MUMBAI: Taj Television has announced that Ten Cricket, Ten Sports and Ten HD will do a live telecast of one of the Twenty20 matches between South Africa and India to be played on 30 March in Johannesburg.

The two matches, an annual affair, is being played to mark the 150 years of collaboration between the two countries and the cup has been named as ?The Friendship Cup?.

In the year 2011, South Africa played a Twenty20 against India at Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban as a farewell for Makhaya Ntini. This year South African all rounder Jacques Kallis will be honoured during this match.

Ten Sports CEO Atul Pande said, ? With Friendship Cup becoming an annual affair this encounter will be a high octane match with both team vying for this edition of Friendship Cup. TEN Channels will be bringing all the action Live and exclusive for viewers in India.?

MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd?s sports losses will be around Rs 1.4 billion this fiscal due to new channel launches and a weakening rupee, upsetting its guidance of capping losses at Rs 1 billion.

Zeel?s target of break even in the next fiscal could also be derailed. Though it is too early to fix an amount to it, a source said losses could fall in the region of Rs 600-650 million.

Zeel?s sports losses for the earlier fiscal stood at Rs 2.08 billion on a revenue of Rs 4.4 billion.

"Zeel will post sports losses of Rs 400-500 million in the fourth quarter and Rs 1.3-1.4 billion this fiscal. This is due to the launch expenses of Ten HD and Ten Golf and payouts for broadcasting rights in dollars," the source said.

The key acquisitions included Cricket South Africa rights (2013-20) for $180 million, Zimbabwe Cricket rights for $20 million (2013-18) and Uefa Champions League rights (2012-15) for $10.5 million.

In an interview with Indiantelevision.com late last year, Zeel managing director and chief executive officer Punit Goenka had said that "given our growth trajectory and contracts, the sports business should break even in two years. In the worst case scenario, we should be able to turn it around by the middle of FY?14."

For the first nine months of FY?12, the sports losses stood at Rs 892 million.

"The sports losses will be higher than Rs 1 billion but I can?t say how much. The losses will substantially reduce in FY?13," said Zeel president corporate strategy and business development Atul Das.

Taj Television, the company owned by Zeel, runs Ten Cricket, Ten Action+ (with football as its focus), Ten Sports, Ten Golf and Ten HD.

"We make profit or break even from all other sports properties except cricket. The challenge is monetisation of cricket at a profit level. Affiliate revenues should grow. Digitisation is better for us in that sense," said Zee?s sports business CEO Atul Pande.

Zeel will increase the programming hours of its flagship channel, Zee TV, in the next fiscal, leading to a rise in content costs. This will put pressure on non-Sports margins. "The marketing expense on Ditto (Zeel?s OTT platform) will also be upped. The pressure on margins will last till the first half of next fiscal. It will pick up from the second half of FY?13," the source said.

Zeel launched this year the country?s first Over-The-Top TV distribution platform, Ditto TV, with an aim to offer TV channels and On-Demand video content to consumers on their mobile phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, entertainment boxes and connected TVs.

"We are planning a few channel launches in the next fiscal," said Atul Das, while declining to comment on the specifics or the financial terms.

MUMBAI: Ten Sports has acquired the Pakistan broadcast rights for International cricket Council (ICC) cricket matches for the next three years as a sub-licensee of Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV).

Taj Television bid $15 million for the rights. Independent Media Group, which runs Geo, bid $5 million.

Independent Music Group had previously won the right to contest the tender through the Lahore High Court, after PTV had originally indicated that Ten Sports would acquire the satellite and cable rights. The court last month had directed PTV to hold a tender.

Taj Television CEO Atul Pande told Indiantelevision.com that Independent Media Group was the incumbent. They questioned the deal that Zee and PTV had done with ESS which is the global rights holder for the property. Hence the court ordered a tender.

Indiantelevision.com was the first to report that Ten Sports had taken the ICC telecast rights for Pakistan. While it would show the live telecast of ICC matches in Pakistan territory on its satellite sports channel, PTV would telecast it terrestrially.

The biding process was carried out by a four ?member evaluation committee of the PTV Board of Directors. The committee, consisting of three ex-officio senior government officials and PTV MD, conducted the bidding process.

The committee had held meetings last month. The committee also considered the bids submitted by Independent Media Group (petitioners in the LHC case) and Taj TV as well as other prerequisites and subject to formalities to be completed by the prospective bidders.

In the initial bids both parties failed to provide a satisfactory bid in terms of value or to fulfilling necessary prerequisite, formalities and conditions. Due to this, both parties were provided an equal opportunity to submit fresh bids on 27 December 2011, with all formalities fulfilled and requirements in order for their bids to be treated as valid and acceptable to the bid evaluation committee.

MUMBAI: Asian sports marketing, media and event management company World Sport Group (WSG) has appointed Ten Sports to air the 2011 South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship on Ten Action+.

All 15 matches of this seventh edition of the SAFF Championship which will be played at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium New Delhi from 2 - 11 December will be telecast live on Ten Action+.

Eight countries from the region: India, Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Afghanistan will participate in this tournament.

Ten Sports CEO Atul Pande said, "We are delighted to broadcast the 2011 SAFF Championship. The championship will not only help in the development of football in the region but also in fostering goodwill among neighboring nations. The telecast of this prestigious tournament reaffirms our commitment to grow our football and sports broadcasting business, and consolidate our position as the leading sports broadcaster."

WSG senior VP, country head, India Harish Krishnamachar added, "World Sport Group has worked on seven editions of the Saff Championship and we are happy to be producing this event in India. Together, our capability and the football pedigree of Ten Sports will help us deliver a world class event".

Drawn in Group A alongside Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bhutan, five-time winners and defending champions India will kick-off their campaign in the Saff Championship with a match against Afghanistan on 3 December. Pakistan is in Group B along with runners-up Maldives, Bangladesh and Nepal.

The top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals, which will be held on 9 December, two days before the summit clash.