I’M ALWAYS looking for things that cheer me up about the Indian sports broadcasting business, and I keep finding evidence of my greying or disappearing hair.
Both were true this week as I flicked between the live cricket on Neo (the inter corporate games), the football on Zee Sports (the Nehru Cup) and our own cricket in Sri Lanka (SL v NZ).
All three events were well produced, largely or entirely used indian crews and drew on technical resources sourced in India as well.
It took me back to 1994 when I first landed in India with the task of producing 26 highlight shows on Indian domestic cricket for TWI (to be broadcast on ESPN). At the time, there was no private company producing live sport in India – it was all about Doordarshan.
TWI had flown in international crews and equipment for the Hero Cup and the England tour of India in ’93, and the director of that tour Gary Frances had tried to make a show using local resources that he cheerfully described as a “disaster” but that was about it.
With the help and early advice of people such as Harsha Bhogle, Ajay Kapoor, Samir Sabnis, VK Dixit and Sudarshan “Sunny” – somehow it all came together over the years.
The first year was pretty awful though, with one equipment company running away in the middle of a game, and another wrapping all their cameras in black bin liners to hide the fact that they weren’t actually broadcast quality. (A tactic that I wouldn’t recommend).
Now the revolution in the financing of cricket has been matched by a revolution in the personnel used in the TV crews for world cricket. It means you find many of the names from those early days of filming Indian cricket all over the world.
Whether it be the ESPN STAR crews for the ICC events or the IMG crews in the West Indies, Indian cameramen, soundmen and EVS (replay machine) operators have now truly established themselves on the world stage.
Yet technically, we should not hide the fact that the Indian sports business is trailing behind for the viewer.
In Dubai or Singapore, we are dealing with HD Sports channels but even India’s impressive DTH systems don’t seem ready for High Definition yet.
Most of the world’s sport is available in widescreen 16:9 format, while the sub-continent viewer is still stuck in the limitations of 4:3.
It means the consumer for Indian sport is missing out on the best way to watch. We are making some steps forward, the new website NBC Universal have set up for Ten Sports this week is, I think, a leap forward in broadband delivery of pictures in India, but I would hope that technical change in the way we watch television will follow.
Everyone makes the point that the Indian market generates the worlds cricket revenues, but if you want to watch the best pictures, then you have to see the Sky Sports high definition coverage of the Ashes in the UK.
The technical detail and the quality generated takes cricket viewing to a different level from that seen on our Indian TV sets. The director for the Ashes coverage was Mark Lynch, who first directed cricket on those old Indian highlight shows. The best talent comes to or from India, but if you want to see the best pictures, then take a holiday!
The author is COO, Taj Television Ltd.
