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

[KGF]

There is a huge fan base of F1 and MotoGP in India, don't forgot that India made Buddh International Circuit and host F1 India in the past and around 100,000 fans attend the race physically in the circuit and from this year onwards we are going to host MotoGP in India.
The only reason that no broadcaster go for the F1 rights this year is because of BCCI's media rights Auction is near and all broadcasters wants to save their money which they'll spend on BCCI rights. Once BCCI media rights Auction is over then they'll definitely go for F1 rights

If there's really such a huge fanbase then they can buy the rights for it right away since it's a heavily profitable sport for ads and subscribers. The fact of the matter is those fans don't watch it on tv in India and many are based outside India as well. And the broadcasters know it too well.

 

[dino29]

There is a huge fan base of F1 and MotoGP in India, don't forgot that India made Buddh International Circuit and host F1 India in the past and around 100,000 fans attend the race physically in the circuit and from this year onwards we are going to host MotoGP in India.
The only reason that no broadcaster go for the F1 rights this year is because of BCCI's media rights Auction is near and all broadcasters wants to save their money which they'll spend on BCCI rights. Once BCCI media rights Auction is over then they'll definitely go for F1 rights

Incorrect way to evaluate popularity. For that matter there r so many Golf Courses in India , they host many big/small tournaments r held each year and many people go there to watch it so does that mean Golf is very popular in India ? Answer is no , it is a niche sport in India.

Similarly Buddha International Circuit was built in Noida to reach out to F1 audience base in India by making them experience the races Live and at the same time further popularize F1 among people. Coming to many people coming to watch it, certainly there would have been complimentary passes given to large number of people while many from the affluent part of society would have also bought tickets. ....also people from media or those who blog/write about F1 would have been invited for the race. Still as holding F1 race in India did not prove to be successful hence same got cancelled therafter


Broadcasters r more than willing to buy broadcast or OTT rights of F1 but owner or agency handling sale of F1 broadcast rights in India need to be realistic and accept an amount which is financially viable for the broadcaster consider extremely minute ad/subscription revenue earned thru F1 telecast as i has very niche / small audience base in India

 

[Mayur Hedau]

Countries like bolivia, Nigeria, Thailand, Philippines have proper Formula 1 broadcast with both TV and Digital and here we are India the fastest growing economy doesn't have F1 broadcaster pisses me off, At least one party should agree, both F1 media and STAR sports are firm to their decision and Fans are stuck in middle, 3000rs is too much for F1tv pro. Shady streams is the only way now.

 

[iDJ]

Countries like bolivia, Nigeria, Thailand, Philippines have proper Formula 1 broadcast with both TV and Digital and here we are India the fastest growing economy doesn't have F1 broadcaster pisses me off, At least one party should agree, both F1 media and STAR sports are firm to their decision and Fans are stuck in middle, 3000rs is too much for F1tv pro. Shady streams is the only way now.

We have a way bigger population than us. Even if 1% our population watches. It is still more than their entire population. Just look at WWE they don't have lucrative TV or stream deal. But they are one of the most popular content on social media. Most of the traffic comes from India. They can easily monetize from ads. Overpaid cricket rights along with dumb broadcasting strategy ruined our sports market.

 

[Mayur Hedau]

Bro that's the point, even if India 0.5% people watch F1 thats more than UK's F1 fan base which gets exclusive Sky sport broadcast. I don't get why people have to keep comparing F1 or any other event to cricket, kabaddi in India ?

 

[roman]

If there's really such a huge fanbase then they can buy the rights for it right away since it's a heavily profitable sport for ads and subscribers. The fact of the matter is those fans don't watch it on tv in India and many are based outside India as well. And the broadcasters know it too well.

Well, I don't want to argue with anyone especially the cricket fans. I made my point clear, Cricket is ruining every other niche sports events in India. Indian broadcasters are crazy at cricket as ad time in cricket match is more than any other sports even T20 match took almost 3:30 to 4 hr to complete. And i still believe that the looser of BCCI's rights will get F1 rights from next season

 

[dino29]

Countries like bolivia, Nigeria, Thailand, Philippines have proper Formula 1 broadcast with both TV and Digital and here we are India the fastest growing economy doesn't have F1 broadcaster pisses me off, At least one party should agree, both F1 media and STAR sports are firm to their decision and Fans are stuck in middle, 3000rs is too much for F1tv pro. Shady streams is the only way now.

We have a way bigger population than us. Even if 1% our population watches. It is still more than their entire population. Just look at WWE they don't have lucrative TV or stream deal. But they are one of the most popular content on social media. Most of the traffic comes from India. They can easily monetize from ads. Overpaid cricket rights along with dumb broadcasting strategy ruined our sports market.

Bro that's the point, even if India 0.5% people watch F1 thats more than UK's F1 fan base which gets exclusive Sky sport broadcast. I don't get why people have to keep comparing F1 or any other event to cricket, kabaddi in India ?

Answer is simple yes subscriber wise u can say that we will have somewhat equal/more number of people tuning into F1 or other such niche sports in India compared to may other countries. Issue is not the subscriber base interms of numbers but there is huge difference as to how broadcasters r able to monetize these rights and recover this investment in other countries compared to India. Also there comes the factor of which sports enjoys how much viewership share in a country

So let me explain both points, in foreign countries people pay huge amount to subscribe to sports channels (also other channels too) and thus subscription revenue earned by broadcaster is quite good and now let me come to ad revenue part so say a population of country is 10 crore ad there 3 crore watch F1 so advertisers will show keen interest to buy ad slots on channels for such events so basically in foreign countries broadcasters tend to earn good revenue thru Subscription model + Ad revenue or even if channels cost less still as large/sizeable % of population watch a sport hence good ad revenues flow in

Vs

Now compare this to India. For example 5 crore people watch F1 in India (though actual number may even be lower) so i believe only handful of these (5%) would be willing to pay high subscription amount to watch such sports on TV in India (Pay Per View Model)...... Remember broadcasters cannot alter regular pricing of its sports channels as it caters to mass audience either PPV model can be adopted for such sports a dedicated sports channel can be launched for niche sports but again issue is that it has no takers. Now u may say so what broadcasters should earn revenue thru ads, now as only 1% of population watches F1 hence advertisers do not show much interest to buy ad slots on sports channels for these sports and even if they do they won't b willing to pay premium price for it....also sports like F1 provide hardly any ad slots for broadcasters thus further reducing the financial viability of owning its TV rights. Now let us turn to OTT, yes on OTT there is a chance that such audience will be willing to pay little more and even advertisers would be okay with allocating some of their digital ad spends on these sports & cater to niche audience base very effectively as most opt OTT to consume content but again question arises whether platform/broadcasters manage to acquire digital rights at price point wherein they can recover the expenses. Currently this equilibrium is not there as sports rights owners r asking for more money but broadcasters do not want to buy rights at that price bcoz it is not financially viable

So issue needs to be studied in detail for better understanding rather than just glancing over it and blaming the broadcasters. Earlier too broadcasters were not earning desired revenue or even managing to recover investment made for buying such broadcas rights but somehow they absorbed all these losses. Now with niche audience mostly migrating to OTT they need to be further cautious about overspending on buying TV rights of niche sporting properties and even on digital front put forward a practical offer. Ofcourse India Cricket rights r inflated and it again adds up to the issue of legroom ( reserve money) at hand with broadcasters to allocate on other sporting properties but it is not thw major reason causing the issue of niche sports not finding TV /OTT broadcast partners in India

 

[iDJ]

Another long post.

 

[dino29]

Adding to the above point, please don't compare content available on sports channels in 90s or 2000s to that of what is visible in last 6 or 8 years. Earlier TV was the medium for brands to reach out to mass as well as niche audience hence for each sport there were enough advertisers available, secondly India Cricket or other cricket rights too costed way less hence broadcasters could acquire rights of many sporting properties and have a mass oriented or niche ad revenue model working extremely well for the same.... Subscription revenue as such has remained low since beginning and was further quite less back then and ad revenue formed major part of the money earned by broadcasters .

Now with internet / OTT , DTH/Cable TV, DD Free Dish, YouTube etc available there is huge shift in how advertisers allocate their spending across platforms to reach out to their target audience and as i have mentioned above that bcoz cost of acquiring TV/ OTT rights for cricket or other sports drastically going up hence broadcasters / platforms have to accordingly make spending plans. Also remember with so much competition ad spends by brands gets divided across so many TV Channels or Digital Platforms which again is s vast shift from era of 90s, 2000s when limited TV Channels were available in India.

Hence it is easier to blame broadcasters or OTT platforms but if one is an informed viewer / customer then u will understand why there is this difficulty arising. If tomorrow in India even 20% of population start watching F1 u would see that broadcasters will be happily willing to pay more to acquire its rights and give more airtime to it on their channels. At present cricket has more viewership hence scale/balance is titled towards it, still broadcasters too try their best to give more space or promote various other sports on their TV Channels or OTT platforms though many of these r still loss making for them. As there is also a fear of recession looming hence it again adds to broadcasters / companies adopting cost cutting measures

 

[Abhinav]

Another long post.

Tried to read also but didn't seem to end