon announce more cricket acquisitions. DD Sports, lagging quality, is sitting on all the cricket played in India. The latest arrangement, or the ‘multi-cricket board deal’, gives ESPN 1,100 days of live coverage over five years.
The channel has broadcast rights from eight out of the ten test-playing nations. “Now, we truly represent the cricket networks,’’ claims Manu Sawney, MD of ESPN Software India. But just as Ten Sports snatched the soccer World Cup rights from ESPN and kicked off the brand with the mega event, SET Max now plans to leverage cricket’s biggest festival with unbridled hype. In both cases, the channels reportedly quoted hugely exaggerated sums. “Going to such lengths is not part of our strategy. We are running a business here. This is not about ego or emotion. Besides, we don’t consider ourselves an event-based channel,’’ Mr Sawney said. He adds: “Business is not a one-dayer, it is a test match.’’
So, while ESPN concentrates on continuous cricket feeds as a niche and exclusive sports channel, SET Max feels its cricket-and-Bollywood combination buys it into the Indian masses. Four-month-old Ten Sports does not have a single India match to offer at present, but it says its cricket content is relevant to India. “We have games of those nations Indians love to watch— South Africa, Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan,’’ says a Ten Sports official. While ESPN accuses SET Max of not having exclusive rights to most matches and having a surfeit of youth cricket, others say 80 per cent of the days claimed by ESPN is actually test cricket, which doesn’t draw as much viewer interest as the one-dayers.
“Besides, every cricket lover in India knows that Yuvraj and Kaif and Agarkar were discovered from youth teams, so there is great willingness to watch,’’ says Rajat Jain, executive vice president of SET Max, countering the ESPN charge. All this competition has, however, introduced an unprecedented race for innovation in content and programming. Lifestyle areas around sports are being explored intensely—be it Beckam’s haircut or Saurav Ganguly’s superstitions. For the coming cricket World Cup, the first one not to feature on a niche sports channel, SET Max is preparing a parade of sidelights.
“We will provide a cricketing experience that marries the thrill of sporting action with the tremendous potential that the game and its players have to provide additional entertainment. It will surely add a huge chunk of women viewers,’’ says Mr Jain. There promises to be a lot of cricket vignettes too. Besides, with new programming techniques, camera angles, information for viewers, commentary and analysis, SET Max plans to target the entire family rather than just the cricket fan.
Others are technically as apt, if not ahead. ESPN, for instance, uses about 23 cameras to cover an English premier league game. However, this entertaining contest between channels comes for a cost to the consumer. ESPN announces its price rise every January. The Sony bouquet will also cost more. So, for all the fun in the drawing room, you could be paying for that clubhouse ticket.