Sony to focus on international cricket after loss of IPL rights
After losing its money spinning sporting property the Indian Premier League (IPL) to Star India Pvt Ltd on Monday, Sony Pictures Networks (SPN), is set to focus on monetising the international cricket series part of its portfolio including the ongoing series between India & Sri Lanka and the upcoming India -South Africa tour in January.
“Nothing changes because we have lost the bid (for IPL), we are still focused on cricket, we have five international cricket boards — South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies and Zimbabve — as part of the network. From a sports perspective, our revenue is safe,”said Rohit Gupta, president, network sales and international business at Sony Pictures Networks which operates 11 sports channels including Sony ESPN and Sony Six.
The company made the highest bid for television rights for IPL in India at ₹11,050 crore in the auctions on Monday. “We bid what we believe was the right price,” added Gupta. “We didn’t participate in the global bid for IPL because we didn’t have the bandwidth and distribution network for the international markets, we played to our strengths which was the India TV rights piece,for the global bid we would have to be reliant on other partners.”
Star India was the only firm to put in a consolidated global bid for IPL on Monday. Its consolidated bid of ₹16, 347.50 crore exceeded the ₹15,819.51 crore sum of the top individual bids across categories.
Sports marketing experts said the South Africa tour could be beneficial for the network but no where close to the ₹1,200 crore ad revenue the channel made from the last season of IPL.
“It really depends on where the games are being played since time zones are crucial here. England and South Africa tend to do well simply because its prime time for us. So the South Africa series might bring in stronger revenues for them. However, in terms of revenue the BCCI matches played by India are a far more lucrative proposition,” said Harish Krishnamachar, founding partner, Sportoid Sports Solutions, which manages sponsorships, advisories and events.
Gupta also said that the network will continue to focus on other sports like football, WWE, golf, tennis and other fight sports. Earlier this year, SPN acquired sports network TEN Sports from Zee Entertainment in an all-cash deal worth $385 million, adding seven sports channels to its portfolio. It also rebranded the TEN sports channels to Sony TEN.
The company has invested in bringing UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship, a marquee martial arts championship) to the Indian market and got the exclusive rights for the National Basketball Association league apart from investing in European football tournaments like FIFA, La Liga and UEFA.