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Zee deputy CEO Satish Menon to head Zee Sports

Zee TV deputy chief executive officer Satish Menon has been made head of Zee Sports and is looking after the domestic airtime marketing of the India-South Africa cricket series broadcast by Doordarshan. Buddha Films, the Zee front company, had recently bagged the four-and-a-half year domestic airtime marketing rights for the cricket matches in the country from Prasar Bharati.

Menon has been given additional charge of Zee Sports, sources in the company confirmed. He was in Delhi when Buddha Films signed up with Prasar Bharati for the marketing rights last month. Sports marketing agents had earlier asked Prasar Bharati to reject Buddha Films’ bid on the ground that “Zee Telefilms and Buddha Films were linked” and “they could not take part in the same tender.” Zee Telefilms with $94.3 million was the second highest bidder.

Menon took over Raghvendra Agarwal’s position who resigned to join an Internet company as the chief operating officer. Analysts say Zee has gained an indirect entry to cricket and would be testing the market through Buddha Films. Menon’s task would be to provide the necessary thrust to Zee Sports which has not been able to acquire cricketing rights.

Having paid a whopping $103.44 million for the rights, Buddha Films has pushed up the spot buy rates and expects to earn between Rs 30-40 crore from the India-South Africa series. Nimbus Communications, which was marketing the India-New Zealand series, could price the spot rates at around Rs 55,000 per 10 seconds.

Buddha Films has packaged the Test with the one-dayers and increased the ad rates per 10 seconds to Rs 1.25 lakh. However, with the Indian cricket team not faring well, the company faced resistance from advertisers. The effective rate, media analysts said, has come down to Rs. 60,000 and many advertisers who had shown initial interest, have withdrawn after the First Test match.
Buddha Films, however, may not be affected as the one-dayers will still be a hot property, media analysts added. Buddha Films is estimated to have already done business worth Rs 10-15 crore. Buddha Films has packaged the Test matches with the one-dayers.

The first level spot buy of five one dayers and the Test matches is fixed at Rs 22.5 lakh. Advertisers will be given free spots on highlights and other bonuses.
The special properties like Master Blaster are priced between Rs 50 lakh-Rs one crore. For the first time, Buddha Films has introduced a pricing on player profiles.

Media buyers said Zee was not willing to package the cricket matches on DD with the network’s other channels. Though it would have been lucrative for advertisers, Zee has rejected such an option, saying “Buddha Films and Zee Telefilms are separate companies.

Sibabrata Das