TV mogul Subhash Chandra's Zee Entertainment Enterprises is selling Ten Sports, which he acquired from Dubai-based Abdul Rahman Bukhatir's Taj Group in '06, to Sony Pictures Networks India, "effectively leaving Indian sports broadcasting" to Rupert Murdoch's Star and Sony, according to Gaurav Laghate of the ECONOMIC TIMES. Multiple sources "with direct knowledge of the development" confirmed that SPN is close to acquiring Ten Sports for about Rs 2,000 crore ($300M), a deal that will make sports broadcasting in India "a duopoly" of 21st Century Fox-owned Star India and SPN. Nimbus-owned Neo Sports, the third player, "is very small without any big or significant property under its belt." A "highly placed source" in ZEE said, "ZEE has been looking to sell Ten Sports for some time as Chandra and his son Punit Goenka are not much inclined towards running a lossmaking sports business." Talks with SPN had started a couple of months back, "but in the past few weeks they progressed really fast, the source said," adding, "I think the head office at Japan must have given a go ahead. The deal is almost done and should be officially announced within the next three weeks." An SPN spokesperson said, "As a matter of policy, we choose not to comment on speculation." ZEE CFO & CSO Mihir Modi "declined to comment" (ECONOMIC TIMES, 8/8). The Indian BUSINESS STANDARD's Urvi Malvania wrote under the headline, "What's in it for Sony?" For one, SPN "will add five sports channels to its portfolio, which can be easily re-branded and re-packaged" in time for the '17 edition of the Indian Premier League. With these the SPN sports cluster will have nine channels across standard and high definition feeds, "giving competition to and in fact surpassing Star India's bouquet of eight channels." More channels "will not only mean more advertising inventory on a big ticket property like the IPL," it will also give SPN the bandwidth to "experiment with multi-language feeds," a strategy the network started with the FIFA World Cup in '14. The deal also gives SPN access to media rights to many golfing events, matches under most African cricket boards and the Pakistan Cricket Board and US Open (BUSINESS STANDARD, 8/8).
