I am extremely unhappy with the channel rate of Rs 5 under the CAS regime. We are being forced to sell in metros like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata at the same rate. We have requested TRAI to treat sports channels in a different manner and not club then in the same price bracket as that of entertainment channels.
R C Venkateish joined ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd as Managing Director in June 2003. He heads the management of the company, which oversees the distribution, sales and marketing for the two network services - ESPN and STAR Sports - for the South Asia region covering India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives.
Venkateish has a strong consumer marketing background. Prior to this assignment, he had worked in senior management positions with leading companies like Kellogg Japan, Kellogg India, the Gillette Co, Oral-B Laboratories and Nestle India. Vekateish is credited with turning around the long ailing business of Kellogg India and building a platform for its sustained future growth, developing the Oral-B brand from scratch in India to building it into a strong, premium and profitable franchise. While working with Nestle, Venktaeish was responsible for moving Nestle to a position of leadership in the coffee market.
He began his professional career as a management trainee with SmithKline Beecham India. Venkateish holds a Post Graduate degree in management from the IIM, Calcutta and a B.Tech degree from IIT, Chennai.
In this interview with exchange4media's Pallavi Goorha, Venkateish talks about the various sports properties that ESPN-STAR Sports has bagged in recent times and how the channel plans to market these properties and developme programming around them. He also expresses his displeasure over the channel pricing in the new CAS regime. Q. Please tell us something more about Mobile ESPN. What initiatives are you taking in the mobile value added services (VAS) domain? We launched Mobile ESPN in India in November 2006. Besides information on cricket, the specialised feature service has the latest updates from international soccer matches, sports centre news, and exclusive interviews and sports schedules. The service is available on major telecom networks such as Hutch, Airtel, Idea, and BSNL. Mobile ESPN is a 360-degree sports service, covering every possible game in all possible formats - voice, video, text and SMS - in multiple languages.
Q. Any new shows in the pipeline? We have just launched a new comedy series 'Full Toss', which is a satirical take on the functioning of a fictitious cricket organisation. New shows will come up in due course of time.
Q. What are your marketing plans for ESPN-STAR Sports in 2007? The year 2006 has been really fruitful for us. In 2007, we have plans to do introduce some new things as far as our programming goes. For example, the Samsung Match Zone, it's a property that has tremendous opportunities, which also connects with the viewers.
Q. Don't you feel you have overstretched yourself by over bidding? No we haven't overstretched ourselves. We always think and make our business plans. There is a budget allotted to each of our bids. We are answerable to our joint shareholders.
Q. ESPN-STAR Sports has also acquired the live and exclusive telecast rights for the French Open for a period of five years in South Asia, starting with the next championship in May-June, 2007 What kind of programmes have you lined up for it? Roland Garros will add to the existing strong line-up of tennis programming on ESPN-STAR Sports, which already includes the Australian Open, Wimbledon, ATP Masters Series, Tennis Masters Cup and other national and Asian level tournaments. We will decide the line-up and the special programming when the event comes up. The winning of the telecast rights for the French Open adds to our portfolio of sports properties like the English Premier League and Spanish La Liga in soccer, rights to live cricket action from six Test playing nations, all races of the F1 season, A1 Grand Prix and MotoGP, regular shows of TNA wrestling, and Pride FC and Indian Hockey Federation's very own Premier Hockey League.
Q. With CAS coming into effect from January 1, 2007, what do you feel about it? How is it impacting you channel? I am extremely unhappy with the channel rate of Rs 5 under the CAS regime. We are being forced to sell in metros like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata at the same rate. We have requested TRAI to treat sports channels in a different manner and not club then in the same price bracket as that of entertainment channels.
Q. ESPN-STAR Sports has signed a deal with the FA Premier League (FAPL) to broadcast the Barclays English Premier League for the Indian Sub-continent through 2010. What kind of programming are you planning around it? The agreement grants ESPN-STAR Sports the right to broadcast 370 matches per season throughout India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Mongolia and Maldives via television, broadband and mobile technologies. We are using all platforms available to us - TV channels, our website www.espnstar.com, and our wireless platform, Mobile ESPN - to bring exclusive coverage of premier sports events to our viewers. As per our agreement with the FA Premier League, we will also broadcast the Barclays English Premier league matches live and exclusive to 12 other countries - Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, North Korea, Brunei, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Taiwan and Macau. These rights also include television, mobile and Internet platforms.
Q. Are you looking for exclusive tie-ups with advertisers? We are not looking for exclusive tie-ups. We can always do innovative stuff if ICC gives us the permission to do so as far as cricket is concerned.
Q. WorldSpace satellite radio has signed an exclusive broadcast license agreement with ESPN-STAR Sports to provide subscribers with live audio coverage of the game. What kind of programming would WorldSpace do? Under the terms of the agreement, Play, the WorldSpace-branded all sports channel for South Asia and the Middle East, will have exclusive broadcast rights throughout South Asia for 12 tours and over 200 days of cricket comprising both Test matches and One-Day Internationals. Three of the 12 tours include India - WorldSpace's primary market in the Asian region. The coverage commenced from November 19, 2006 with India's tour of South Africa and would through February 2008 with conclusion of the India-Sri Lanka-Australia Triangular Series in Australia. Subscribers will have ball-by-ball real-time coverage of all the matches as well as a host of ancillary programming surrounding each match. The coverage will feature matches with the national teams from India, Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, and the West Indies. It also includes the biennial Australia-England Ashes series.
Q. What about the revenue that you garner from channel subscriptions? Direct-to-home subscription numbers are increasing. Both Tata Sky and DishTV are capturing the market and viewers have no option but to subscribe to either of them to keep receiving their favourite channels under the CAS regime. New players are entering the fray, but it will take time to get a foothold in the market.
Q. What kind of programming are you doing for UEFA Euro 2008? What are the future plans? ESPN-STAR Sports has won the live and exclusive broadcast and live simulcast Internet rights for the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship (UEFA Euro 2008) across India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and the Maldives. With this acquisition, we will be broadcasting all 31 matches from the tournament live and exclusive. The competition will feature the top 16 national teams from Europe and will be held in Austria and Switzerland in June 2008. In addition to the live coverage of the matches, we will be producing exclusive pre-game, post-game, and halftime shows around UEFA Euro 2008 as well as other localised content designed to broaden the base of football viewers in the Indian Sub-continent We have expanded the football-watching audience in India through concentrated marketing efforts and programming initiatives such as introduction of Hindi commentary. Viewers can expect an exciting presentation and fresh innovations for UEFA Euro 2008.
Q. ESPN-STAR Sports has bagged the broadcast rights for all ICC events for an eight-year period starting from 2007 to 2015.What is the valuation of the deal? What are the marketing strategies around it? The rights will start from September with the Twenty-20 World Cup. The rights encompasses two World Cups (in 2011 and 2015) and major tournaments such as the Champions Trophy in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014, two Twenty-20 World Cups, the Women's World Cup and Intercontinental Cup, among others. We cannot disclose the valuation of the deal at present. Each tournament will have different marketing plans around it.
