There is a battle brewing between Neo Cricket and Ten Sports over claims for the top spot in the sports broadcasting space as both the broadcasters have come out with advertisements to such effect.
Challenging the claims of Ten Sports, its rival Neo Cricket has filed a complaint with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) alleging that Ten Sports’ claim of being the number one in 2008 was false. Ten Sports, which is jointly owned by Taj Television and Subhash Chandra’s Essel Group, is likely to reply to ASCI soon, said sources.
Abhishek Verma, head of marketing, Neo Sports Broadcast, told Business Standard, “According to TAM rating, Neo Cricket is the number one channel in the last year across all categories. Ten Sports was trying to mislead the advertisers.”
An ASCI official confirmed that they have received a complaint from Neo Cricket against Ten Sport’s claim. A Ten Sports spokesperson declined to comment.
Media research agency TAM in its 2008 viewership rating mentioned that Neo’s cricket-focused channel, which until April 9 was known as Neo Sports and later Neo Cricket, is the number one sports channel. Ten Sports came second, followed by Star Cricket, Star Sports, ESPN and Neo’s non-cricket focused channel.
After the TAM rating came out, Neo Cricket, a part of Singapore-based Neo Sports Broadcast, came out with an advertisement announcing its numero uno position in the first week of January. In another two weeks, Ten Sports responded with another advertisement claiming the top spot. Within a few days, Neo wrote to ASCI countering Ten Sports’ claims.
“Ten Sports would have raised its claim as Neo has appeared in the rating with different names — Neo Sports and Neo Cricket. As long as TAM agrees to the joint identity of the two Neo channels, Ten Sports can not claim the number one spot,” said industry analysts.
“The war of the sports channels is mainly with an eye on the advertisement revenue flowing into the Rs 1,000-crore sports broadcasting industry. The advertisement rates of sports channels increases at least by 30 per cent every year in India, supported by the growing population of cricket viewers. When the credit crunch poses threat to all businesses, the broadcasters also prepare the ground for their future revenue by marketing their top positions in ratings,” said analysts.