ESPN Star to launch Star Cricket

Within four-months of bagging the $1.1 billion telecast rights for International Cricket Council (ICC) including the next two World Cups, sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports is launching Star Cricket, a dedicated cricket channel especially for audiences in the Indian subcontinent.

Slated for a June launch, Star Cricket will be the 15th network launched by ESPN Star Sports in the Asia-Pacific region and the third channel for India. The company is also in talks with direct-to-home (DTH) companies such as Tata Sky and Dish TV for putting Star Cricket on DTH platform.

Star Cricket will be the second 'only-cricket' channel after Neo Sports from Nimbus Communications, the company that has television rights for all the first-class cricket being played in the country.

With Star Cricket, ESPN India expects a 'significant' boost in its revenues. For advertisers, a number of non-live programming on Star Cricket will be sold on an exclusive basis.

"We have always sold ESPN and Star Sports together. With Star Cricket, we may exclusively sell advertising spots on some of the non-live programming," R C Venkateish, managing director, ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd, told Business Standard.

For 2007-08, Neo Sports, the only cricket channel so far, expects to generate advertising in excess of Rs 1,200 crore for the forthcoming international series in India. With Star Cricket launched, media planners expect advertisers to spend big.

"Star Cricket will bring in a lot of international cricket including a number of twenty-twenty formats. This will attract viewership from dedicated sports fans. Therefore a number of premium and niche brands including portals and shopping malls, will advertise on it," a senior media buyer said.

Talking of Star Cricket, Venkateish said the new channel was a part of the long-term plans for India.

"With lots of cricket and other sporting properties with us, this channel was coming for some time. While ESPN and Star Sports will also continue to broadcast 'live' cricket as well as other key properties, Star Cricket will be the one stop destination of all the cricket action," he said.

Besides the ICC telecast rights for the next eight years, ESPN Star Sports also holds rights for Test-playing nations such as England and Australia.

The sports broadcaster is looking at a total of 24 Test matches and 42 One Day internationals in 2007 alone. In addition, ESPN STAR Sports will also showcase the ICC Twenty-Twenty World Cup later this year, featuring 27 matches.