News Broadcasting
DD and Ten Sports negotiate telecast fees for soccer World Cup
Ten Sports had announced earlier this week that it has the exclusive telecast rights of the FIFA World Cup and that state-owned broadcaster DD will be not be able to telecast the footer matches live terrestrially – a position that DD was taking stock of then.
Apparently, some progress has been made since then. The duo is believed to be negotiating the fee that Ten Sports will have to pay DD to telecast the World Cup on a deferred basis. The negotiations also involve the marketing of the World Cup telecast on DD by Ten Sports.
A senior Prasar Bharati official stated that the pubcaster was considering whether Ten Sports should be “charged prime time telecast fee or the normal telecast fee for the time band when the soccer matches are telecast.”
Keeping the time difference in mind, the soccer matches will, by and large, get to be telecast on DD around midnight, which way past prime time in India. DD’s prime time telecast fee is Rs 350,000 per 30 minutes with 120 seconds free commercial time (FCT), while non-prime time fees, specially those after 11 pm, come at a cheaper price at about Rs 50,000 per 30 minutes with 150 seconds of FCT.
The Prasar Bharati official also pointed out that DD has no other option but to telecast the soccer matches on a deferred basis as Ten Sports has claimed it has exclusive telecast rights for the India region.
Despite the telecast imbroglio, officials of Prasar Bharati, the corporation which oversees the working of DD and the All India Radio, feel that there would be viewership of the soccer matches on DD even on a deferred basis as Ten Sports’ penetration still leaves much to be desired.
For example, in most parts of Delhi and north India, Ten Sports, launched last month, is yet to make a signicant enough appearance in cable TV homes.
“If Ten Sports is willing to market the matches to be telecast on DD along with the live telecast it will have, we have no problems as long as the revenue sharing is adequately okay,” the official pointed out.
Ten Sports, which had won the global telecast rights for FIFA World Cup, had asked DD to provide only deferred transmission on its terrestrial network. Ten Sports had written to Prasar Bharati asking it not to air the Cup matches on the terrestrial network at the same time that Ten Sports airs the matches. They have also communicated that airing realtime is not possible as Ten Sports has the exclusive rights to air the matches for the India region.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
