Nimbus had entered into a deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in February 2006 for the telecast rights to all matches featuring the Indian team till March 2010.

Many Indian fans, however, were not able to watch India’s series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka earlier this year and following their demands, the government brought out the ordinance asking the sports channel to share its telecast with the Prasar Bharati, which controls Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR), albeit with a seven-minute delay.

The channel has pointed out that the arrangement is eating into its revenues as the Doordarshan’s footprint also includes places outside India. (more…)

india cricket rights holder Nimbus today warned the BCCi that it would demand compensation for “dilution of the value of its property” if the issue of encryption of Doordarshan’s terrestrial signal is not sorted out.

The move by the sports broadcaster to protect its $ 612 million acquisition came even as Prasar Bharati today failed to reach a consensus on the issue of setting encryption mandates for Doordarshan’s terrestrial signals.

in a letter sent to the BCCi today, Nimbus has demanded that the indian cricket board sort out the encryption issue with Doordarshan. it argues that unless the feed is encrypted, other channels in the region can pick it up and not pay a penny. (more…)

Sony Entertainment Television (SET) is back in the hunt for cricket properties after losing out on the Ten Sports deal and withdrawing from the race for the iCC World Cup 2007 cricket rights.

The firm is believed to have offered to buy 26% in the Nimbus subsidiary, Neo Sports, which operates the two india-focused cricket channels. Sony is believed to have offered Rs 315 crore for the 26%, valuing the fledgling company at over Rs 1,200 crore.

Sources say talks have been on for a month, and the SET board is believed to have approved the acquisition. The Neo Sports board has called for a meeting in the second week of March to consider the deal. (more…)

Neo Sports has announced the details of its Pan Asian expansion as part of its mission to be a Pan Asian cricket channel by the middle of 2007. These markets include the Middle East, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Shortly, the cricket dedicated channel will also commence broadcasting in Malaysia and Singapore.

Neo Sports Broadcast Pvt Ltd CEO Shashi Kalathil said, “in barely three months of our commercial launch in india, we have succeeded in a comprehensive Pan Asian roll-out. Asia is a very important market for us as it is an amalgamation of cultures and nationalities with a huge indian ethnic community.”

The revenues from the Pan Asian operations of Neo Sports outside india, between subscription and advertising are expected to add up to approximately $ 26 million in 2007-2008 with an approximately 30 per cent EBiDTA margin, as incremental cost for international operations is relatively insignificant since the bulk of the costs are already absorbed in the indian operations, informs an official release. (more…)