MUMBAI: For a year that has lighter load of marquee cricket and ad revenue forecast lower than 2011, the first six months have been unusually hectic and dramatic. Star took independent charge of sports broadcasting after News Corp bought out Disney?s stake in ESPN Star Sports, ending a 16-year-old joint venture company in Asia where both the media conglomerates held equal stake. Multi Screen Media (MSM) launched its maiden sports channel ?Six? while Zee introduced India?s first golf channel at a monthly price of Rs 200 a subscriber. Neo walked out of cricket and rebranded Neo Cricket as Neo Prime.

Beyond cricket, broadcasters have tapped into other sports with Neo debuting its hockey league in partnership with Indian Hockey Federation. The first six months, however, have not been easy for sporting leagues.

Cricket?s hottest property got its first reality check after the initial years of hype. The Indian Premier League (IPL) scored lower ratings and earned less advertising revenues than last year, though they are significantly higher than any other cricketing property in the Indian marketplace. Market estimates peg the sports broadcasting ad revenue at Rs 8.5-9 billion in the first six months of the year. With comparatively weaker ad revenue potential for the remaining six months, the early year forecast of ad revenue touching Rs 17 billion in 2012 is highly unlikely.

Star, left free from Disney, will start its aggressive play in sports broadcasting in India. It has already bagged the six-year BCCI rights till 2018 for a whopping Rs 38.51 billion, translating into Rs 401.154 million per match, much higher than what Nimbus had to pay (Rs 312.50 million a match). This squeezed out MSM who had bid Rs 37 billion.

MSM?s ?Six? will fight in the sports broadcasting arena with Ultimate Fighting Championship as its prime property till it telecasts the IPL next year.

With four sports broadcasting companies in the fray, Zee-controlled Ten Sports has renewed the rights for two cricket boards. Cricket South Africa (CSA) rights has come for $180 million and Zimbabwe for $20 million (both for eight years). The task will be to get the other three cricket boards ? Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West Indies.

Zee is also looking at a varied sports channel offering. Ten Golf, positioned premium, is looking at mopping up 500,000 subscribers in three years. Says Zee business head Sports Atul Pande, "There will be a move towards segmentation. We want to be the number one channel in Golf in South Asia."

The exit of cricket has meant that Neo would put its focus on sports like soccer, hockey and tennis. Neo had to also rework on its three-year distribution deal (from 1 September 2010) with TheOneAlliance aborting it and opting for a fresh pact valid for one year.

 LodestarUN COO Anamika Mehta believes that it will be difficult for Neo, whicht was built on the back of India cricket, to scale up. "India is dominated by cricket. While acquisition costs of other sports are low, the revenue is also low as there is only so much attention that other sports will get from advertisers. The channels will also be event centric. There are a limited number of non cricket sporting events that get traction. The Indian cricket team on the other hand plays for around 200 days in the year," she says.

Nimbus kick-started the World Series Hockey (WSH) while Hockey India has announced another league, the first edition of which will take place next year.

According to Hockey India secretary general Narinder Batra, the FIH has given clearance for one month next year during which no international event will be held. "This has been done so that top players like Jamie Dwyer and Teun de Nooijer are free from any international engagements."

Mehta believes the existence of two hockey league tournaments will result in fragmentation. "Even one league will find the going difficult. This is a long term play but the start has not been encouraging. For hockey to be brought back, efforts have to be made at the grassroots level. Then only can the interest levels grow. Leagues in different sports are obviously buoyed by the success of the IPL. But it will not be easy for them as it was for the IPL as there is a lack of familiarity in India for some of these sports," she says.

The leagues in other sports is yet to make an impact. In soccer, the i-League clubs are not happy with the way IMG Reliance, the AIFF?s commercial partner, is managing it as it has yet to come out with a blueprint for its development. The different clubs have, thus, formed the ?i-League Professional Football Clubs Association?.

"Every good league in the world is a separate entity in which the clubs are the stakeholders. We want to improve the standard of football in India and we are ready to do everything from our end as well", says the organisation?s general secretary Chirag Tanna.

The ambitious motorsports league that was planned by Machdar Motrosports has been postponed till next year. The i1 Super Series league has been rescheduled to 2013 as the venue in Delhi was not available.

The Elite Football League of India (EFLI), which aims to bring American football to India, has been preponed and will take place this month in Sri Lanka. It has teams from India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

So which other sport outside cricket is growing in India? ?Soccer is growing among the youth. The Euro 2012 did well this year,? points out Mehta.

The Olympics is expected to fare better this year compared to its earlier edition of 2008. "It will fare better this year. There are two reasons for this. The first is that unlike Doordarshan, ESPN Star Sports will be airing it. So there will be a concerted marketing push and the broadcast will be more professionally managed. The other reason is that there are more sports where India can win medals in. You have sports like boxing, wrestling, shooting and badminton, although tennis could be a disaster. It is not like the old days where the only medal hope was in hockey. I expect a big spike in ratings on those days when India wins a medal," says Mehta.

How big the impact of economic slowdown be on the sports genre? Says Mehta, ?There is a mood of caution but it is not a doomsday scenario. Some sectors like financial services and auto will cut back. If you look at the IPL, consumer durables did not come back in a big way.?

MUMBAI: Hockey India, the official body of the sport in India, has revealed plans to launch its own franchise-based league to rival World Series Hockey which is co-promoted by Indian Hockey Federation and Harish Thawani?s Nimbus Sport.

HI will work with its exclusive marketing partner Twenty First Century Media to launch the league. TCM will be responsible for handling sponsorship, media rights and getting franchises on board for the league.

The league, to be played on home-and away basis, is expected to debut in January next year with the International Hockey Federation giving it a one month window from 1-30 January to ensure the participation of top foreign players.

The yet-to-be named league will have six city-based teams selected from a pool of 12 cities that have infrastructure and facilities to host a match.

The six teams can have a maximum of 24 players in their squad with six Indian and foreign marquee players each. HI has fixed the salary cap at Rs 30 million with players divided into four slabs selected through IPL style auction in September.

Players will be given prerogative to choose their base price which will have four slabs.

"Our league will be one of the best as it will have all the top players participating in it," HI secretary Narinder Batra tells Indiantelevision.com. "We will work with our marketing partner TCM on the league. We are offering the franchises on first come basis as well as through auction."

HI is in talks with broadcasters to televise the event live.

"We are in talks with several broadcasters but I don?t want to disclose anything at this stage," a guarded Batra says.

The battle to grab the telecast rights of the hockey league is widely believed to be between, ESPN Star Sports and Ten Sports, with the possibility of Sony Six entering the fray not being ruled out. Six is the newly launched sports entertainment channel from Multi Screen Media which will broadcast IPL from next year.

Ten Sports, sources say, has shown keen interest.

Will World Series Hockey players be allowed to participate in the league" "I can?t talk on this matter because of legal reasons," avers Batra.

He also brushes aside apprehensions about availability of stadias saying, "For your information almost all the stadias are under Sports Authority of India and they don?t belong to any particular body (read IHF), so I don?t think stadium (availability) is an issue."

The participation of Pakistan players hinges on government clearance since the sporting ties between the two neighbours are yet to normalise. However, in the recently concluded WSH several Pakistani players including former captain Rehan Butt had participated in the tournament.

The move by HI is very much reminiscent of the BCCI launching IPL in 2008 to counter Zee?s ICL which resulted in the untimely death of the ?rebel? league. The BCCI had later granted amnesty to all the players and officials associated with ICL which ensured their return to the parent body.

It will be interesting to see what impact HI?s league will have on the IHF?s WSH. However, all depends on the players who are contracted to Nimbus as any attempt by players to switch sides will threaten the very survival of WSH.

"Making announcement is easy but it is not a joke to organise a league. It requires huge investments," a senior Nimbus official says on condition of anonymity.

The official also insists that all the WSH players have signed exclusive contracts which prevents them from participating in any other league in India.

The HI has its task cut out as it will realise the difference between making announcements and actually executing a sporting event on the ground.

While HI can take heart with the fact that it has national and international players on its side, that alone will not guarantee corporate support as the league has to make business sense for corporates who will look at return on investments over a period of time.

The FIH had earlier insisted that the two bodies sort out their differences. However, efforts towards reconciliation have headed nowhere with even sports minister Ajay Maken failing in attempts to bring the two warring bodies together.

HI and IHF have been at loggerheads ever since Suresh Kalmadi helmed Indian Olympic Association had dismissed the latter in 2008, after then secretary K Jyothikumaran was caught taking bribe.

Both bodies have since been claiming to be the governing body of the sport with the Delhi High Court setting aside IOA?s decision to dismiss IHF restoring its pre-2008 status as the national hockey body.

While HI is recognised by the FIH and has the authority to select players for the national teams, the IHF has the backing of Indian sports ministry and has certain stadiums under its possession.

Indian hockey is in for interesting times with sports broadcasters looking at sourcing other sports content to reduce their overwhelming depending on cricket, the acquisition rights of which are touching astronomical prices amid hotly contested competitive bidding.

MUMBAI: In a move that is not surprising Hockey India plans to launch a franchise based league in January 2013. The FIH hockey?s governing body has given the event a window.

This is the second hockey league following the inaugural edition of Nimbus Sport?s and IHF?s World Series Hockey (WSH) which was held earlier this year.

The tournament will have six franchises.12 cities have been shortlisted. The players will be bought by the franchises in an IPL style auction in September.

Hockey India secretary general Narinder Batra has said that the FIH has given clearance for one month next year during which no international event will be held. "This has been done so that top players like Jamie Dwyer, Teun de Nooijer are free from any international engagements." He also says that interest has been expressed by groups in owning a team.

Each franchise will have a budget of Rs.30 million to form a 24- member squad, comprising 10 overseas and 14 domestic players who will be bought in the earlier mentioned auction.

The question is whether the sport can support two leagues. This move is very much reminiscent of the BCCI launching the IPL in 2008 to counter Zee?s ICL.

MUMBAI: Will World Series Hockey go the Indian Cricket League way? That is a matter of conjecture but if one is to go by Hockey India?s new strategy of launching its own league, one can hardly disagree that the ?official? body is following in the footsteps of its cricket compatriot BCCI in ensuring that the WSH doesn?t take root.

HI, the sole recognised governing body of hockey in India, is planning to start its own domestic franchise league next year, which is expected to feature Indian as well as international players and would have the backing of world hockey governing body, FIH.

?We are already in talks with the FIH and things are nearing the final stage. Our league will be a permanent window on the annual international calendar. FIH will ensure that there will be no international action during that time. That means the best players from across the world will be free to participate in the league that will most likely be held in January-February 2013,? Indian Express quotes HI secretary Narinder Batra as saying.

Batra said that the HI will make an official announcement in a couple of days. Like WSH, the HI league will also have eight teams and will be launched next year. He also clarified that players wouldn?t be pressurised to join the league.

The move is clearly aimed at weaning away Indian players from the rival WSH by creating an alternative that is if the HI?s proposed league fructifies which none other than Nimbus will testify is easier said than done. However, it needs to be seen whether players who have signed contract with Nimbus will stay loyal or not.

For the record, the WSH is backed by Indian Hockey Federation, the erstwhile governing body of hockey in India before it was unceremoniously suspended on charges of corruption, and is marketed by Harish Thawani-promoted Nimbus Sport. The WSH involving eight city-based teams will begin 29 February and will run till 2 April.

The sword of instability still hangs over the WSH as the participation of Indian players who are currently part of the national team is still uncertain with the reports that the players are yet to receive payments that was supposed to be paid a week ahead of the tournament.

Nimbus has cleared the air by saying that players who turn up for the camps of their respective teams will get their payments as soon as they join.

"Those in the national team right now simply have to send in a letter confirming their participation in WSH and saying that they will join their respective teams after the Olympic qualifiers. The moment they join their teams, they will get their money,? Nimbus Sport COO YannickColaco told the paper.