Back in business

IN CONVERSATION

With the telecast rights of all major sporting events, including cricket and soccer, under its belt, ESPN Star Sports' new managing director Manu Sawhney is confident of making the channel a leading media company in the world.

Sawhney has also been the head of ESPN Star Sports India venture and is now heading the entire operations of the ESPN Star Sports based out of Singapore. He tells Ashish Sinha about his future plans.

In which ways do you think the Indian sports broadcasting industry has changed in the last four years?

Sports has really become big. Now it is also attracting female audiences. Though cricket still rules in India, other sports like tennis and soccer are making way into the TV sets of a large segment of Indian viewers.

Tennis coverage on ESPN Star Sports in the past few tournaments reached nearly 42 million viewers.

Our coverage of the English Premiere League and other soccer tournaments is reaching one out of two people living in the metros. This was not the case four years back.

But with this, competition has also increased. More channels have come into the business, which is a healthy sign for the industry.

How do you view ESPN Star Sports' growth in the next four years?

ESPN Star Sports stands for quality sports coverage. We will continue to do so in future as well and I am sure we will become a leading media company soon. As a policy decision, we have now been acquiring telecast rights along with the rights for the Internet and mobile of various sports.

This will boost our brand presence across all media platforms. We will continue to invest in programming. We already have International Cricket Council's telecast rights till 2015 that cover major cricket tournaments including the World Cup.

In the next four years we will have 550 days of quality international cricket coverage. Plus, the launch of STAR Cricket, a 24-hour cricket channel, in a record time of three months, shows our strength in production, programming and marketing.

What is your opinion on the regulatory environment in the country?

We abide by the laws of all the 24 countries we are present in. But in India, we are disturbed by the implementation of regulations like the sports sharing law and the conditional access system (CAS).

For example, the Rs 5 cap on all pay channels in the areas where CAS is enforced. Capping all pay channels at the same price does not make sense. We have told the regulator and the government that the cost of acquiring content by any sports channel is very different from the cost involved for any other category of channels.

Consumers should pay more for watching quality content. We hope the authorities review some of the regulatory issues that are deterring the growth of the cable industry.

What steps do you think the government should take to protect the interest of sports broadcasters?

The government has to take a decision on encrypting sports signals so that there is no misuse. It has not done that so far. Currently, the shared feed with Doordarshan's terrestrial broadcast is also available on the cable and satellite channel network. This is not what the mandatory sharing of the sports signal law states.

As a result, the right for sports broadcast acquired after paying millions of dollars is freely available for unauthorised use. We want the government to take corrective steps and enforce encryption. We can also do that for the government, if it seeks our help.