NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The intervention of the Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni has helped All India Radio (AIR) get Nimbus to part with the radio broadcast rights of the three Tests of the India-West Indies series.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has granted the radio rights to the state-owned radio broadcaster after discussing with the rights holder, Nimbus Sport.

The commercial value of the rights is yet to be fixed, sources said.

AIR had failed to broadcast the commentary of the India-England cricket series as negotiations with Nimbus Sport over revenue sharing were inconclusive. 

"Nimbus and BCCI will be meeting next week to decide on the commercial value of the deal. AIR will broadcast the commentary of the three Tests of the West Indies tour of India following an assurance by the BCCI," a source familiar with the development said.

The Tests start on 6 November, 14 November and 22 November at Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai respectively.

Sources said no agreement has yet been worked out for the five one-dayers being held in November and December at Cuttack, Visakhapatnam, Ahmedabad, Indore and Chennai.

When contacted, Neo Sport chief operating officer Yannick Colaco declined to comment on the issue.

For the India-England series, AIR was willing to pay $6000 per match for the broadcast rights, but Neo Sport wanted a 50:50 share in revenues.

The I&B Ministry had last month written to BCCI to allow radio broadcasting rights because a large number of people still depended on radio for their entertainment and information.

Sources said senior BCCI officials had taken up the issue with Nimbus Sport.

Doordarshan will telecast the one-dayers under the the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act, 2007.

NEW DELHI: Even as Nimbus remains adamant about sharing broadcasting rights with All India Radio, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to take immediate action to ensure that the commentary of the on-going one-dayers between England and India should be given live to AIR.

The Ministry has said that the rights for AIR should not be clubbed with the rights given to Doordarshan under the Sports Broadcasting (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act.

In a letter to BCCI, the Ministry said the demand by Nimbus for 50 per cent of the revenues from the radio commentary ?appears to be an effort to arm twist Prasar Bharati?.

The Ministry has suggested that radio rights ?should be made available directly to AIR at a negotiated price as far as India is concerned?.

According to Nimbus Communications, AIR has refused to follow the 50:50 sharing of advertising revenues, which has been mandated by the Sports Broadcasting (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act.

According to the letter by the Ministry to BCCI, the provisions of the Sports Act apply only if the rights holder for TV telecast broadcasts the match either on television, cable, DTH, or the radio broadcast rights holder actually broadcasts the commentary over the respective medium in India.

?As regards radio, no private broadcaster is allowed to carry the commentary of sporting events of national level in India. The provisions of Sports Act relating to sharing of the signal do not apply to radio coverage,? the letter said.

NEW DELHI: Doordarshan has been authorised to demand mandatory sharing of signals for important sports events since a law was passed in this regard in 2007, but it does not cover All India Radio.

With Team India having won two one day internationals on home ground after the humiliating tour of England, Prasar Bharati has taken umbrage to Neo Cricket refusing to sharing signals with AIR.

AIR sources, who confirmed that Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni had agreed to talk to the Board for Control of Cricket in India on this issue, said Neo Sports had been approached well in advance by AIR for sharing signals but had received a negative response.

These sources told indiantelevision.com that the Empowered Committee of Prasar Bharati dealing with this issue had then conveyed the matter to the Ministry with their resentment on the issue.

Neo Sports, which possesses the rights for broadcasting cricket played in India, had demanded that Prasar Bharati should accept a new revenue sharing model failing which it denied signals to AIR - which is the only radio channel permitted to broadcasts cricket commentary or news in India.

Sources said AIR has been paying up to $6000 per match in order to buy the broadcast rights, but Neo Sports had refused to even accept $6250. Instead, Neo Sports is demanding a 50:50 revenue sharing model.

Nimbus COO Yannick Colaco said that the Sports Broadcasting (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act ("Sports Act") clearly states that, in the case of radio coverage for International ODIs featuring India, all advertising revenues generated from the same must be shared in the ratio of 50:50 between both parties.

"Since the inception of the Sports Act, Nimbus has repeatedly urged AIR to follow the Law as required by the same in broadcasting radio commentary of International cricket events. However ,AIR has steadfastly refused to share revenues and instead offered meagre amounts as license fees, many times amounting to less than 10 per cent of total revenues generated."

He added that it is a matter of record that AIR made revenues of Rs 12 million for India versus New Zealand series last year and paid Nimbus a license fee of approximately Rs 1.9 million.

"It is, thus, very obvious that AIR has routinely manipulated its position to ensure that AIR makes enormous profits by not abiding by the Sports Act and by offering meagre amounts in the form of License Fees."

Giving more figures, Colaco said that in the England Tour of Indian 2008 it is understood that AIR made revenues of Rs 21 million ($470,000 ). Despite this revenue potential, AIR has offered Nimbus a license fee of $36,000 i.e. approximately Rs 1.7 million for the current England tour.
Meanwhile, the Prasar Bharati and the Ministry are writing to BCCI asking it to take up the issue with Neo Sports and also to ensure that in future it does not sell the frequency to such companies which themselves do not have the broadcasting facilities and are not ready to share feed with AIR.

Relations between Neo Sports and Prasar Bharati are not too good, with the live telecast of the second ODI on Doordarshan having started late, with both sides blaming the other for the last minute permission under the Sports Broadcast Signal (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act 2007.

At present, the revenue split under the Act is 75:25 in favour of Neo, although the Empowered Committee has already demanded that this should be raised to 50:50 so that DD can earn more.

The provision under the Act says that any rights holder to "sporting events of national importance" (India?s international ODIs fall in that ambit) have to share the television feed with DD, and there is no reference to AIR in the Act.

MUMBAI: Finding no takers for the mobile and Internet rights, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has floated a new tender with a lower base price.

Cricket?s richest body has fixed the floor price for these rights at Rs 20 million per match, down from the earlier Rs 30 million.

The BCCI?s decision follows a tepid response from its earlier tender. There was just one party that had submitted a bid but the price was below Rs 30 million that the BCCI was seeking.

The last date for submitting the new bids is 26 September.

There are 17 Test matches, 29 one day internationals, and two Twenty20 games.

A sports marketing executive says that there needs to be some understanding on the part of the board in terms of what these rights are worth. New media is still at a nascent stage and has not grown like in some of the developed countries.

This is the first time that the BCCI is selling mobile and Internet rights to domestic and international matches as a standalone property.

The new media rights were previously held by Nimbus, along with the television rights, way back in 2006. Nimbus had forked out $612 million for the combined rights for four years.
 

MUMBAI: Nimbus will invest Rs 2.5 billion on World Series Hockey that kicks off on 15 December 2012.

The spending will happen in four areas - signing up of players, event operations, infrastructure and marketing and promotional activities.

."By the time the event starts, we would have spent Rs 2.5 billion which we will recuperate through different avenues like franchise fees, television rights fee and sponsorship," Nimbus executive chairman Harish Thawani said.

The event is an initiative between Nimbus Sport and the Indian Hockey Federation.

Nimbus expects the event to generate over Rs 2 billion in its first year through revenue streams such as ticketing, sponsorship and branding, Thawani said.

Nimbus Sport will float a tender on 1 August 2011 for the television rights. It expects to make between Rs 900 million-Rs 1.2 billion from the sale of television rights for five years, said Thawani.

In India, Nimbus will only sell the television rights and hold back rights for new media. "We decided to issue a tender as interest has been expressed by other broadcasters. We might have two channels airing the event and evenly split the number of matches they air," said Thawani.

The event will have eight teams. Six venues have been decided - Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Punjab and Bangalore. Two other venues will be frozen from a list consisting of Kolkata, Pune, Bhopal, Ranchi, Manipur, Lucknow and Rourkela.

There will be 61 matches which is similar to what the Indian Premier League (IPL) had when it was an eight team format in the third edition. Not surprisingly, all the venues chosen also have an IPL franchise.

Thawani said that out of the eight franchise owners, four are by invitation. "We have already done a deal with two entities. At this moment, I cannot reveal their identities. Two more will sign up shortly. We will conduct an auction to decide the other four franchises in September."

A franchise will spend Rs 70 million in the first year and a total of Rs. 2.15 billion over 15 years.

For the four franchises that have to bid, Rs. 2.15 billion will be the base price, according to Nimbus Sport COO Yannick Colaco.

176 players have been contracted by World Series Hockey. World hockey‘s governing body, the FIH, gave a written undertaking that they will not interfere with contracts of players signed before 31 March 2011.

"All our contracts were done much before that. There are 40 international stars including Brent Livermore from Australia, Rehan Butt from Pakistan and Spain‘s Rodrigo Garcia. Leandro Negre (FIH president) is not irresponsible. He understood that what we are doing is for the good of the game. Our vision is to enhance the sporting culture beyond cricket. The mission for the first year is to have a flawless event of international standards. We want spectators to have an entertainment experience of international standards," said Thawani.

In October there will be a draft to decide which players play for which franchise. Thawani opines that this is more efficient than the auction process as it doesn‘t distort salaries. "Under an auction. money can get squandered. There will not be more than five international players for a team. The captains for the teams have already been decided in consultation with the state associations and franchises."

Asked about how successful the initiative would be in terms of building franchise loyalties, Colaco said that marketing activities are already underway though there is still time for the event to start. "This will help build affinities both for the event and for the franchise in each city. A site has been launched. The event also has a presence on Facebook. A 360 degree multimedia campaign will be done," he elaborated.

Thawani noted that an earlier hockey league (done by ESPN Star Sports) was hindered by the fact that only two venues were used. The concept of home and away games was not there and so there was no local following.

"World Series Hockey will be a cooperative effort. The franchises will bring in investments. Without this help, it is difficult to sign up 176 players. Our aim is to have our players compete against the best in the world. We want to create an eco-system so that hockey becomes a viable career for youngsters in the way that cricket and football are. Nimbus Sports‘ role is that of a marketing agency in terms of bringing in sponsorship, franchises and create branding. This event will be seen in over 30 countries globally," Thawani said.