MUMBAI: The live broadcast of the 2013 National Football League (NFL) Super Bowl XLVII featuring the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens will be broadcast on Star Sports and in high-definition on ESPN HD on 4 February at 5.00am (IST), .

The 2013 Super Bowl XLVII will be held in New Orleans and features the newly-crowned AFC Champions Baltimore Ravens, who survived a tough playoff season against formidable conference rivals, such as Peyton Manning?s tough Denver Broncos and ending Tom Brady?s quest for his fourth Super Bowl by beating the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game.

The NFC Champions San Francisco 49ers also had an inspiring run to this year?s Super Bowl by beating 2010 Champions Green Bay Packers in the Divisional Playoffs followed by the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC Championship Game. History appears to be in their favour as the San Francisco 49ers are the only team never to have lost in the Super Bowl with a 5-0 winning record.

The 2013 Super Bowl also features several intriguing tales that go beyond the tape, such as two brothers who will coach opposing teams on America?s biggest sports stage in Jim and John Harbaugh. The Harbaugh brothers will become the first siblings in history to coach against each other at the Super Bowl when Jim?s San Francisco 49ers goes up against John?s Baltimore Ravens on Monday morning.

Another story-line includes the inspirational 37-year-old leader Ray Lewis, who recently announced that he will be playing his last game as a Baltimore Raven after the Super Bowl. Lewis is the last player remaining from the Ravens? inaugural season, earning himself 13 Pro Bowl appearances and the honour of being the first defensive linebacker to win the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player award, and will be looking to make his very last season count and finish his career on a high next Monday.

MUMBAI: After buying out Walt Disney?s stake in ESPN Star Sports (ESS), News Corp is restructuring its Asian sports broadcasting business. Star India will be in control of the sports business in India while it will be under Fox International Channels (FIC) in the rest of Asia.

The formal change in India will take place after News Corp?s acquisition gets the necessary regulatory approvals.

Though the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had in September cleared the deal, Star India chief operating officer Sanjay Gupta said some regulatory approvals were still to be obtained.

News Corp had taken full ownership of ESS by forking out $335 million for ESPN?s 50 per cent stake in the joint venture.

Gupta told Indiantelevision.com that the sports business will become part of Star India but would continue to function as a separate entity as it requires different set of expertise.

ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd (ESIPL), the India subsidiary of Asian sportscaster ESPN Star Sports (ESS), is headquartered in New Delhi and has a separate team that used to operate the joint venture company.

?The sports business requires a different mindset and a different set of expertise. Ad sales and distribution functions will, thus, continue to be managed by ESIPL, which will work closely with Star India,? Gupta explained.

It may be recalled that Star India, which holds the BCCI media rights till 2018, recently roped in ex-Hindustan Media Ventures Limited (HMVL) CEO Amit Chopra to steer its sports strategy in India. Star had acquired the BCCI media rights for Rs 38.51 billion.

In rest of Asia, Fox International Channels (FIC) Asia will manage all Fox Sports networks along with the current Star Sports, Fox Football Channel, Star Cricket and Star Cricket HD networks across various markets in the region with Peter Hutton at the helm.

"We are all part of the News Corp company. So we (FIC and Star India) will work together," a source familiar with the development said.

ESPN, which was today rebranded as Fox Sports in select markets in Asia, will continue to retain the brand name in India till the government clearance comes.

?We will continue with the ESPN brand name for some more time as the acquisition has not been completed in India. We are awaiting government clearance on transfer of assets,? Gupta said.

Star is yet to take a call whether to rebrand ESPN channel with the Star brand name, which is well-entrenched in India, or to adopt the Fox Sports name as is the case in rest of Asia.

?We are yet to take a call on what brand to replace the ESPN channel with in India. We are weighing two options. One is to have the Star name, which is a highly recognised brand in India, associated with it. The second option is to go with the Fox Sports brand which is News Corp?s well known sports brand in US,? Gupta averred.

Curtains on ESPN brand in Asia

FIC Asia today said beginning 28 January, the ESPN networks will be renamed as Fox Sports networks across various affiliate platforms in Asia.

The rebranding will first take effect in South East Asian countries. Among the countries that will first sport the new name include Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

As part of the rebranding, ESPN will renamed as Fox Sports, the high-definition channel ESPN HD as Fox Sports Plus (HD), sports news channel ESPNews as Fox Sports News, the broadband network ESPN Player as Fox Sports Play and the mobile service mobileESPN as Fox Sports Mobile.

?Sports has always been a driver genre in the TV business and with the addition of Fox Sports to FIC Asia?s portfolio, we are well poised to further our position as Asia?s leading network. We are looking to launch even more premium sports content in the near future and are committed to making Fox Sports the premiere destination for passionate sports fans,? said FIC Sports SVP Peter Hutton.

Fox Sports will also launch the new sports news programme Fox Sports Central to replace the current programme Sports Center. Additionally, foxsportsasia.com will be the new online destination in place of espnstar.com for comprehensive, real time and authoritative content across an unrivalled breadth of sports news, editorial opinions, scores and more.

MUMBAI: News channels can air 3.5 minutes of fresh footage of Hockey India League matches per news day during its news programmes, provided always that:

(a) a maximum of two minutes of fresh footage may be broadcast per hour of broadcasting; and

(b) the broadcast of fresh footage may be repeated during a news day but the total number of broadcasts of such fresh footage is restricted to a maximum of two exhibitions per hour of broadcasting.

The use of live footage is not permitted at any time under any circumstances. There must be a minimum of at least 30 minutes delay following the live broadcast of any footage by the official/host broadcaster before any extract of such Footage may be used by the news broadcaster.

These regulations have been put down by Star Sports which will air the event from today. A maximum of five minutes of archival footage per news day during its news programmes, provided always that:

(a) a maximum of two minutes of the archival footage may be used per hour of broadcasting; and

(b) the broadcast of any such archival footage may be repeated but is restricted to a maximum of four exhibitions per news day with not less than a two?hour interval between each exhibition.

Any archival footage merged with fresh footage shall be treated as fresh footage and count towards the overall permissible limits of use of footage permitted under these Regulations.

All fresh footage and archival footage must be used "as is", without alterations or modifications. Without prejudice to the foregoing and in any event, it is clarified that no archival footage shall be used after 28 February 2013.

News broadcasters are not permitted to use any footage to make their own compilation or ?mix? the footage with footage from other television events, sports events (save in respect of archival footage), documentaries, interviews "out of the context of the event".

The use of Fresh Footage and Archival Footage is strictly limited to use within News Programmes. Use of any footage on sports segments, bulletins or features not forming part of the News Programmes is not permitted.

No use of any footage is permitted in any circumstances for any commercial purposes. A news broadcaster may commercially exploit a news programme within which fresh footage and/or archival footage is broadcast as a whole, in the regular course, through normal ad breaks usual in programming of news channels, provided always that no advertising, sting, logo, graphic and/or any other commercial (morphing) activity occurs immediately before, immediately after or during the broadcast of fresh footage and/or archival footage and no association is created, suggested or implied between the use of fresh footage or archival footage and any third party brand or product.

No news programme that uses fresh footage and/or archival footage may have a ?title? or other sponsor and no advertisement may be used or repeated in the regular ad breaks during the programme in such a manner as to create, suggest or imply an
association between the advertiser and the footage or the event.

News broadcasters may not include any advertising, sting, logo, graphic or any other commercial (morphing) activity carried out immediately before, immediately after or during any regular or real?time score updates in relation to any match, and no association may be created between such score update and any third party brand or product.

News broadcasters may not include any advertising, sting, logo, graphic or any other commercial (morphing) activity carried out immediately before, immediately after or during any ?player?of?the?day?, ?event?of?the?day?, ?image?of?the?day? or similar feature relating to the Event.

Online Use: News broadcasters are permitted to stream live video of news programmes containing footage on their official nominated websites provided that:

(a) the content being streamed on the channel?s official website is the exact replica of the programme run on the news broadcaster?s news channel, broadcast simultaneously with its television news broadcast and such simulcasting is customarily provided on the official website by the channel for all content that it broadcasts in the ordinary course; and

(b) the news broadcaster shall not broadcast footage, whether as part of any news bulletin or otherwise, on its own official website or via its account or otherwise on a third?party video?upload site such as YouTube, DailyMotion, etc.

Courtesy bugs acknowledging Hero Hockey India League and ESS must be pasted by the news broadcaster, with due prominence, throughout the broadcast of any fresh footage and/or archival footage. Designated News Broadcasters must use the correct name of the event (being either ?Hero Hockey India League 2013? or the shorter title ?Hero HIL 2013?) and the event logo in any and all broadcasts in which the event is mentioned or referred to, whether or not including the broadcast of any clips of fresh footage and/or archival footage. For the avoidance of doubt, there should not be any direct commercial association created, suggested or implied between any third party brand or product and any event marks.

In the event that the official Hero HIL event or ESS logos should be covered by the logo of the news broadcaster, the news broadcaster must include a courtesy line extended at the bottom of, or elsewhere, on the screen.