Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) owned Taj Television Network's channel Ten Sports has onceagain bagged the telecast rights to the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) matches and shows through 2019. The channel first won the rights in 2002 and has continued to retain them until now.
In addition to the continued broadcastsof WWE's flagship programmes Raw, SmackDown, NXT and monthly pay-per-view specials, starting January 1, 2015, Ten Sports will introduce a new one-hour fully customised version of Raw tailored specifically for the Indian audience and add WWE Main Event to its programming line-up. It will also be bringing the live WEE events toIndia starting in the second half of next year.
In addition to this, the channel intends to reduce the gap between the original airing in the US and the Indian one as much as possible. While plans are still at the drawing board stage, Ten Sprots CEO Rajesh Sethi is confident that the closer the telecast is to the US airing, the better the growth in viewership will be.
"WWE is one of the most watchedsports in the country. In 2013, 498 million people saw the sport. Ithas been rated consistently in the second and third airing as well,which means there is depth in the viewership of the shows. We intendto build on the popularity and take the engagement further throughthe live events," says Sethi.
He adds that the WWE shows have startedincluding a storyline outside the fighting arena which has added tothe engagement via social media and the inclusion of female viewersamong. Also, Ten Sports will be monetising the prooperty via itsonline platform tensports.com through a subscription cum advertising-based model.
He also reveals the channel has raisedthe ad rates for shows from WWE by as much as 28% around last week, and intend to raise them further once the new content isintroduced on air.
Ten Sports will also air WWE content in multiple Indian languages for the first time. The channel has lockedin Hindi and English as two main feeds, and is mulling over a couple more. Non-English feeds for sports have brought success to events like the Pro Kabaddi League on Star India network and the FIFA WorldCup on Multi Screen Media's channels Sony Six and Sony Aath. Sethi believes that while English and Hindi are natural choices in India,Ten Sprots is exploing more territories and languages to target for WWE.