Sports Channels in India (Current & Upcoming) - Broadcast Rights, General Discussion, News & Updates

[dino29]

Right now IPL is overlapping. What happens to the channels for the rest of the year when IPL isn't on? They still don't use the channels airing highlights like Star Sports 1 HD and Star Sports 2 HD priced around ₹19 air live matches on weekends.

Buddy i have discussed in detail about this number of times before... Having IPL, India Cricket onboard means a diff strategy is needed to recover investment as well less room to invest in other sports and even if they do like star sports does then a financially workable strategy needs to b adopted which they r again doing. Please do not compare sony sports with star sports....both have poles apart investments and properties hence have separate scheduling for them

Still in India we r getting niche sports at very low price, investments r high on it and returns r less. The day it becomes mass sport or people r ready to as PPV for it then channels will air it but at present broadcasters can either bet on niche sports or india cricket.... Easy for us to criticise but extremely tough for them to get a workable solution.

 

[iDJ]

Buddy i have discussed in detail about this number of times before... Having IPL, India Cricket onboard means a diff strategy is needed to recover investment as well less room to invest in other sports and even if they do like star sports does then a financially workable strategy needs to b adopted which they r again doing. Please do not compare sony sports with star sports....both have poles apart investments and properties hence have separate scheduling for them

Still in India we r getting niche sports at very low price, investments r high on it and returns r less. The day it becomes mass sport or people r ready to as PPV for it then channels will air it but at present broadcasters can either bet on niche sports or india cricket.... Easy for us to criticise but extremely tough for them to get a workable solution.

Bhai, you want ₹19 priced channels to air highlights over live content? Glad you don't work for broadcasting industry. You don't understand the meaning of niche. Niche is F2 not F1. Niche is ATP 250 not Wimbledon.

And I will compare Sony with Star. No one asked Star to offer ridiculously high amount for one sporting event. You understand the meaning of pay per views? Sony buys pay per views from WWE, Impact and UFC and then capitalise with maximum airings in multiple languages. They have the biggest football league call UEFA Champions League. They seem to make profit and retain rights every year. Every single match makes it to tv. Hence, people shell out ₹60 for entire sports content over just paying ₹19 to watch particular sports.

Anyhow I won't argue with anyone with mindset of wanting broadcaster to charge full amount while airing highlights. Please take the effort to make petitions for Star to make Star Gold Select a ₹100 priced channel as movies are niche.

 

[Vivek420]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1438419939958804481

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[dino29]

Bhai, you want ₹19 priced channels to air highlights over live content? Glad you don't work for broadcasting industry. You don't understand the meaning of niche. Niche is F2 not F1. Niche is ATP 250 not Wimbledon.

And I will compare Sony with Star. No one asked Star to offer ridiculously high amount for one sporting event. You understand the meaning of pay per views? Sony buys pay per views from WWE, Impact and UFC and then capitalise with maximum airings in multiple languages. They have the biggest football league call UEFA Champions League. They seem to make profit and retain rights every year. Every single match makes it to tv. Hence, people shell out ₹60 for entire sports content over just paying ₹19 to watch particular sports.

Anyhow I won't argue with anyone with mindset of wanting broadcaster to charge full amount while airing highlights. Please take the effort to make petitions for Star to make Star Gold Select a ₹100 priced channel as movies are niche.

Buddy, 1stly please b little polite with ur words.... We r discussing not fighting here.
Coming to topic, it is all about economics.... I am not a broadcast person but understand things well. F1, Wimbledon, major football events all r niche events in India compared to cricket and though these come at high cost but revenue generated is small.

Star Sports has to air highlights to recover costs and maintain ratings bcoz unfortunately football, tennis, F1 bring less viewership than cricket and here I m comparing even live feed of niche events with highlights of India cricket or IPL ..... There r exceptions like FIFA World Cup or UEFA Euro which do garner sizeable viewership and more than what cricket highlights provides.

All in all Sony has invested in more sports / sports events but their actual investment might still b less than what star sports has invested in India cricket, IPL, Football, Tennis, F1, Kabaddi etc. Much easy for sony to recover investment thru big cricket series or earn some money from niche sports.... Big Cricket Series featuring India helps recover cricket investment as well as offset losses being incurred in football, tennis etc. Star Sports does not have that liberty, for them even recovering cricket investment is tough hence u see cricket dominating across channels, for niche sports they can give limited tv coverage and try to earn some money from tv as well as mostly thru OTT

Sony can earn more from live football than showing other countries hence u see more of it but when India Cricket is on u will see them adopting star sports strategy to maximise revenue for that time period

All in all it's quite complex thing for broadcaster to maintain equilibrium. If u have suggestions for them on how to earn proper revenue by giving tv coverage for all sports then share it with them.... They will adopt if it is feasible else buddy we can continue endless discussion without any positive result

Star Gold Select does not have to b priced high bcoz again its content acquisition cost is quite less and some losses can b offset by profits from main movie or GEC chs.... This has no parallel to sports business but I m sure star/disney must b utilizing some profits to acquire ur fav football events too.... This cannot b applied to everything as then company will b in losses, strategy is to make each genre financially independent


Anyways next yr onwards u might see disney not overspending on india cricket or ipl and then niche sports as well as ESPN might make comeback on TV. Hope for the best

 

[JollyLNB]

They will adopt if it is feasible else buddy we can continue endless discussion without any positive result

This is exactly what we are seeing with Star in the sports genre and Sony in the Hindi movies genre. No matter how much we talk about their mishandling of the schedules, it is not having any results.

The opposite is the case for Star in Hindi movies and Sony in sports, where they actively listen to viewers on social media and show a variety of programming on their channels of all sorts. Star Gold and co. as well as SPSN in sports have been busy bringing new shows and events. But Star Sports so far has refused to budge from cricket and Sony Max has refused to cut down on showing South movies. After a point what can we do? It will ultimately bring the discussion back to the same place.

 

[iDJ]

Me everytime I heard some weird lecture on Star Sports and how mainstream sports like F1, Wimbledon are niche. Growing up even saw pool air on this same Star Sports. Nothing could be more these. For individuals like these we do not flourish in any other sports.

Waiting for the day when someone lectures how our national sports hockey is niche. So select few match should air.

Just because you don't have personal understanding of these events. Doesn't make these niche. If these are so niche. Why did broadcaster buy the rights? You wouldn't accept flaws in the broadcaster. Fine, don't waste my time. Acquisition of smaller viewership are small as well. Somehow Star always does us favour. While Sony and Viacom. Heck, even Discovery buys rights without it's fanboys making much fuss.

 

[marvel44]

This is exactly what we are seeing with Star in the sports genre and Sony in the Hindi movies genre. No matter how much we talk about their mishandling of the schedules, it is not having any results.

The opposite is the case for Star in Hindi movies and Sony in sports, where they actively listen to viewers on social media and show a variety of programming on their channels of all sorts.

I wouldn't agree with lack of Variety with Star Sports here tho.. They haven't had PKL in two years which would have covered the time they hadn't had any sports.. Badminton isn't happening anywhere, Hockey events aren't there as well...

Sony is currently putting out Cricket, MMA, and Football currently on their channels.. Star is also putting out Cricket, MMA, and Football on their channels in addition to F1 and Tennis as well... If anyone is such an avid sports fan complaining a lot regarding SS1 and SS2, Why can't they go ahead and subscribe SS Select channels...

Next, coming to not all matches on TV, literally a very less percentage of Indians care about the bottom half of the PL clubs, if you really want to see them they are having an option for you to watch on Disney+ Hotstar.

 

[iDJ]

I am amazed by the innocence of some people here. They very well know as soon as IPL starts. Star Sports Select 1 and Star Sports Select 1 HD will be reserve for IPL. These were supposed to be "niche" channels. Same should be the case during ICC T20 World Cup. Star Sports could easily move some Premier League matches and F1 to Star Sports 2 and Star Sports 2 HD. Guess what? They would be still airing IPL highlights along with Kabbadi and ISL highlights. And if you are on cable you are kind of stuck with Star Sports Select 1 and Star Sports Select 1 HD for the month as there are 30 day lock-in policies. Than again you gotta ask operator to add Star Sports 3 for Premier League. It's a lose lose situation for whoever watches anything else over cricket.

 

[Shantanu Upadhyay]

Waiting for the day when someone lectures how our national sports hockey is niche.

Hockey is not national sport of India. Infact India does not have an official National Sport.

 

[praks001]

To all those who are defending Star Sports' programming of showing highlights of cricket matches day in day out, must remember the time when they used broadcast UEFA, EPL, La Liga, Serie A, X games, Baseball, Cricket from almost all the countries and whatnot on just 2 of their channels- ESPN & Star Sports. They were truly No. 1 during those times and literally everyone was happy. That was also the time when cable operators used to under report their subscriber count. If they could manage their finances then, why not now. The subscriber count is totally transparent, they have more channels and almost all of them are priced in the premium segment.