MUMBAI: Continuing its buying spree, sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports said it has acquired the broadcast rights of Indian Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) property Super Fight League (SFL) for a period of five years.

Neo Prime was the incumbent broadcast rights holder of the SFL.

ESS will cover 23 SFL Fight Nights live on a fortnightly basis from the 2013-14 season which kicks off in Mumbai on 29 March and will continue all year round till March end 2014.

Launched in 2012, SFL is a brainchild of Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra and Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt. This year a total of around 250 fighters, male and female, from India and abroad will fight it out for the coveted Championship Title Belt and the right to be crowned SFL World Champion.

This season will see participants from top notch MMA playing countries like Japan, Brazil and USA. A lot of NRI MMA fighters from countries like Australia, UK, Canada, Germany and USA will also be in seen in action.

Speaking on the occasion, ESPN Software India COO Vijay Rajput said, ?We believe in offering the best of sporting content to the Indian sports fans across genres and this acquisition firmly reiterates our constant endeavor in this direction. This acquisition enables us to expand our content in MMA fighting and we think this property will get a lot of traction with fight fans across the country. We will soon start a high decibel marketing campaign across our entire network leveraging top fighters of the league and Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt to build up to the season launch.?

SFL Founder Chairman Raj Kundra said, ?The broadcast tie-up with ESPN Star Sports will provide a major boost to our efforts to promote this property across South Asia. We are very enthused with the response that SFL has been able to generate in its very first year of operation. The league is today ranked amongst the top 5 MMA leagues in the world. As a result, we have seen a lot of interest from leading MMA fighters to compete in SFL season 2. Good quality fighters from India and abroad will help the league reach new highs. We are also expanding in a big way. The new season will see 11 title belts on offer, up from 5 title belts in the first edition. Male participants will fight it out across 8 weight categories from bantamweight to heavyweight while the ladies? section will see action in 3 weight categories from flyweight to featherweight."

In the Bantamweight category for males, current title holder Anup Kumar has been given the top ranking. In the Featherweight category, Bharat Khandare (current title holder) tops the ranking. In Lightweight, Rajinder Singh (current title holder) is ranked No.1. In Welterweight, Shyam Prasad (current title holder) is at the top.

In the new categories introduced this year, John Troyer has been ranked highest in the Middleweight category. Goran Reljic is ranked second in the Light heavyweight category. Daniel Amar Singh has been ranked highest in the Heavyweight category. In the female section, Sanja Sucevic has been ranked highest in the Flyweight category. In Bantamweight, Hanna Sillen has been given the highest billing. In Featherweight, Puja Kadian is the favourite for the title.

ESS, which is now part of Star network in India, has been on a buying spree ever since it became a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corp. The broadcaster acquired BCCI rights and followed that up by retaining England Cricket Board (ECB) rights. The broadcaster then went on to acquire rights for English Premier League (EPL), Hockey India League (HIL), Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL), Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), and FA Cup.

MUMBAI: Rupert Murdoch-controlled News Corp?s payout to ESPN for the 50 per cent stake buy in ESPN Star Sports (ESS) is $220 million, net of cash.

In November 2012, News Corp said it acquired the stake of ESPN in ESS for approximately $335 million. So this implies that ESS had a cash balance of $115 million at the time of buying out ESPN?s stake in the company.

ESPN, the American sports television network, said Wednesday in its first quarter financial results that it has gained $219 million from the sale of its 50 per cent interest in ESS, its Asian sports joint venture with rival News Corp.

ESPN last year sold its stake in the JV for $335 million thereby valuing ESS at $770 million. ESS, which is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of News Corp, has been renamed as Fox Star Sports Asia.

Except in India, the ESPN brand name has also been dropped across Asia and all the channels have been renamed Fox Sports in markets where it had a presence.

"EPS for the current quarter includes a gain on the sale of our 50 per cent interest in ESPN STAR Sports of $219 million," The Walt Disney Company said in its October-December first quarter results.

The gain from sale of equity interest in ESS helped ESPN to partially offset lower operating results during the quarter.

MUMBAI: After buying out Walt Disney?s stake in ESPN Star Sports (ESS), News Corp is restructuring its Asian sports broadcasting business. Star India will be in control of the sports business in India while it will be under Fox International Channels (FIC) in the rest of Asia.

The formal change in India will take place after News Corp?s acquisition gets the necessary regulatory approvals.

Though the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had in September cleared the deal, Star India chief operating officer Sanjay Gupta said some regulatory approvals were still to be obtained.

News Corp had taken full ownership of ESS by forking out $335 million for ESPN?s 50 per cent stake in the joint venture.

Gupta told Indiantelevision.com that the sports business will become part of Star India but would continue to function as a separate entity as it requires different set of expertise.

ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd (ESIPL), the India subsidiary of Asian sportscaster ESPN Star Sports (ESS), is headquartered in New Delhi and has a separate team that used to operate the joint venture company.

?The sports business requires a different mindset and a different set of expertise. Ad sales and distribution functions will, thus, continue to be managed by ESIPL, which will work closely with Star India,? Gupta explained.

It may be recalled that Star India, which holds the BCCI media rights till 2018, recently roped in ex-Hindustan Media Ventures Limited (HMVL) CEO Amit Chopra to steer its sports strategy in India. Star had acquired the BCCI media rights for Rs 38.51 billion.

In rest of Asia, Fox International Channels (FIC) Asia will manage all Fox Sports networks along with the current Star Sports, Fox Football Channel, Star Cricket and Star Cricket HD networks across various markets in the region with Peter Hutton at the helm.

"We are all part of the News Corp company. So we (FIC and Star India) will work together," a source familiar with the development said.

ESPN, which was today rebranded as Fox Sports in select markets in Asia, will continue to retain the brand name in India till the government clearance comes.

?We will continue with the ESPN brand name for some more time as the acquisition has not been completed in India. We are awaiting government clearance on transfer of assets,? Gupta said.

Star is yet to take a call whether to rebrand ESPN channel with the Star brand name, which is well-entrenched in India, or to adopt the Fox Sports name as is the case in rest of Asia.

?We are yet to take a call on what brand to replace the ESPN channel with in India. We are weighing two options. One is to have the Star name, which is a highly recognised brand in India, associated with it. The second option is to go with the Fox Sports brand which is News Corp?s well known sports brand in US,? Gupta averred.

Curtains on ESPN brand in Asia

FIC Asia today said beginning 28 January, the ESPN networks will be renamed as Fox Sports networks across various affiliate platforms in Asia.

The rebranding will first take effect in South East Asian countries. Among the countries that will first sport the new name include Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

As part of the rebranding, ESPN will renamed as Fox Sports, the high-definition channel ESPN HD as Fox Sports Plus (HD), sports news channel ESPNews as Fox Sports News, the broadband network ESPN Player as Fox Sports Play and the mobile service mobileESPN as Fox Sports Mobile.

?Sports has always been a driver genre in the TV business and with the addition of Fox Sports to FIC Asia?s portfolio, we are well poised to further our position as Asia?s leading network. We are looking to launch even more premium sports content in the near future and are committed to making Fox Sports the premiere destination for passionate sports fans,? said FIC Sports SVP Peter Hutton.

Fox Sports will also launch the new sports news programme Fox Sports Central to replace the current programme Sports Center. Additionally, foxsportsasia.com will be the new online destination in place of espnstar.com for comprehensive, real time and authoritative content across an unrivalled breadth of sports news, editorial opinions, scores and more.