The New football scenario in India
Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
It would seem outrageous that Indian TV networks should be bidding some ridiculous amounts for TV rights to Indian football, a sport where India is ranked 140th in the world. Also importantly, almost at the same time of the news breaking that Indian channels were bidding huge sums, there filtered in news, hardly reported in Indian media, that the World Sport Group (WSG), one of Asia's leading sports marketing players, had signed a seven-year-deal worth US $200 million with the Asian Football Federation (AFC). That deal is to run through till 2012.
Getting Indian rights first, and then looking at Indian footprint rights for Asian football from WSG, would make for an ideal package for any sports channel. Competition among many channels vis-ā-vis sports has been hotting up of late. Channels have paid huge sums to secure exclusive contracts with the likes of Indian cricket captain, Sourav Ganguly (Aaj Tak and Headlines Today) and Navjot Sidhu (NDTV). While Zee has finally launched Zee Sports, the buzz is that NDTV could also be planning a sports channel with a foreign collaboration.
Indian channels meanwhile will attempt to build football just as ESPN Star did in the case of Premier Hockey League. With such large sums of money coming in, induction of foreign players is bound to surge. So, tie-ups between Indian football and Asian football would be a logical. With cricket rights going through the roof, and a sense of ennui setting in vis-āvis cricket, football and hockey seem the logical choice. Ten Sports bought the hockey rights from International Hockey Federation and ESPN Star created the Premier Hockey League. So for a sports channel like Zee or NDTV looking at another sport would make sense.
Meanwhile, the Indian Football Association may soonly invite Tenders for the telecast rights for a period of next five years. The process will be completed by the first week of March. Total Sports Entertainment India and the Indian Football Association is conducting the Tender processwhich exclusively caters to the Indian Football. ESPN Star Sports, is the sole star which covered the event from the past one decade and it is also the main incumbent. According to sources, Zee Sports and DD Sports have writTen a letter to Subroto Dutta, Honorary Secratary, Indian Football Association for the participation.
Sports like basketball, a very spectator friendly sport, and golf, with its aspirational nature, could be the next two sports to watch out for. A recent set of figures made available about Asian football, showed that the Asian Cup 2004 final between China and Japan smashed viewing records in China, the world's most coveted market. It broke records of even the 2002 FIFA World Cup final, as it became the most watched single sports event in the history of Chinese television. Figures showed a staggering 43.1%of people watching television in China at peak time during the final were tuned in to CCTV to watch China play in their first Asian Cup final in 20 years. These figures on a nationwide scale, mean over 250 million people, who saw China lose 1-3 to Japan. Put that alongside the audience highs of 24 million for the final of Euro 2004 and substantially lower figures for other major European football league telecasts, and you get the picture.
Now come to the statistics released by the AFC vis-ā-vis fans at the stadium for the AFC Cup this year. Even though Indian clubs did not make a huge impact in AFC, fans turned out in big numbers overtaking those in other countries. AFC figures show that 52,000 fans turned up to watch East Bengal and Dempo Sports Club in action, and 30,000 fans turned up to see East Bengal play Muktijoddha Sangsad of Bangladesh at the Salt Lake Stadium in March. East Bengal showed its strong fan-base with over 40,000 loyally atTending all their three encounters. This constituted 25% of the total atTendance for all the stages of the group matches, which stood at 156,000, according to the AFC.
Now let's move to the sponsors, already in Asian football. The list of companies associated with the AFC include Asahi Shimbun, Coca-Cola, Emirates, Epson, Family-Mart, Hyundai, Makita, JCB, Kirin, Konica Minolta, Maxell, Nike, Nikon Samsung, Toshiba, Toyota, Kingfisher, East Bengal, Mohan Bagan and Mohd Sporting.
It would seem outrageous that Indian TV networks should be bidding some ridiculous amounts for TV rights to Indian football, a sport where India is ranked 140th in the world. Also importantly, almost at the same time of the news breaking that Indian channels were bidding huge sums, there filtered in news, hardly reported in Indian media, that the World Sport Group (WSG), one of Asia's leading sports marketing players, had signed a seven-year-deal worth US $200 million with the Asian Football Federation (AFC). That deal is to run through till 2012.
Getting Indian rights first, and then looking at Indian footprint rights for Asian football from WSG, would make for an ideal package for any sports channel. Competition among many channels vis-ā-vis sports has been hotting up of late. Channels have paid huge sums to secure exclusive contracts with the likes of Indian cricket captain, Sourav Ganguly (Aaj Tak and Headlines Today) and Navjot Sidhu (NDTV). While Zee has finally launched Zee Sports, the buzz is that NDTV could also be planning a sports channel with a foreign collaboration.
Indian channels meanwhile will attempt to build football just as ESPN Star did in the case of Premier Hockey League. With such large sums of money coming in, induction of foreign players is bound to surge. So, tie-ups between Indian football and Asian football would be a logical. With cricket rights going through the roof, and a sense of ennui setting in vis-āvis cricket, football and hockey seem the logical choice. Ten Sports bought the hockey rights from International Hockey Federation and ESPN Star created the Premier Hockey League. So for a sports channel like Zee or NDTV looking at another sport would make sense.
Meanwhile, the Indian Football Association may soonly invite Tenders for the telecast rights for a period of next five years. The process will be completed by the first week of March. Total Sports Entertainment India and the Indian Football Association is conducting the Tender processwhich exclusively caters to the Indian Football. ESPN Star Sports, is the sole star which covered the event from the past one decade and it is also the main incumbent. According to sources, Zee Sports and DD Sports have writTen a letter to Subroto Dutta, Honorary Secratary, Indian Football Association for the participation.
Sports like basketball, a very spectator friendly sport, and golf, with its aspirational nature, could be the next two sports to watch out for. A recent set of figures made available about Asian football, showed that the Asian Cup 2004 final between China and Japan smashed viewing records in China, the world's most coveted market. It broke records of even the 2002 FIFA World Cup final, as it became the most watched single sports event in the history of Chinese television. Figures showed a staggering 43.1%of people watching television in China at peak time during the final were tuned in to CCTV to watch China play in their first Asian Cup final in 20 years. These figures on a nationwide scale, mean over 250 million people, who saw China lose 1-3 to Japan. Put that alongside the audience highs of 24 million for the final of Euro 2004 and substantially lower figures for other major European football league telecasts, and you get the picture.
Now come to the statistics released by the AFC vis-ā-vis fans at the stadium for the AFC Cup this year. Even though Indian clubs did not make a huge impact in AFC, fans turned out in big numbers overtaking those in other countries. AFC figures show that 52,000 fans turned up to watch East Bengal and Dempo Sports Club in action, and 30,000 fans turned up to see East Bengal play Muktijoddha Sangsad of Bangladesh at the Salt Lake Stadium in March. East Bengal showed its strong fan-base with over 40,000 loyally atTending all their three encounters. This constituted 25% of the total atTendance for all the stages of the group matches, which stood at 156,000, according to the AFC.
Now let's move to the sponsors, already in Asian football. The list of companies associated with the AFC include Asahi Shimbun, Coca-Cola, Emirates, Epson, Family-Mart, Hyundai, Makita, JCB, Kirin, Konica Minolta, Maxell, Nike, Nikon Samsung, Toshiba, Toyota, Kingfisher, East Bengal, Mohan Bagan and Mohd Sporting.
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