The Indian Prime Minister Mr.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee launched DD Sports, a satellite-delivered sports channel, on March 8, 1999. In the beginning, it broadcast sports programmes for six hours a day, which was increased to 12 hours in 1999. From 1st June 2000, DD Sports became a `round-the-clock` satellite channel. MODI Entertainment Ltd (MEL) obtained a stay order on 25th March 2006, from the Delhi High Court against any speculated unilateral move by Doordarshan (DD) to make DD Sports a free-to-air channel protecting its agreement with DD Sports and its subscribers.
Prasar Bharati had been planning to make its sports channel a free-to-air one. An arbitration panel had already been constituted to look into the concerns of both MEL and DD. DD Sports was an encrypted pay channel for a while, (between 2000 and 2003) and on 15th July 2003 it turned free, to become the only `Free-To- Air` Sports Channel in the country. Besides showing live important sporting events like
Cricket,
Football,
Tennis etc., DD Sports showcases Indian sports including
Kabaddi, Kho-kho etc. In addition to the international sporting events, important national tournaments of
Hockey, football,
Athletics, Cricket, Swimming, Tennis,
Badminton,
Archery and
Wrestling are also telecast. The DD Sports channel also telecasts news-based programmes, sports quiz and personality oriented shows.
The first event to be carried on the channel was a friendly cricket match between national level Indian cricketers. The state-owned broadcaster had relied on private firms to help it acquire rights to sports events for DD Sports. DD Sports also telecasted, live, the closing ceremony of the Melbourne
Commonwealth Games. For the one-day international (ODI) matches, in the year 2005, a 10-second spot on DD (Doordarshan) National and DD Sports was available for Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh respectively. A similar spot for the test matches had been priced at Rs 50,000 on the terrestrial network and Rs 60,000 on the cable channel. In 2004, 10-second slots on Ten Sports were sold for anything between Rs 2.75 lakh to Rs 4 lakh.
According to Media planners the differential pricing was because DD Sports reaches out to a more affluent target group and the penetration of the cable industry in the metros is very good.
