Sports
Catching beautiful game live
Media Hub Pvt Ltd, which runs the advertising agencies business activities, has bought the 2018 Fifa World Cup broadcasting and digital rights for Nepal from Sony Pictures Networks, India.Ritesh Rijal
Media Hub Pvt Ltd, which runs the advertising agencies business activities, has bought the 2018 Fifa World Cup broadcasting and digital rights for Nepal from Sony Pictures Networks, India.
The company paid $235,000 to Sony Pictures Network, which holds the exclusive broadcasting rights for South Asian countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives.
The company has tied up with Kantipur Television, Nepal Television and Dish Media Network to beam all 64 World Cup matches—live.
Media Hub owner Som Dhital said, “We won the broadcasting licence and made KTV, NTV and Dish Home Network as the sub-licencees. We chose the three channels because they serve our objective to reach out to as many viewers as possible.”
Around 200 countries and territories across the world will broadcast the World Cup matches at some point during the tournament, which kicks off with the match between hosts Russia and Saudi Arabia at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.
In 2011, Fifa sold the international broadcasting rights for a good amount. The deal for World Cup 2018 would be the biggest for any international competition. Fifa is set to generate around $1.85 billion for the cycle of 2018 to 2022.
Dhital said he bought the rights at a much cheaper rate than the countries with stronger financial might.
“In line with Fifa’s objective to take the football showpiece to the maximum number of viewers around the globe, the game’s governing body ensures countries like Nepal get the broadcasting rights at much lower price,” he said.
“Fifa prioritises the home broadcaster (NTV in Nepal), but we somehow managed to convinced Sony Network and they granted us the broadcasting licence,” added Dhital.
As a national broadcaster, NTV has a greater territorial reach. Media Hub bought the time slots to beam all the matches on two channels of the national broadcaster—NTV National and NTV Plus—paid Rs5.3 million to NTV for the time slots.
“Kantipur has a wider reach and is equipped with better broadcasting quality. We have agreed to pay around Rs20 million to Kantipur TV because of its strength to promote the world football showpiece,” said Dhital.
Dish Home was granted the transmission free under the Direct to Home (DTH) connection. Media Hub will take all the revenues generated through the advertisements in all three channels.
Dish Home will broadcast live matches, primarily on Action Sports and occasionally on Ramailo TV.
Dish Media Network General Manager Kalyan Adhikari said, “Most of the matches will be brought to you live on Action Sports. On occasion when there are more than two matches taking place simultaneously, we will also use Ramailo TV to ensure the comprehensive coverage.”
He claimed that presentations on their channels would be unique. “Probably, ours would be the only channels to provide live commentary in Nepali language with in-depth analysis of each game,” Adhikari said.
Apart from Kantipur, NTV and Dish Media, Nepali viewers can also tune in to Sony Network for live coverage of the World Cup. Sony Ten 2, Sony Ten 3 and Sony ESPN will telecast live matches through local cable operators.
Asked whether Sony’s telecast will ruin their business, Dhital replied, “Not exactly. In fact we bought the broadcasting licence at a cheaper rate agreeing not to hinder or block their live feeds through the local cable operators.”
Broadcasting rights in Asia
- Sony Pictures Network to beam all 64 World Cup matches live in the sub-continent
- Fox Sports Asia will cater to viewers in Southeast Asian nations like Singapore, Maldives, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Brunei
- In China, the games will be aired by Chinese channels CCTV and CCTV 5
- In Indonesia, all the matches will covered live by Trans TV while in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan Match TV will telecast the matches live.