Does the DD-Indian Hockey Federation agreement on TV rights augur well?
It’s good for the sport. If DD takes the game to the masses, interest is bound to grow. And that will boost our coverage as well. So can we expect more live coverage out of India in the near future? Nobody’s ever brought a full soccer season to TV viewers. So exposure is crucial in the first year. Even if we did have uplink rights, only a few of the 40 matches would’ve been live. Why did Sky Sports let ESPN telecast the England-India cricket series? That was an old deal. Each territory has its own needs and compulsions. Do pay channels have a future in India? For certain games, free-to-air signals are important. But if we get enough revenue to make our business work, pay channels might become a possibility. Why does DD beat you to the final rounds of Grand Slam tennis events? It carries the weight of distribution. We don’t think of DD as competition. If DD takes an event to the masses it heightens awareness and more people then tune into STAR the following year to catch the early round
