During the official launch of the tournament and unveiling of the logo, Manu Sawhney, managing director, ESPN Star Sports, which has acquired the media and marketing rights of a tournament for a whopping $975 million (upwards of Rs 4,000 crore). “Since we hold all commercial rights for the tournament, we can sell tailor-made packages to advertisers depending on their need.” Since international cricket boards are participating in this tournament, a majority of the brands that will get associated with the event are of global stature.

And so sponsorship rights will be sold at a premium price especially the airtime slots on the channel. Therefore, a domestic brand can skip buying the on-air ad slot and just stick to other sponsorship rights depending on their communication needs and the extent of visibility they need for the brand, said Sawhney.
The different categories of sponsorships that the company will sell are title sponsorship, on-air, ground sponsorship, umpire sponsorship and merchandise. The individual team sponsors remain unchanged.

“We are already in talks with five to six brands in categories including, telecom, mobile handset, beverage and white goods, for the title sponsorship,” said Sawhney, but declined to divulge the names of sponsors.
The logo has been designed by leading advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather (O&M). Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and national creative director, O&M, said, “The challenge was to capture the spirit of an international event.” The logo has different colours in it, which according to Pandey signifies the dynamics of the game.

Dish’s satellite launch plans may be delayed
The Essel Group-owned direct-to-home service Dish TV’s plans to augment its channel capacity to 420 with the launch of its own satellite Agrani could be indefinitely delayed. Dish TV, which tied up with satellite services operator ProtoStar to launch the satellite, is caught in a feud with the Geneva-based The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), say industry sources. This estimated Rs 800 crore project has issues including frequency coordination with other satellites and is yet to receive the ITU approval. ProtoStar helps its customers manage their investments required to launch their own satellites and instead focus their efforts on the business of DTH. Dish TV currently holds nine c-band transponders on a European satellite NSS-6 and can show 220 television channels.

Jawahar Goel, MD, Dish TV could not be reached for comments. Sources say it is because of this dispute with ITU that Dish TV has now shifted its strategy and has put digital video recording (DVR) on the offer. Analysts question that if Dish TV can increase the number of channels in the coming months, then why is it silent about it and instead aggressively marketing the DVR service. Dish TV was supposed to increase the number of channels from August.

The satellite was launched on July 7, following which ITU said that it is “extremely concerned and alarmed to be the witness of a situation in which a satellite, in this case ProtoStar-1, could be operated in contravention of the ITU Constitution...without a responsible administration and by an unknown operating agency not duly authorised by an ITU member state.” ITU also issued a call for assistance from its 191 member governments to determine whether any of them has assumed responsibilities for a recently launched telecommunications satellite that one ITU member - the United Arab Emirates - fears may pose “a risk of physical collision” with its Thuraya-3 mobile communications spacecraft.”

International reports also disclose that ProtoStar has lost the backing of the Singapore government for its orbital-slot and broadcast-frequency license following a decision by an ITU body not to grant an extension to the June 28 deadline for bringing the ProtoStar-1 system into operation. That leaves ProtoStar without regulatory support and in an unclear legal situation. Later, ProtoStar issued a statement that it had secured regulatory support from an unnamed government and would disclose the government’s identity to the ITU in due course.

Palador to launch world cinema TV channel by 2009
Palador, the largest distributor of world cinema in India, that holds more than 1,000 titles is planning to launch a world cinema television channel by the first quarter of 2009. The company so far has four distribution platforms including a DVD tie-up with Moser Baer, with movie channel Zee Studio, the company’s own distribution on home video and film festival circuit and the theatrical releases which are slated to begin this October.

Prior to this, Palador had a joint venture with UTV and was supposed to launch a channel under the brand name Olive. The JV broke up last year, when Palador filed a legal suit against UTV over breach of trust, breach of non-disclosure of agreements, defamation, damages and violation of intellectual property. The company demanded upwards of Rs 15 crore from UTV via its suits. The matter is currently sub-judice. “We will be launching our own channel, just that it won’t be called Olive. The name of the channel has not yet been decided.” said Gautam Sikhnis, founder and managing director of Palador Pictures. He added, “Zee Studio is a soft side of our television plans. Besides this, there are other vernacular channels with whom we are currently negotiating for launching world cinema content.” It is estimated that the valuation of the 1,000 titles held by Palador will reach Rs 1,500 crore by 2009 and comprise 20 per cent of the non-Indian language movie segment in India. Earlier, the company also raised equity of $6 million through a group of private individuals that include Mahesh Mathai, Srila Chaterjee and Simran Mulchandani - based in Mumbai; and Arun Banerjee and Vishal Aggarwal – both New York based NRIs.

The company also has a production and publishing business. “But over the last one year, we have tried to become the single largest distributor of world cinema in India in terms of size of the catalogue, the integration of our distribution model or the pure revenue sizes that we are currently generating,” said Sikhnis. By the end of the current financial year, the company is projecting a total revenue of $4-5 million.
Recently, Palador Pictures, along with the embassy of Sweden, celebrated a month-long retrospect of the work of filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. It garnered a positive response in Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai.