Gurgaon based broadcaster Lex Sportel Vision yesterday in a communique to distribution platform operators in India has said that there will be absolutely no disruption in its transmission, content & programming lineup. The broadcaster will air its current assets and programming under the 1Sports label from 14th February.
Discovery had yesterday in a press release announced the end of its relationship with third-party service provider Lex Sportel, bringing all services in-house, effective February 14, 2020. Lex Sportel in its response, has reaffirmed that it is the uplink license holder for TV channel DSport which is uplinked from Hong Kong and is the absolute owner of all the assets of the said channel including all the content rights for programming displayed on the said channel.
Discovery vide interconnection agreement with Lex Sportel Vision downlinked and distributed the channel since Feb 06, 2017, under the name brand name DSport as per Lex Sportel. The interconnection is set to come to an end at midnight on 13th Feb 2020. The broadcaster has stated the channel will continue to be available to all DPOs in India without interruption from 14th February 2020 under the brand name 1Sports with Lex Sports handling the distribution.
It has preauthorized distribution platform operators in India to carry 1Sports until the agreement is executed to avoid any inconvenience to its subscribers. The RIO will be uploaded on the broadcaster’s website soon and could likely be a paid channel. It also stated that the PIRD’s, IRD’s, viewing cards, etc placed with DPOs by its distributor Discovery Communications India has always been the property of Lex Sportel Vision Ltd and authorized them to retain the possession of these assets.
The company has also claimed that its sports programming has made it among the top 7 most popular sports services in India that have 26 sports services, with a cumulative reach of over 100 million unique subscribers.
Lex Sportel Vision in its communique was quoted as saying, “There will be NO CHANGE in the programming and all the great content being shown under the current label will continue to be shown under the label 1 SPORTS including the Hero i league, Coupe de France, our fight properties including Dangal Ke Soorma, NJPW, Ring of Honor wrestling, bellator MMA, Cage Warriors MMA, British Open Golf, PGA championship Golf, T 20 Cricket leagues from neighboring countries shown hitherto and several other new and exciting properties which our team will share with you. Therefore, be reassured that there will be ABSOLUTELY NO DISRUPTION In our transmission, content & programming line up on 1 SPORTS.”
The broadcaster looks forward to continuing the great journey and partnership it has built with distribution platform operators and looks forward to partnering with it directly to continue to build 1Sports into a top destination for multisports fans as always at an affordable price. The pricing of the channel is likely to be revealed over the next 5 days with the broadcaster supposed to declare its pricing 30 days before the change as per the Interconnect Regulations 2017.
