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Thursday, September 20, 2007

Sony back in cricket telecast game....

Set India CEO Kunal Dasgupta is back to doing what he loves even more than the movies – playing the cricket broadcast game. The man who blindsided ESS in 2002 with an audacious $ 208 million sweep on seven-year ICC rights for the Indian subcontinent, that too when News Corp owned the global rights, has made a fresh cricket play.

Set India has secured New Zealand cricket telecast rights for the next four years. Sony’s winning bid: $ 50 million.

That makes three boards – England, Australia (both with ESPN Star Sports) and New Zealand – where telecast rights have been secured for the next four-five years. Which leaves Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies, South Africa and Zimbabwe that remain to be locked into long term deals.

Queried as to whether Sony would be bidding for any of these boards as and when they opened up, Dasgupta replied in the affirmative. That’s not all. The way the ongoing Twenty20 World Cup has caught the fancy of viewers has got the portly Set India CEO more than interested. “We will also be bidding for the BCCI’s Indian Premier League and the Champions Twenty20 League,” Dasgupta asserts.

The Indian Premier League (IPL), structured as a franchisee-based Twenty20 Series, is scheduled to kick off in April 2008. The final leg of the competition, which will be run by the four cricket boards of India, England, Australia and South Africa, is called ‘Champions Twenty20 League’ and will be held in October 2008.

Sony’s acquisition of the New Zealand cricket rights harks back to what the broadcaster did in the late ’90s, wherein it had the rights to Sri Lanka cricket. It may also be recalled that when Max launched as a cricket and movies channel in 1999, it had the Sharjah rights as its key cricketing property.

Source: Indianpad.com
Compiled by:Saurav Chakraborty

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Sunday, September 2, 2007

NDTV Good Times: A new lifestyle channel



On Wednesday, 30th.August.2007, NDTV announced the launch of its new channel 'NDTV Good Times'. It will be a free to air channel from September 7.

It's India's first Lifestyle Channel targeting the global, urban India. The channel is a tie up between NDTV and the Kingfisher brand and hopes to leverage NDTV's broadcasting and programming expertise with Kingfisher's lifestyle appeal.

The channel will have wide range of shows on health, food, fitness, leisure, fashion, travel, technology besides shows on relationships and family. The channel is targeted at viewers in the age group of 20-40 years, belonging to SEC A.The channel is in English and it is positioned as an aspirational product for viewers. It will mould programming specific to the Indian context. It claims to have at least 50-60 programmes per week to cater to the taste of its target audience. The genres include food, late night chat shows, relationships, travelling, cooking, tech and gadget shows, Indian weddings, parenting, pet care, parties, health and wellness and fashion cars and motor bikes.

Some of the well-known personalities who will host shows on the channel include actor Rajat Kapoor, TV chef Manju Malhi, who is said to be Britain’s new Madhur Jaffrey, tech guru Rajiv Makhni, cocktail specialist Shatbhi Basu, Arun Thapar of ‘Chupa Rustam’ fame and spa expert Devika Anand.

The logo of the channel has ‘NDTV Good Times’ written inside a square, red box, with the UB Group’s Kingfisher bird woven in on the top left corner.

Equus Red Cell is promoting the channel in the media. The promos for the channel are already running on NDTV network channels such as NDTV 24x7, NDTV India and NDTV Profit. Apart from television, NDTV Good Times is looking at innovations in outdoor advertising, print, event promotions and very largely through the Internet and mobile media.

Compiled by:
Saurav Chakraborty

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Saturday, September 1, 2007

India Wins the "ONGC Nehru Cup 2007"...

A packed house cheered India to a rare international football title here on Wednesday,29th August, night with the home team taming Syria by a lone first-half goal in the ONGC Nehru Cup tournament.

Baichung Bhutia did not score, but paved the way for a priceless strike by N. P. Pradeep in the 44th minute. It should, however, be recorded that India owed the triumph immensely to an impeccable performance under the bar by Subrata Paul. His anticipation in cutting off Syria’s aerial forays was the most striking feature of the contest.

The Indians matched the Syrians in every aspect of the game — speed, control, aggression and tactics. Pace was furious but the match suffered in quality once the Syrians adopted needless rough tactics, especially to unsettle Bhutia and Sunil Chettri.

The goal by Pradeep was just the tonic Indian football needed. Chettri initiated the move, found Bhutia, who could not finish the job but an overlapping Pradeep slotted the loose ball in with a flourish that epitomized the team’s regal march to the title.

Syria, ranked 39 places above India,had one last chance in injury time but Jenyat shot wide. India should have been up by another goal but Dias made a hash of a spectacular square pass by Bhutia. In the end, the misses did not count.


Before the tournament, there were two teams ranked higher than India on the FIFA charts, but the team was never short of confidence and skipper Bhaichung Bhutia had declared that "there was a very realistic chance of India winning the title."

However, not many gave the hosts much of a chance against the pedigree of the West Asians and the superior physique of the men from Kyrgyzstan. But they wanted the trophy the most.

India received the winners` prize of USD 40,000 while the Syrians had to settle for half that amount.

There was further windfall for the Indians as ONGC announced a 100 per cent bonus for them. Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit chipped in with Rs five lakh while All India Football Federation announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh.

The Indians reserved their best performance for the final and prevailed in a contest that often reached boiling point. The match featured several yellow cards and the Syrians had to play the entire second half with 10 men.

The Indians reserved their best performance for the final and prevailed in a contest that often reached boiling point. The match featured several yellow cards and the Syrians had to play the entire second half with 10 men.

There was no space left inside the floodlit Ambedkar Stadium with the 16,000 Indian supporters and a handful of Syrians making for a spectacular setting. Apart from the odd incident of bottle-throwing, there was no unsavoury scenes.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somanth Chaterjee later called up Bhutia to congratulate the team for the triumph. President Pratibha Patil also congratulated the Indian team for its outstanding performance.

Compiled By:
Saurav Chakraboty

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