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indiantelevision.com Team
MUMBAI: Kolkata-based Celebrity Management Group is targeting a revenue of $5-6 million from the first season of Premier League Soccer, a franchise-based football league in soccer-crazy West Bengal set up along the lines of America?s MLS.
"We are expecting $5-6 million from sale of commercial rights," CMG executive director Bhaswar Goswami said, adding broadcast rights will form a major chunk of the revenues followed by sponsorships.
He also informed that the company has inked a television distribution deal with international sports media company, MP & Silva. "We have signed a global media rights deal with MP & Silva, London," Goswami disclosed.
Without sharing the financial details of the deal, Goswami said the deal with MP & Silva is a mix of minimum guarantee as well as revenue share. "The deal will slowly build up. There is a minimum guarantee as well as revenue share," he said.
Goswami said the league will be broadcast in at least 50 countries in the first year itself. The company has identified US and Europe as key target markets for the league since a lot of international football players are a part of the league.
The fact that US and certain European countries like UK have significant population of Indian-origin also bodes well for CMG?s plans.
"That?s the kind of projection they (MP & Silva) have given us because they are big in media distribution," Goswami asserted. "We have a huge Indian population in US and Europe so these are two key markets."
CMG is also in talks with three broadcasters for the South Asia broadcast rights. The ones that the company is in negotiations with include two sports broadcasters and a non-sports broadcaster, the names of which Goswami refused to reveal.
The company had earlier this month inked a 30-year deal with Indian Football Association, the governing body of football in West Bengal, to launch PLS, which will see big names from the world of football like Italy?s World Cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro, Arsenal legend Robert Pires, Argentinian striker Hernan Crespo, former Portugal star player Fernando Couto, former Nigerian midfielder ?Jay-Jay? Okocha, and the fourth-highest goal scorer in Premier League history, Robert Fowler in action.
The above mentioned players are also the iconic players for the league.
The company has also roped in six world class coaches for the franchises which includes Peter Reid (England), John Barnes (England), Samson Siasia (Nigeria), Marco Etcheverry (Bolivia), Colin Todd (England), Teitur Thodarson (Iceland), Fernando Couto (Portugal) and Milos Rus (Slovakia).
The six franchises for the PLS will be announced tomorrow in Kolkata. The last day for submitting tender was 22 January. According to Goswami, a lot of companies both from West Bengal as well as outside the state have shown interest in the league.
Goswami did not share any details of how many companies have actually submitted bids to buy the franchises.
Kolkata, Barasat, Howrah, Haldia, Durgapur and Siliguri are the six franchise cities that will be awarded to successful bidders for a period of 10 years.
As per the the tendering process launched by CMG and IFA, bidders who bag Kolkata and Siliguri will have to fork out a franchise fee of Rs 10 million per year. Those who bag the Barasat franchise will have to pay Rs 8 million in franchise fee per year. For Howrah, Haldia and Durgapur, the fee is Rs 7 million per year.
The bidding companies need to have a net worth of $5 million or an annual turnover (combined) of $10 million during each of the last three years as a prerequisite to bid for a PLS franchisee. It was also mandatory for the bidders to submit a tender for at least three locations.
The organisers had fixed a financial cap on minimum and maximum a franchise can spend. The maximum limit is $2.5 million, while the minimum is $2 million.
In August, CMG had for the first time in the history of Indian football organised an international friendly match between Argentina and Venezuela, which also saw footballing great Lionel Messic coming to India and playing in front of packed crowds in Kolkata. The company had netted an estimated $ 4-5 million from the friendly match.
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