ESPN Software India plays new strategy for advertising

Ashish Khurana - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
After losing money-raking events like the inaugural editions of ICC Twenty20 World Cup and Indian Premier League (IPL) as well as BCCI's contract for Team India's matches on home soil to competitors, sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has upped the ante in recent months to make big-ticket acquisitions that should rake in advertising moolah big time.

The acquisitions straddle cricket, football, hockey, motors sports and the mother of all sporting events, the Olympics. But it is in cricket, the biggest money-spinner in India, and football, the second-biggest, where it has made the biggest inroads.

R C Venkateish, managing director, ESPN Software India, the company which oversees distribution, sales and marketing for ESPN, Star Sports and Star Cricket for South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives), said the company would offer at least two marquee events of the stature of World Cup every year for the next six years.

"We have acquired the broadcast rights of all ICC cricketing content for the next seven years. This includes two World Cups (2010 and 2014), the Champions Trophy (2009 and 2012) and the T20 World Cups (2009 and 2010). Then there is the annual Champions League Twenty20 tournament beginning this year. In football, we have the FIFA World Cup in 2010. To cap it all, we have the rights to broadcast the 2012 London Olympics and 2010 Winter Olympic Games at Vancouver in the Asian region," Venkateish said.

In cricket, that commands more than 80 per cent of sports genre advertising revenue, the company has invested over Rs 10,000 crore to acquire content. This includes overseas tours of Team India beyond the Indian sub-continent.

"We have invested heavily to build up a portfolio of events that will have tremendous visibility for the next six to eight years. True, the IPL has been a huge financial success for our competitor (Sony Entertainment Television). But we now have an even bigger event in the Champions League T20 that will showcase the best teams emerging from the domestic T20 championships in various countries including the winner of IPL," Venkateish said.

In football, the second most popular sport in the country, ESS had lost the UEFA Champions League to rival Ten Sports-Zee Sports combine but scored a coup when it bagged the rights to the FIFA World Cup. Moving forward, the broadcaster is keen to bid for domestic tournaments when the current contract of Zee Sports expires.

"We could even look at replicating the concept of Premier Hockey League in football. There are a lot of possibilities given the popularity of the sport in the country. Football will remain the second-most important sport on our network," Venkateish said.

At present, it has rights to the English Premier League and Spanish La Liga, the two most popular leagues in the sport.