Apart from DD-Sports, which is an all an all Doordarshan, public sports channel, featuring international games as well as national games, there are numerous private sports channels, which have penetrated into the Indian TV viewing. Channels like ESPN is an American cable television network, which broadcasts sports events 24 hours a day. The other channels dedicated to sports are, Star Sports, Zee sports, Ten sports and the recent one- Neo Sports. Neo sports is a channel which is dedicated only to cricket whereas, Neo-Sports plus is Neo`s Sister channel which offers content from a variety of sports like soccer, badminton, motorsport etc.
Apart from competition of getting the rights to show a particular sporting event, only from the DD sports channel, there is also stiff competition among all these channels. Even after being a completely cricket dedicated channel, Neo Sports could not buy the rights to show the Cricket World Cup 2007. Ten Sports is the leading sports channel in India with the highest viewer ship amongst sports channels. Ten Sports has rights to leading cricket rights including the Pakistan Cricket Board, Sri Lanka Cricket Board and the West Indies Cricket Board. It also has rights to the UEFA Champions League, WWE, US Open tennis, Hockey World Cup, which rate amongst the most popular programs in India.
Zee Sports, India`s first private sports channel, promoted by Zee Telefilms Limited, India`s largest media and entertainment conglomerate. Zee Sports is a world-class channel with an Indian soul and its programming addresses issues and interests of Indian Sports. Zee Sports holds the Indian Cricket Board`s rights for neutral venues and the addition of Ten Sports portfolio of rights creates the single largest repertoire of cricket programming. Zee Sports also has the rights to Indian football, Davis Cup, WTA, Italian Series A.
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