News Broadcasting
BSkyB bags UK telecast rights of Champions Trophy, World Cup 2003
MUMBAI: News Corp controlled UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB has obtained the UK telecast rights of the ICC World Cup tournament to be played in March 2003 and the ICC Champions Trophy to be held in September 2002.
Under the new deals Sky Sports has secured exclusive live coverage of every match in the 14-team ICC Cricket World Cup tournament, staged in South Africa from 8 February to 23 March 2003. It will also exclusively cover every match in the 12-team One-Day International ICC Champions Trophy tournament held in Sri Lanka from 12 to 30 September 2002.
Next years ICC Cricket World Cup will be the fourth to be broadcast live by Sky Sports, says an official release. When two matches are played at the same time, Sky digital viewers will be able to choose which to watch by pressing the red button on the Sky remote control and selecting from an interactive menu, says the release.
The ICC Champions Trophy featuring Australia, India, South Africa and England will be screened live on Sky Sports Extra, beginning with Sri Lanka vs Pakistan on 12 September.
The cricketing events to which Sky holds telecast rights for the rest of the year include –
* ICC Champions Trophy: 12th 30th September
* South Africa vs Bangladesh: 3rd 29th October
* Australia vs England The Ashes: 7th Nov 6th January
* South Africa vs Sri Lanka: 8th Nov 6th December
* South Africa vs Pakistan: 8th Dec 6th January
* VB Series: 13th – 27th January
* ICC Cricket World Cup: 8th Feb 23rd March
Next year’s World Cup, to be staged between 8 February and 23 March, will be the fourth that BSkyB has broadcast.
The rights for the ICC’s tournaments, distributed thus far by Global Cricket Corporation, a JV between News Corp and World Sport Nimbus, will now be distributed by News Corp till 2007.
News Broadcasting
Rajesh Sundaram joins NDTV Profit as senior editor, assignment
The 32-year newsroom veteran has launched channels on three continents and covered everything from 9/11 to South African television
MUMBAI: NDTV Profit has bolstered its newsroom with a hire who has done rather more than most. Rajesh Sundaram, a journalist with over three decades of editorial, managerial and consultative experience across India and international markets, joins as senior editor, assignment, tasked with sharpening the network’s newsgathering and real-time response.
Sundaram’s career reads like a tour of Indian media’s most formative moments. He began at Businessworld in 1994, moved to Zee News as bureau chief across Mumbai and Chennai, then joined NDTV in 2002 as part of its political bureau during a particularly febrile period in Indian politics. A stint as India correspondent for Al Jazeera International followed, where he covered key geopolitical developments and got his first serious taste of the global newsroom.
What sets Sundaram apart, however, is his serial channel-launching habit. At NewsX, he helped get the operation off the ground. At Headlines Today, part of the India Today Group, he served as editor. At News Nation, he helped launch the Hindi news channel and its digital ecosystem. He then crossed continents to lead the launch of ANN7 in South Africa as editor-in-chief, overseeing both television and digital. Back in India, he launched Tamil news channels News7 Tamil and Cauvery News, and later served as principal consultant for the launch of Marathi channel Lokshahi. Most recently, he helped build and lead the Press Trust of India’s video service and content studio, before stints consulting for Business Today and The Himalayan Times.
Rahul Kanwal, chief executive and editor-in-chief of NDTV, left little doubt about what Sundaram is expected to deliver. “The assignment desk is where a newsroom’s intent becomes action,” he said. “Rajesh brings a rare combination of field experience and leadership in building news operations at scale.”
Sundaram has reported from across India and the world, covering elections, civil conflicts, the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the 2008 US presidential election.
At NDTV Profit, he will lead the assignment desk, driving editorial coordination and real-time response across markets and breaking developments. For a business news network sharpening its focus on speed and multi-platform delivery, it has hired a man who has built newsrooms from scratch on three continents. The assignment desk is in good hands.
