DD viewers may miss Twenty20 action

Much to the disappointment of DD viewers in non-cable homes, Prasar Bharti’s negotiating skills have fallen short just one day ahead of India’s first Twenty20 match. With last-minute talks between broadcaster rights holder ESPN Star Sports (ESS) and Prasar Bharti falling through, viewers in non-cable homes will miss the action of the highly-publicised tournament — at least that’s the verdict till now. Prasar Bharti was confident of getting the shared feed till 10 days back, but ESS has managed to keep the event exclusive with the backing of the I&B Ministry. Sources close to the development told ET that Prasar Bharti officials were trying to sort out the matter till last night.

A senior official of Prasar Bharti confirmed to ET that DD will not telecast the Twenty20 event. “As of now, Doordarshan is not telecasting the Twenty20 tournament,” he said. Asked if there was still a chance of DD getting a feed from ESS for the semi-finals and finals, the official said: “One never knows. Talks could be reopened.” ESS Software MD RC Venkateish declined to comment on the issue.

Interestingly, earlier this month, a top DD official had told ET that ESS would share a clean feed without ads with Prasar Bharati for all India matches, the semi-finals and the final, irrespective of whether India reaches the final stages. “We have been given to understand that ESS has agreed to share the feed with us. A formal communication from ESS is awaited,” the official had said. It had even been decided that ESS would market the Twenty20 event on the condition that the private broadcaster would have to meet the reserve price per match fixed by DD, failing which Prasar Bharti was to market the event on its own. It has been agreed that both broadcasters would follow a 75:25 revenue sharing arrangement ratio in favour of the private broadcaster as is mandatory by law.

This is not the first time a private broadcaster has not shared its feed with Doordsarshan. Last year in May, Ten Sports did not share the India-West Indies series with DD, with the Supreme Court barring Prasar Bharti from showing coverage of the series. The series involved five ODIs and four Tests. Later in the year, Zee Sports also did not share the telecast of the DLF Cup, held in Malaysia, with the state broadcaster. The tri-series between India, Australia and West Indies included seven-day and night ODIs.

Times Now to launch Twenty20 cricket special series

Times Now is set to launch a Twenty20 cricket special series 'T20-Fast and Furious' from 15 September at 7:30 pm.


Hosted by Sunder Iyer, the show will offer viewers highlights and interesting insights into the daily matches over the tournament period.

Sunder Iyer said, "The show aims to provide cricket fans a prelude to the look, feel and flavour that is all set to dominate the attention of the cricket crazy nation… giving them a thorough insight on how the teams stack up going into the prized tournament."

ICC announces partners for Twenty20 WC in South Africa

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced partners for its inaugural ICC World Twenty20 tournament, set to take place in South Africa next month.


It has announced that telecom firm Reliance, real estate company Emaar MGF, handset manufacturer Nokia and soft drinks and snacks firm Pepsi are global partners.


Yahoo! is the official website and portal for the event.


Four South Africa-based local sponsors were also announced: Standard Bank of South Africa – financial services, South Africa Tourism, Southern Sun Hotels and Imperial Car Rental.


"In return for their commitment, I believe our sponsors will receive extensive value thanks to ESPN Star Sports' extensive rights agreements which will ensure coverage in more than 110 countries," said ICC CEO Malcolm Speed.

Further details of sponsor activations before and during the tournament will be announced in due course.

The trophy for the tournament made of 12 kg of silver-rhodium was also unveiled at the event.


The tournament begins with hosts South Africa playing the West Indies at the Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg on 11 September and culminates with the final at the same venue on 24 September.


The tournament is the first of 18 ICC events over the organisation’s new commercial period of 2007 – 2015. The period includes two ICC Cricket World Cup tournaments, in the Asian sub-continent (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) in 2011 and Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) four years later.
The International Cricket Council also today indicated it would not recognize the Indian Cricket League, though it said any sponsor was free to hold cricketing events within the country.

Speed said recognition to any new organization was only possible after consulting the existing member in that country, in this case the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI).

Speed said he had forecast two years ago that many sponsors would come forward to promote cricket in every country, and so he was not surprised that this was happening.

But he said that the Indian Cricket League promoted by Subhash Chandra had not yet applied to seek recognition of the ICC for hosting a domestic Twenty 20 series. However, if it did so, the ICC would first refer the matter to the BCCI.

Other criteria applied by the ICC for granting recognition included verifying who were playing in the game, whether the venue was safe from the security point of view, and whether the interest of the sponsor was charitable or developmental.

He said there was no reason to stop ICL from sponsoring a series within the country, but ICC would only work with BCCI. And he added that the ICC would not recognize a body which was only using retired players.

Meanwhile, Speed said the ICC had applied to the International Olympics Association for membership. Answering a query, he said that whenever approved, the Twenty 20 series would be ideal for the Olympics games since they took less time than the one-dayers.

"The aim was to keep cricket alive. If test matches proved too long, the one-dayers brought in the money. The Twenty 20 will bring a range of new audiences," Speed added.

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ESPN to share Twenty20 World Cup feed with DD

Millions of cricket lovers in non-cable households will be able to watch ICC’s Twenty20 World Cup kick off in South Africa on September 11. After weeks of dragging its feet over the issue, ESPN-Star Sports has conceded to Prasar Bharati’s demand to share its feed with Doordarshan for all the matches India plays, the semi-finals and the final, irrespective of whether India reaches the final stages.

While ESPN-Star Sports officials declined to comment, a source at Prasar Bharati confirmed the development. A top Prasar Bharati official told ET: “Doordarshan had sent a communication to ESPN-Star Sports requesting share of live feed of all matches India plays, including semi-finals and finals.

ESPN-Star Sports has not responded to our communication yet, but we have been given to understand that they have agreed to share the feed with us. A formal communication from ESPN-Star Sports is, however, awaited.”

Sharing feed of the Twenty20 format is not mandatory for the private broadcaster, unlike one-day matches and Tests telecasts. However, officials in the I&B ministry and Prasar Bharati had insisted that since the event was of national importance, the feed of the Twenty20 series too should be shared with Doordarshan.

Anticipating huge viewership, Prasar Bharati had demanded that sharing of the feed be made mandatory on the grounds that Twenty20 matches fall in the same category as one-day internationals. As per the law on mandatory feed sharing, the revenue sharing model is 75:25 in favour of the broadcaster.

Meanwhile, ESPN-Star Sports has sold the series at rates about 100% higher than even the 2007 World Cup, with rates averaging Rs 2.75-Rs 3 lakh per 10 seconds. “The format is new, and India’s performance has been encouraging, so advertisers are keen on the series,” a media source said.

WPP’s Group M, for example, has bought out 60% of the series inventory for $15 million on behalf of all its clients, including presenting sponsors Nokia, Havells, Hero Honda and associate sponsor PepsiCo. The deal also includes spot buys, which will be priced according to the performance of the Indian team across various stages.

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Players to support HIV-AIDS campaign at ICC Twenty20

Cricket stars from across the world will support the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) partnership with UNAIDS and Unicef at the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 2007, which takes place in South Africa from 11 to 24 September, to highlight the situation of children and young people living with and affected by HIV.


The partnership is also supported in South Africa from loveLife – South Africa’s national HIV prevention program for youth – to engage the youth audience.

Players including South Africa captain Graeme Smith, Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara and India’s Yuvraj Singh will feature in public service announcements for the ‘Unite for Children, Unite Against Aids’ campaign highlighting how HIV impacts on the lives of young people. This will be made available to broadcasters in 105 countries across the world as well as be watched by fans on the big screens at the 27 matches during the tournament.


Other stars will visit Unicef and loveLife community-based project activities in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg to promote HIV and AIDS awareness to young people and encourage them to develop life-skills to keep them HIV-free. Select players are expected to wear red ribbons in selected matches to show their support for people living with HIV.

Apart from player-related activities, 500 volunteers working at the event have all received HIV and AIDS education from loveLife health trainers, supported by UNAIDS. There will also be advertising boards at the grounds dedicated to promoting the ‘Unite for Children, Unite Against Aids’ campaign.


The African Broadcast Media Partnership Against HIV/AIDS – a coalition of more than 50 African broadcast companies – will also be supporting the partnership, promoting player visits and event activities related to the partnership.

Cricket is popular in many of the countries that are most impacted by AIDS, including India and South Africa. Together, these two countries are home to around 11 million of the 40 million people estimated to be living with HIV.

BCCI to reveal Twenty20 plans in 10-15 days, says Pawar

Turning the heat on the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL), BCCI President Sharad Pawar said the Board would announce its own Twenty20 plans in the next 10-15 days.

Pawar, who watched India beat England in the fifth one dayer here at Headingley on Sunday, derided ICL, calling it a 'purely commercial proposition' and said the Board would soon make its own Twenty20 plans public.

Turning the heat on the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL), BCCI President Sharad Pawar said the Board would announce its own Twenty20 plans in the next 10-15 days.

Pawar, who watched India beat England in the fifth one dayer here at Headingley on Sunday, derided ICL, calling it a 'purely commercial proposition' and said the Board would soon make its own Twenty20 plans public.

Indian tourists not batting for Twenty20 Cup

Despite Indian cricket team’s better performance in recent times after the West Indies World Cup debacle, the maiden Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa is generating lukewarm response from corporate and individual travellers from India.

Just around 2,000-odd visitors from India are expected to visit the Zulu land in course of the two-week long tournament with the bulk—over 85%—being part of corporate incentive groups. Among the corporates heading for South Africa are MNCs banks, FMCG companies, and telecom players.

And it will not be just cricket thats on offer with each match not lasting more than three hours. To liven up proceedings, tour operators are packaging in lot of sightseeing activities in the packages.

“The Twenty20 tournament presents a very good mix of cricket and leisure. As duration of each match is just around three hours, there is lot of opportunity to pack in sightseeing, wildlife safari and shopping within the day,” said SOTC COO Sunil Gupta. SOTC expects to end with 1,000-odd bookings for the tournament.

Most travel operators said that the tournament has the potential to appeal to both die-hard cricket fans and families. However, the buzz around this inaugural event is missing, leading to not-too-enthusiastic response from Indian travellers, feel many in the travel trade.

“We had projected around 1,000 bookings considering the fact that a three-hour format is much more exciting. We haven’t booked even 20% of the projected figure,” says Pyramid Travels CEO (marketing and operations) Harpreet Singh Sahni. During the West Indies World Cup the agency made travel arrangements for around 500 people.

Not surprisingly the travel majors focused on the corporate for numbers. For Thomas Cook, over 80% of the bookings have been from corporates. “It’s more of corporate groups who are heading to South Africa. There is not a great buzz around the event. However, the fact that it is happening in South Africa has made things better,” says Thomas Cook leisure travel COO Vishal Suri.

South Africa is gradually gaining popularity among individual travellers from India, especially with young people and couples. But the bigger numbers come from group travels sponsored by corporates. This year the group sizes are smaller, ranging typically between 25 to 40, with few 300 plus tours.

Most packages tailored for the tournament not only cater to the needs of the sports enthusiast but also avid travellers. Typically packages start off at around Rs 50,000 per person and can touch the Rs 75,000 mark, depending on the length of the visit.

For instance, a five-night package from SOTC which involves extensive sightseeing, costs around Rs 67,000 per person (including economy class return airfare, accommodation, transportation and match tickets).

Though the response has been lukewarm till date, travel agents have not yet lost hope. “As the game proceeds and if India performs well, we are expecting an increase in the number of bookings,” says Mr Sahni. SOTC too has tailored packages for Super 8 and the Final matches for last minute travellers.