IT’S BEEN a busy week in the Indian sports world. A billion dollar event, and a BCCI deal for much less. To start on a positive note, the Airtel Champions League final provided a suitable backdrop for 2 days of overdue meetings on broadcast piracy in cricket.
No surprise that the two main areas of discussion centred on the cricket footage spilling out illegally on the net and the relationship between the news channels and the sports channels in India. It was encouraging to see all the cricket boards, let by Lalit Modi, Arun Jaitley and IS Bindra from the BCCI, agreeing to set up an alliance with a budget and a commitment to try and combat the widespread breaches of copyright.
Manu Sawhney’s presentation detailed revenues of around $ 20 million a year being made by Indian news channels thanks to lifting content from the sports channels without permission.
The situation on the net is even more worrying long term, with a constant battle now on between the copyright protection agencies and those hosting illegal cricket streams.
It’s clear that the solution lies partly in the courts, where Sony already have cases around the IPL footage, and also partly with the broadcasters and copyright holders.
As an industry, we need to both maintain a strong unified position on the issues, and also to engage with new media to provide online solutions of our own. If you look at the Ten Sports website this week, you’ll see plenty of cricket streaming content as part of our joint venture with NBC Universal.
There’s no point just burying cricket archive, we have to recognise that live and delayed cricket will find its way onto the web. Instead, we have to be engaged in providing that content to online users in a sensible fashion, while somehow protecting our cable and DTH revenues.
The other business of the day was of course the 20-20 cricket itself. There seems plenty of negativity in the air around the Airtel Champions League regarding crowds and ratings. I read that the maximum viewership in the UK was only 85,000 people (up to the 18th), I know the Middle East advertising revenues for the games are tiny, while SportzPower’s own analysis of the Indian figures has shown disappointment from Indian media buyers.
However, it was heartening to watch Trinidad’s performance in the semi-final and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed some of the cricket. If the Champions League really is disappointing, then it’s only because our post IPL expectations are so high. Two years ago, if you’d predicted 30,000 crowds and an Indian average TVR for domestic cricket above 1.0 with channels showing the games round the world, you’d have been laughed at.
Centre of attention in Hyderabad was the one man in the industry who wasn’t there. Harish Thawani has kept a remarkably low profile since his BCCI coup. Mumbai’s golf courses must be doing good business these days.
Finally news of a man whose legacy is still visible today. Qasim Noorani was the President of CBFS, the body that ran Sharjah cricket in the days when it staged more internationals than any other venue. Mr Noorani passed away on Friday, but the Sharjah atmosphere of Bollywood and sixes, packed grounds and huge TV audiences was surely the forerunner of what the IPL has become. Under his dignified tenure, working hand in hand with Abdul Rehman Bukhatir, Sharjah’s ground turned from an oddity in the desert to a venue that changed the way that cricket was enjoyed in the sub-continent.
The author is COO, Taj Television Ltd.
