By ASHWIN PINTO
Indiantelevision.com Team

(22 July 2006 9:00 am)

MUMBAI: Ten Sports, in a bid to create better visibility, is looking at doing different activities to push its key properties.

One major activity is the Eleven To Lanka Contest for the upcoming triangular cricket series between India Sri Lanka and South Africa.

Basically, anybody can participate. All one has to do is take picture of oneself along with 10 other people. They could be friends, family or total strangers. It then has to be sent to Ten Sports’ site along with a slogan that explains why your team should be chosen. The last date for entries is 10 August.

The 11 members of the winning entry go to Sri Lanka.On Friday evening, former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar, who heads the Ten Sports commentary team, was part of a promotional launch in Worli. He was joined by former Indian batsman Vinod Kambli, spinner Ramesh Powar and actor Rahul Bose. Manjrekar noted that this was the first time a contest was being held where one could choose 10 other cricket crazy fans. Manjrekar is also choosing his own team of 11 to participate.

The series kicks off on 29 August and Manjrekar feels that with Sri Lanka and South Africa both having done really well recently, this will be a very good test for Rahul Dravid’s team.

Another key property on Ten Sports is World Wrestling Entertainment. Ten Sports director marketing and communications Rakesh Rao told Indiantelevision.com that the channel is looking to get another WWE superstar, possibly two, sometime in October- November. The last time Ten Sports did something like this was they got John Cena down and then there was a near stampeded as fans tried their level best to get close to the superstar.

On air, the channel has done a unique innovation with Reliance Mobile. Basically there is a scroll at the bottom part of the screen where text SMS messages run. Fans express their feelings about the WWE when Raw! and SmackDown! air There is also information on how one can send a message. The deal kicked off a couple of weeks ago. Rao points out that the channel is now looking at taking the SMS concept to the next stage.

Since Reliance and Hutch advertise heavily on the channel, it is trying to work out a deal with one or the other. If it goes through sports fans would be able to get SMS alerts. Ten Sports is also looking at the possibility of offering downloads in the form of games and screensavers for subscribers of the mobile service it eventually ties up with. Rao was however at pains to stress that plans were still being formulated and so a decision has yet to be taken as to which sports will be pushed in this manner.

One key property that Ten Sports recently acquired is the Uefa Champions League. It is looking to do a series of activities to push football. One of these acivities is to have screenings in multiplexes. Ten Sports is also looking to do contests wherein fans can be sent to Europe to watch some of the matches. This can but only be good for the sport. After all, archrivals ESPN Star Sports and Zee Sports have done a lot recently to push football.

On the trade level, Rao says that the channel is looking at organising football matches involving clients. A football Week themed series of activities are being looked at. Since the event takes place over several months, this allows scope for different
concepts.

Onto hockey. This is where Ten Sports has an edge over the competition. It has the rights to key events, one of which, the Champions trophy, kicked off Saturday. Speaking about what was done by the chanel last year, Rao says a Champions Shoot Out contest for the women’s Champions Trophy was organised. 15,000 consumers participated in the physical activity. One had to scoop the ball into a goal post, which was mounted on a truck. 14 Indians got a chance to see the Champions Trophy. This time around Rao says the channel is looking to apply the same concept and send winners to watch the World Cup which takes place in September. While last year the contest was held mainly in states like Punjab and Haryana, this time the channel is looking to take the contest into the Metros as well.

Ten Sports is also looking at how it can push niche properties on its channel like golf. Organising a tournament with celebrities or clients could be one way to go about it.