Neo Sports bowls out rivals in cricket action

It may be barely a year in the business, but sports channel Neo Sports, armed with telecast rights for a large chunk of international cricketing action with the Indian team, is set to give the ESPN-Star Sports combine a run for their money.

Neo Sports, owned by Harish Thawani's Nimbus Communication, has won the telecast rights of all international cricket matches played in India till 2010 and has over 87 days of cricketing action featuring the Indian team till the end of 2008. 
 

THE CRICKETING CALENDAR
(Matches involving India)

NEO SPORTS

1   Australia in India (7 ODIs) already played in October 2007

2   Pakistan in India (3 Test matches and 5 ODIs) in November 2007

3   India in Bangladesh (3 ODIs) in March 2008

4   South Africa in India (3 Tests matches) in March-April 2008

5   Australia in India (4 Test matches) in October 2008

6   England in India (3 Test matches and 7 ODIs) in November-December 2008

ESPN STAR SPORTS

1    India in Australia (4 Test matches) in December 2007 - January 2008

2    Tri-Series in Australia (India-Australia-Sri Lanka, 15 matches) in January- February 2008

3    ICC Champions Trophy in September 2008

4    Asia Cup in Lahore in April 2008

In comparison the Walt Disney-NewsCorp combo ESPN-Star has the Indian team playing for 35 to 40 days in the same period and this includes Star Cricket, which was launched in April this year.

If industry estimates are anything to go by ESPN-Star Sports' cricket content will fetch around Rs 480 crore till the end of 2008, while Neo Sports is expected to rake in over Rs 700 crore.

The changing fortunes are reflected in the relative market shares of the channels when the India-Australia match was telecast on Neo Sports: 49 per cent to ESPN-Star's 11 per cent in the week beginning 7 October, according to TAM data. This clearly shows out that viewers move where the Indian team is playing.

"Neo Sports has an impressive cricketing calendar that is bound to attract advertisers," said Shyam Shankar, president, IMX, a media business.

Neo Sports's biggest challenge is to take on the large reach of ESPN Star in viewers homes. ESPN-STAR Sports reaches 85 to 95 per cent of India's 70 million cable homes.

Neo Sports, on the other hand, has faced serious issues on availability of its channels to subscribers. Admits Arun Poddar, president (sales & distribution), Neo Sports Broadcast, "We had to start from scratch. Currently, the channel has about 45 per cent cable connectivity at an all-India level."

Poddar added that the channel is also available on direct-to-home (DTH) service provider Tata Sky. "We are in talks with Zee TV's DTH service Dish TV and are likely to close the deal before the start of India-Pakistan series." The target, said Poddar, is to be in 90 per cent of cable homes by the end of the India-Pakistan series.

ESPN Star Sports executives, however, declined to comment on their rival's plans and merely said they already have the reach and distribution.

To back up their efforts, Neo Sports is also gearing up with an aggressive promotional campaign. "During the India-Australia series we ran promos for the upcoming India-Pakistan series, stating 'Get used to tension'. Our strategy is to captivate live cricket viewers during a particular match and inform them of the upcoming series," said Ranjith Rajasekharan, vice-president (marketing&communications), Neo Sports.