Olympics: ESS divides properties, ESPN to air India events

MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports (ESS) will deliver round-the-clock coverage on the London 2012 Olympic Games from 27 July to 12 August 2012, offering live coverage of the most popular global sporting event to Indian sports fans.

Out of the three channels, ESPN will focus on Indian athletes. The broadcaster expects that the reach for the event will double this year.

Talking about the strategy of covering the event in India, ESPN Software India senior director business development and event management group Rathindra Basu said, "Overall, we have rights to broadcast 240 hours of programming every day for the duration of 15 days which makes it almost 3,600 hours of programming. We will customise our feed especially for the Indian sports fans. The plan is that we will be showcase live broadcast of Olympics on three networks in India - ESPN, Star Sports and ESPN HD."

He explains that ESPN will be more India specific and showcase sports featuring Indian athletes, and those sports which are more popular in India such as Hockey, Shooting, Boxing, Wresting, Tennis and football.

"Star Sports will be showcasing sports like Gymnastics, Equestrian, Volleyball etc. The content of Star Sports will be more pan-regional. ESPN HD will be a blend of above two channels, showcasing many of the Indian athletes as well as best of sporting action from around the Olympics," he said.

The aim, he added, is to offer a complete and comprehensive presentation of the Games, hosted by ESS? studio presentation team in Singapore, as well as a team of reporters on-ground in London to deliver in-depth news updates, interviews and stories.

He highlighted the importance of ESPN having content that will attract Indian audiences. "After all Olympics is about pride, it is about one?s country reaching the pinnacle of sporting excellence in a particular sport/ category. We will showcase events which will involve Indian athletes for the sports fans in India. There is huge expectation from India?s sporting contingent and we will sieve through 3600 hours of live programming that is available to showcase the best possible sporting content for fans in India."

The core target audience for the games remains males, C&S 15+ All India. "I would like to qualify here that Olympics is the biggest sporting event across the planet where countries fight for supremacy in sports categories. We expect that viewers across profiles will tune-in to see live action from London. Olympics should get almost double the reach as compared to last edition," he added.