MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) expects to cut down its sports business losses to Rs 700-900 million from Rs 1.48 billion but could fall short of its earlier target of breaking even operationally in the next fiscal.

The depreciation of the rupee has hurt the sports broadcasting business as the content deals are contracted in dollars. Zeel‘s sports business in FY‘12 had been hit by forex losses to the tune of Rs 270-Rs 280 million, even as its revenue for the fiscal stood at Rs 3.93 billion.

Zeel has renewed the South Africa and Zimbabwe cricket telecast rights and three other boards - Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West India are coming up for renewal.

Zeel continues to stick to its early ad guidance growth of 7-9 per cent in FY‘13 for the industry but expects its own performance to be higher than that. In the first quarter of this fiscal, the company‘s ad revenue jumped 18 per cent to Rs 4.47 billion. The ad growth in Q2 could be slightly lower.

Zeel will continue to invest in new content and add more hours of programming. The company has added original content in the second quarter, a major chunk of which is in the weekend programmes. The aim is to up fresh content to 33 hours a week by the end of this fiscal.

Zeel‘s international subscription income should stay flat or have marginal growth while domestic subscription is expected to grow by 14-15 per cent this fiscal.

There has been no significant carriage fee fall but that should see some correction once cable TV digitisation gets implemented.

MUMBAI: Manchester United has teamed up with Germany-based international sports media company UFA Sports to distribute the 2012 pre-season tour to TV viewers across the world.

The Red Devils are travelling over three different continents this summer to prepare for the upcoming Premier League campaign. With stops in Europe, Africa and Asia over a time period of three weeks, Sir Alex Ferguson?s men will compete in interesting friendly matches in sold-out stadiums to get into shape.

Manchester United will kick off the tour in South Africa on 18 July, before flying out to China to face Super League club Shanghai Shenhua in front of tens of thousands of Chinese United fans. In early August, the squad will return to Europe and finish off the tour with matches against teams from Western Europe, including the top match against FC Barcelona.

MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council has amended its management structure which would see the creation of a new post of chairman and water down the powers of president besides scrapping the post of vice-president altogether effective 2014.

Until the end of the 2014 ICC Annual Conference, the role of the ICC President will remain in its current form but from the end of the 2014 Annual Conference it will become ceremonial in nature with a term of only one year.

The term of office of the chairman will be two years. The ICC Board will appoint the chairman at its first meeting following the 2014 Annual Conference.

Meanwhile, Alan Isaac, the former chairman of New Zealand Cricket, was inaugurated as the eighth President of the ICC in succession to Sharad Pawar. Isaac will serve for a two-year term.

David Richardson was confirmed by the Conference as successor to Haroon Lorgat, who stood down after four years, as the ICC Chief Executive. Richardson, who played 42 Tests for South Africa, has been ICC?s GM- Cricket for the last 10 years.

Additionally, Russia and Hungary were confirmed as new affiliate members of the ICC but Switzerland was removed as an affiliate member, having been suspended at the 2011 Annual Conference for failing to comply with the ICC?s membership criteria and remaining unable to do so by the 2012 Annual Conference.

There are now 106 Members of the ICC.

MUMBAI: The fourth edition of the Champions League T20 will be hosted by South Africa, CL T20 CEO Sundar Raman said.

The CL T20 will be held in October after the ICC Twenty20 World Cup in Sri Lanka. The tournament will be played at Cape Town, Johannesburg, Centurion and Durban.

It is believed that Durga Puja and monsoon are being cited as the reasons for shifting as their timings will coincide with the schedule of the tournament.

"South Africa will host CLT20 this year. All other details to follow soon," Raman, who is also a member of the CLT20?s technical committee, posted on his Twitter page.

Meanwhile, seven teams have already qualified for the tournament.

IPL 2012 champions Kolkata Knight Riders will join runners-up Chennai Super Kings and third-placed Delhi Daredevils as India?s three representatives in the tournament.

Big Bash League champions Sydney Sixers and runners-up Perth Scorchers are the two Australian teams that will be a part of CLT20 2012. From South Africa the Nashua Titans and the Highveld Lions, MiWay T20 Challenge champions and runners-up respectively, will turn up for the tournament.

Apart from the above mentioned seven confirmed teams, three more teams will feature in the multi-national T20 league. A qualifying series will precede the main CLT20 tournament and it will include the domestic T20 champions from Sri Lanka, New Zealand, West Indies, Pakistan and England.

This is the second time South Africa will host the tournament. It had first hosted the tournament in 2010. The first and third editions of the tournament were held in India.

The move will not go down well with the IPL franchises who were insisting on keeping the tournament in India.