Follow Us
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) proposes to launch its own 24-hour cricket channel. With this move, the owner would become a player and given the cricket fever in the country — the effect on the industry would be quite a watch.
There is still a lot to unfold before one can establish what this move signifies, but a few points cannot be ignored. To begin with, what is not a given is whether terrestrial rights have to be sold at all. The history of past cases such as Ten Sports during the Indo-Pakistan Samsung Series 2004 indicates that Doordarshan (DD) always has the right to the rights. In 365 days, how many days of cricket can one show? From where will BCCI source other cricket content from? There are more such factors in the grey but the industry has an opinion already on this BCCI decision and Noor Fathima Warsia finds them out…
Ravi Kiran,
MD,
Starcom (South & West)
I am positive about the initiative. I am sure BCCI understands that running a board is fundamentally different from running a channel. They should try and do it professionally. While cricket will help them a lot, excessive optimism can back fire. That said, their lack of experience in running a channel might be their best weapon — no baggage to carry.
The current players are not going to sit by and watch while BCCI makes all the hay; they will fight back. I believe they will invest in building sporting products for the future. More products like PHL, Super Selector and even international games such as tennis, soccer and athletics will get a fillip. It is stupid to ignore the commitment and ability of global networks such as ESPN.
If BCCI launches the channel and even makes a reasonable success of it, everyone will get very aggressive. Sports, as a part of our popular culture as well as a marketing discipline, will grow dramatically.
Shashi Sinha,
President,
Lodestar Media
It might look fine on paper, but I don’t think it is a very good idea. It’s like a content producer launching the channel. BCCI might have the wherewithal to launch the channel but they don’t have the mindset. There are important aspects such as selling the property, which is not their core competence.
The move will take away the ‘cricket advantage’ that some channels had. It will be a problem for other channels in the same space. BCCI will now also try to acquire other properties. So there is an extra contender now.
To read the entire story, grab your copy of Impact Advertising and Weekly magazine issue dated April 18-24, 2005