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Television seems
to be where the action is these days. New channels, new programming,
the battle for viewership continues at a feverish pitch. On April
1, a new sports channel hit the Indian television scene. TEN Sports,
from the stable of Dubai based Taj Television (the brainchild of
Abdulrahman Bukhatir of Sharjah cicket fame), is now pitching hard
for viewer mind-space with already existing sports channels such
as ESPN and STAR Sports. TEN Sports’ USP is its sharp India
focus. Pandering to the Indian craze for cricket, the channel is
beaming live all the matches of the Sharjah tournament featuring
Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand, which began April 8, 2002.
The channel
will also telecast cricket triangulars from Morocco. In addition,
the channel’s CEO, Chris McDonald, claims “is different”,
has a number of India specific programmes on offer. For example,
it will cover live all the races in which India’s speed kid
Narayan Karthikeyan participates. And Indian golf lovers will be
able to catch Arjun Atwal and Jeev Milkha Singh live on their professional
tour matches. There will also be plenty of action from the PGA tours.
However, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will be conspicuous by
their absence on this channel. Says Peter Hutton, VP, programming
and events: “They have not released their tour plans and hence,
we are unable to give them coverage.” Even with all these goodies,
the big question remains: Can TEN Sports break into the viewership
base of the existing sports channels?
Viewers already
complaining that the telecast quality of the recent live match between
Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Sharjah was far from impressive. Despite
Tony Grieg, Barry Richards and Sanjay Manjrekar making up an impressive
panel of commentators, TEN Sports leaves a lot to be desired from
the point of coverage, presentation and packaging. Especially when
you consider the fact that other sports channels are already on
the planning board. The buzz is that Sony is planning to launch
a sports channel under the Sony Entertainment Television (SET) bouquet.
This makes eminent sense for the channel group because SET has recently
bagged the exclusive cable and satellite television rights for live
telecast of the ICC cricket tournaments being held from 2002 to
2007. These include the ICC Cricket World Cups, ICC Champions Trophies
and the Under 19 Cricket World Cups.
SET’s
action and adventure channel, has some interesting programmes lined
up for the coming months. The Agency, based on the CIA, premiered
on April 2, 2002. Presenting a realistic view of the CIA, The Agency
provides glimpses at the kind of people who work and live clandestinely
to ensure the safety and security of the US and its allies. Beginning
April, you can also watch Crime Scene Investigation II, FarScape
III, Queen of Swords and Relic Hunter II on AXN. Says senior marketing
manager Rohit Bhandari, “We are the best action and adventure
channel and bringing such series just reiterates that fact. Our
core audience is between the ages of 18 and 40 years.” Tales
of Escape, these stories are about a bunch of tough guys. No situation
is too tough for them and no prison secure enough to hold them.
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