The Hindu Business Line : Neo Sports Plus to popularise domestic cricket

Neo Sports Plus, the non-cricket channel from Neo Sports Broadcast Pvt Ltd, will now see a new genre of programming, a combination of entertainment and sports as well as some cricket action.

Rival sports channels may have been brandishing their non-cricket acquisitions, be it football or hockey. Neo Sports Plus has itself acquired all the plum badminton rights, along with several football tournaments and some super bike and car action, but says Mr Shashi Kalathil, CEO, Neo Sports, nothing sells like cricket.

"The level of viewership in cricket is several times more than the best of other sports. We need Neo Sports Plus for peripheral cricket programming, certainly there is a good business case for other sports, but will they see the kind of frenzy that cricket does?" says Mr Kalathil.

However, the channel, which launched with domestic cricket and has a commitment to BCCI to promote the same, says its revenue and ad sales from the broadcast of domestic matches is very low. "Our intention is not to monetise domestic interest. But with BCCI committed to investing Rs 750 crore for domestic cricket, we expect the interest to grow greatly," says Mr Kalathil.

The channel has been giving domestic cricket a 13-camera coverage that's not been seen before, and expects its better packaging to help popularise domestic cricket.

The channel claims it has 70 to 80 days of international cricket for the next three-and-a-half years as opposed to "the recent ICC rights, which will have 21 or at the most 47 days of international cricket featuring India."