MUMBAI: Sony Six, Multi Screen Media?s sports channel, has inked a three-year deal with National Basketball Association (NBA) to become the sole broadcast partner of the American professional basketball league in India.

The broadcast rights were earlier shared between Sony Pix, the English movie channel from MSM, and Zeel-owned sports broadcaster Ten Sports.

Sony Six, which has Indian Premier League (IPL) and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as its tent pole properties, has identified NBA to attract young audiences towards the sports and entertainment channel.

The sportscaster sees a fit with the property and feels it can develop it in India through aggressive marketing which includes drawing on Bollywood?s popularity to attract new audiences.

"Our study shows that the youth want new sports which are fast paced in nature and Basketball is a fast paced sport. We see huge opportunity to build NBA in India and have big plans to promote it," MSM CEO Man Jit Singh tells Indiantelevision.

The comprehensive partnership with Sony Six will include live NBA games, original programming, and a joint commitment to host grassroots basketball events on the ground.

The two partners will create customised local programming and will focus on engaging Indian youth by bringing together talent from the NBA, Sony Entertainment and Bollywood.
Before Ten Sports and Sony Pix, ESPN Star Sports (ESS) was the long standing broadcast partner for NBA in India but decided not to renew its partnership due to poor viewership. Singh, however, is unfazed.

"NBA was never promoted properly in India. Our plan is to work in tandem with NBA to promote the sport by bringing in NBA players, through college festivals, and 3x3 Basketball that will have NBA players pitted against basketball fans," he added.

Singh feels NBA is a viable sport for the broadcaster in the long run but in the short-term it will invest in the sport. "It is definitely a viable property but we are looking at it from an investment point of view," he asserted.

He did not see any issue with the timing of NBA games which are generally aired early in the morning, "Every sport fan wants to watch a game live. However for those who can?t watch NBA games early in the morning we have repeats in the prime time," he reasoned.

Apart from IPL, UFC and NBA, Six has also identified racquet sports and football to build the channel even as it continues to evaluate cricket boards that are coming up for renewal. MSM has also placed bids for English Premier League rights which are currently held by ESS.

The broadcaster had unsuccessfully bid for England Cricket Board and West Indies Cricket Board rights which were eventually retained by incumbent broadcasters, ESPN Star Sports and Taj Television respectively.

Most of the cricket rights are locked in excluding Sri Lanka Cricket Board, Pakistan Cricket Board, Bangladesh Cricket Board and New Zealand Cricket.

"We will certainly bid for properties as and when they come up. Having said that, we are not going bid crazy amounts," Singh averred.

NBA India Senior Director Business Development & Partnerships said the reason the league decided to partner Sony Six was because of its overall package they offered which includes favourable time slot and other on-air and on-ground initiatives that are critical engaging fans.

"We spoke to different broadcasters but Sony Six was the one who presented the most comprehensive partnership. They were willing to partner not just on the air but on the ground as well," Jain said.

"They are giving us a favourable timeslot on air. Besides matches, they will air magazine shows and highlights. They will also have local content by showcasing the basketball scene in India. They will also have instructional content for coaches and players."

Sony Six will air live NBA games each week on Thursday, Friday and Sunday with replays in prime-time. The Sunday game will be the "Game of the Week" featuring the NBA game airing at noon or 1:00 pm ET in the U.S.

In total, fans in India will have access to 72 NBA regular season games, up to 18 NBA Playoff games, the Eastern and Western Conference Finals, the NBA Finals and NBA All-Star events including the All-Star Game, All-Star Saturday Night, and the Rising Stars competition.

The NBA and Sony Six will also create a weekly NBA lifestyle program and a series of instructional vignettes that will help educate fans on the rules of the game and basketball terminology.

Apart from metros, NBA will also work with Sony Six to viewership in second and third tier cities.

"The aim is to showcase the NBA experience and lifestyle. We will package elements from this and create a platform. We will be doing marketing activities to create awareness about the partnership which includes social media, promos, and contests. Fans will get the chance to go to the US. They will get opportunity to attend games and get Behind The Scenes VIP Access to meet players," Jain added.

NEW DELHI: News broadcasters have agreed to pay reasonable carriage fees after the roll out of digitisation on 1 November, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) said on Thursday. It said news broadcasters are willing to pay MSOs 50 paise to Re 1 per set top box subscriber, per channel per year as carriage fee.

The NBA statement follows a meeting chaired by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairperson Rahul Khullar on 11 October with representatives of the MSO Alliance, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, and the NBA to discuss the progress of digitisation and the issue of payment of carriage fees by broadcasters (inclusive of marketing fees, tiering fees, packaging fees or fees or charges under any other nomenclature) under the digitised regime.

Earlier, news broadcasters were concerned about unreasonable carriage fees continuing even after the switch to digitisation. While placement fee has been specifically prohibited by Trai, broadcasters were concerned about the lack of clarity with regard to carriage fees. Broadcasters were unsure whether they were required to pay carriage fee at all after digitisation, and if required, what would be the rates.

Khullar mentioned that his predecessor had indicated what reasonable carriage fees should be in a digitised regime and stated that boundaries had been laid down and he would expect carriage deals with news broadcasters to be within these bounds. He also exhorted broadcasters and MSOs to enter into agreements on carriage fees within the "next few days" so that all is set by the time digitisation rolls out in the four metros from the 1 November.

In view of this, the NBA said despite the earlier objection of news broadcasters to the payment of any carriage fees whatsoever, they are now agreeable to enter into agreements with MSOs for an initial period of one year, for the payment of carriage fees (inclusive of marketing fees, tiering fees, packaging fees or fees or charges under any other nomenclature) in the digitised areas, at a rate of 50 paise to one rupee per set top box subscriber, per channel per year, which is the reasonable rate and boundary set by the former TRAI chairperson and mentioned as such by the current chairperson at the meeting on 11 October 2012.

NBA said, "News broadcasters are grateful to the TRAI chairperson for taking proactive action in resolving the vexatious issue of carriage in a statesmanlike manner."

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News channels, MSOs wrangle over carriage fee

MUMBAI: Setanta Sports, the international sports broadcaster, has agreed a multi-year deal to distribute its exclusive rugby programming on Multi Screen Media?s sports channel Sony Six.

Sony Six will broadcast live coverage of the RBS Six Nations, Super Rugby and Rugby Championship (formerly Tri Nations) as well as showing Setanta?s flagship rugby programme: The Breakdown.

"We are delighted to work with Sony SIX to bring our exclusive rugby programming to India. Our goal is to achieve the greatest possible exposure of rugby across the whole of Asia," said Setanta Sports International MD Roger Hall.

Setanta Sports has extensive distribution for its channel and programming in Asia with deals in Thailand (with TrueVisions), Hong Kong (with Now TV and Hong Kong Broadband), Malaysia and Brunei (with Astro), Singapore (with StarHub and SingTel mio TV), Taiwan (with Dish HD), the Philippines (with SKYcable) and Sri Lanka (with Dialog TV).

Sony Six has Indian Premier League and Ultimate Fighting Championship as its driving properties in India. It also has FA Cup and NBA to complement its key properties in addition to international football friendlies.

New Delhi: The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) on Thursday urged Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni to order an independent audit of the systems of TAM Media Research, the agency that provides television ratings service.

In a letter to Soni, the NBA has said the audit should be conducted by a reputed third-party within a certain time-frame to evaluate and measure the TAM systems. The audit report should be made public.

The letter follows questions being raised about TAM ratings following a case filed by the New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) in New York, against TAM and its parents the Nielsen group and the Kantar Group.

The NBA has also sought a direction to TAM to suspend reporting of its ratings data until the audit is completed.

The NBA has urged Soni to take "efficient" steps to correct deficiencies in the system and to help build a robust, transparent and dependable ratings system. The ministry should continue to engage and work together on this issue and give the industry and all its stakeholders - broadcasters, advertisers, distribution companies - the confidence to be able to consume data derived from such system.

"We believe these measures and initiatives from the Government will go a long way in addressing this long pending concern and we offer you our complete support in this journey," the NBA has said.

The NBA drew attention to the "Code of Practice in relation to Measurement Based Studies" adopted by it and adhered to by its member broadcasters. The Code was formulated and approved so that the use of measurement based studies by member broadcasters is carried out in line with highest ethical commercial practices.

"As you are aware TAM has been reporting viewership data to the industry despite serious concerns over their systems and methodology of measuring TV audiences. Data continues to be skewed and is seriously affecting broadcasters and their business."

"While Indian Broadcasting Foundation was instrumental in the formation of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), the responsibility of implementing BARC will see the light of the day only if the ISA and the AAAI jointly take serious efforts to launch it in the immediate future. Content and its quality no longer is a creative judgment or product of talent or ability but has been severely compromised with the sole aim of gaining viewership ratings," the letter said.