Sony buys Ten Sports for Rs.2000crs

[beautifulgame]

Sony Pictures close to acquiring Ten Sports for Rs 2,000 crore

Television moghul Subhash Chandra's Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEE) is selling Ten Sports, which he acquired from Dubai-based Abdul Rahman Bukhatir'sTaj Group in 2006, to Sony PicturesNetworks India (SPN) effectively leaving Indian sports broadcasting to Rupert-Murdoch's Star and the Japanese conglomerate Sony. 

Multiple sources with direct knowledge of the development confirmed that SPN is close to acquire Ten Sports for about Rs 2,000 crore, a deal that will make sports broadcasting in India a duopoly of 21st Century Fox-owned Star India and Japanese giant Sony Corp-owned SPN. 

Nimbus-owned Neo Sports, the third player, is very small without any big or significant property under its belt. "ZEE has been looking to sell Ten Sports for some time as Chandra and his son Punit Goenka (MD at ZEE) are not much inclined towards running a lossmaking sports business," a highly placed source in ZEE told ET. 

Talks with SPN had started a couple of months back, but in the past few weeks they progressed really fast, the source said. "I think the head office at Japan must have given a go ahead. 

The deal is almost done and should be officially announced within the next 3 weeks," he said. When contacted, a SPN spokesperson said, "As a matter of policy, we choose not to comment on speculation." Mihir Modi, chief finance & strategy officer at ZEE, declined to comment. 

Varun Gupta, managing director at valuation firm Duff and Phelps feels that even if the acquisition as rumoured in the industry circle is true, Sony and Star have been the undisputed top two players in India. He said, "It would be strategically a good move for Sony as it would consolidate its position among the two top players in the sub-continent." 

"I think the deal is good for both parties," said a senior executive from a sport broadcasting company. "Ten's long-term content deals (particularly with WWE and other cricket boards) make Sony less reliant on IPL renewal, while ZEE gets rid of a business that has brought down margins and cash to invest in other things." 

Another sports media expert opined, "Ten Sports, though a big brand, never went after rights of sporting properties aggressively after its feud with the BCCI over Indian Cricket league (ICL). 

In the past 4 years, the fight for majority of the rights has always been between Star India, and SPN, which is a clear number two."

Star India holds telecast rights of BCCI, ICC, Cricket Australia, English Cricket Board, Formula 1, EPL, and tennis grand slams like Wimbledon and French Open, while SPN's marquee properties include IPL, FIFA, UEFA Euro, NBA and UFC. 

"This deal would also help Sony get a foothold into the African & Middle East markets where TEN has a very good presence," Gupta added. 

With the duopoly, some experts believe that there might be deflation in price of non-popular or smaller properties and new domestic leagues.

Economic Times

Will have a massive impact imo .The one thing Sony sorely lacked was cricket content to compete with Star .Now they have the Sri Lankan , South African and West Indies market and also Pakistan as well .Of course Star still has Indian domestic market and Premier league football ,still has the two of the most important Tv deals but now with their IPL content they can seriously rival Star for the premier market imo.

Whenever the IPL , Indian domestic rights or even PL football go for sales next time can see some insane inflated bidding happen (like it did with Sky and BT in England )

Also good for us fans as well ino.Ten sports was awful with its pre game shows , commentary , highlight shows(Genuinely riveted DD for the worst ).Whereas Sony has been pretty good with their sports content .

[beautifulgame]

Also hopefully this also means more sports investment in franchise based sports like Star did with Hockey , Badminton and Badminton.

[diga]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/story/267695.html

 

Not bad when they invested less than 1000 crores on it... 

[Adi_91]

The day ZEE acquired Ten Sports, the channel's steady decline started, not it doesn't matter, the channel is down in the drains. 

[Malcolm Merlyn]

This is still not confirmed

[velu]

6 hours ago, diga said:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/story/267695.html

 

Not bad when they invested less than 1000 crores on it... 

Ten Sports were making 50 to 100 crore losses every year .. i think only in the last quarter they had shown break even  

[beautifulgame]

Only thing Tendports does these days are

 

Wwe , WI and RSA series , zim once

 

All IMP series are broadcasting by Star.

 

Pointless channel.

Srilanka rights

Pakistan rights (Apart from SA ,WI and Zim rights as u have mentioned )

They actually 50℅ of international cricket playing nations rights .

They also have Champions League and Europa League football.

[beautifulgame]

Didn't  sony six broadcast ind vs sri last time

 

And wasn't  2013 ind vs pak on star

 

Champions league  only handy one

 

 

Because it was scheduled outside FTP .Not a regular tour.It was a tour scheduled to be played in India actually.

The Lanka rights are with Ten Sports .They are currently broadcasting the Australia tour .

Rights for matches where Pakistan is home team (UAE / Pakistan etc)

[beautifulgame]

Officially confirmed

Zee Entertainment sells Ten Sports to Sony Pictures for Rs 2,600 crore

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/media/entertainment/media/zee-entertainment-sells-ten-sports-to-sony-pictures-for-rs-2600-crore/articleshow/53941547.cms

via The Economic Times App(Download Now):

http://ecoti.in/etapps

[G_B_]

Duopoly not good for bcci or end consumers...

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[Malcolm Merlyn]

Duopoly not good for bcci or end consumers...

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News is that Euro sports is entering India.

[G_B_]

News is that Euro sports is entering India.

Really?

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[Malcolm Merlyn]

Really?

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Rumours are there that they are considering it and the big move will come by bidding for the rights of IPL and Indian cricket next year.

[G_B_]

To show in Europe mostly .

Doubt they can compete to show in India.

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[Ironhide]

Duopoly is never a good news.

[Malcolm Merlyn]

To show in Europe mostly .

Doubt they can compete to show in India.

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Why cant they compete with Star and Sony?

[G_B_]

they wont have the resources to bid.....

 

I think Eurosport will aim to cut a deal with the BCCI who show cricket for the UK market mostly. They recently showed/showing Aus tour of SL.

 

So if they bag India cricket based rights It will mostly impact Sky. I doubt they will even get those. 

[Malcolm Merlyn]

they wont have the resources to bid.....

 

I think Eurosport will aim to cut a deal with the BCCI who show cricket for the UK market mostly. They recently showed/showing Aus tour of SL.

 

So if they bag India cricket based rights It will mostly impact Sky. I doubt they will even get those. 

You underestimate Eurosport.They have enough resources.

[beautifulgame]

Duopoly not good for bcci or end consumers...

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Hmm why bad for customers?

Surely better quality coverage and production is good for customers?

[Ironhide]

17 hours ago, beautifulgame said:

 

 

 

 

Hmm why bad for customers?

 

 

Surely better quality coverage and production is good for customers?

can charge whatever they want for their channels, that day is not far away when we stop getting sports channels in total bundle and have to pay separate heavily priced sports pack like other countries.