MUMBAI: A few months after announcing its World Series Hockey (WSH) initiative, Nimbus has concluded the franchise allocation process and announced Chennai Sports Organisers (CSO) as the franchisee owner for Chennai.

A multi-city franchise-based league, WSH will make all the franchisee announcements over the next few days. The inaugural edition of the league will comprise seven more teams out of Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Pune, Bhopal, Punjab, Ranchi and Rourkela.

The Chennai Sports Organisers director LT Nanwani is also the director and promoter of Jubilee Granites, a mining company in South India that exclusively owns products like ?Black? and ?Black Galaxy? granite. The company?s initial investment in WSH is worth Rs 200 million over 15 years.

Nanwani said, "It is a matter of great pride to own a franchise in the prestigious World Series Hockey. Chennai has always had a strong sports culture and we are committed to strengthen the talent pool of hockey players. Extensive research has revealed that speed is a key attribute of the sport and hence our team is going to be aptly called Chennai Cheetahs."

"India has a strong hockey legacy and we will strive towards bringing the glory back. This is the first step for CSO and in the near future, we will expand our sports business by investing in multiple sports to create greater local connect with the fans. The main concern is to revive hockey our national sport. We have been speaking to Nimbus for a year about this."

He adds that CSO is talking to companies for sponsorship.

Nimbus Sport COO Yannick Colaco added, "WSH has been very selective in identifying franchise owners who are passionate about hockey and share the common vision of creating a strong and viable ecosystem for the sport in India. We are delighted to welcome Nanwani to the WSH family. His deep rooted understanding of the local Chennai market coupled with his keen interest in hockey will definitely create a strong fan base in the catchment area."

The WSH will be held from 17 December to 22 January, 2012 and will involve 200 Indian and international players, showcasing their talent in 61 matches.

NEW DELHI: Doordarshan has been authorised to demand mandatory sharing of signals for important sports events since a law was passed in this regard in 2007, but it does not cover All India Radio.

With Team India having won two one day internationals on home ground after the humiliating tour of England, Prasar Bharati has taken umbrage to Neo Cricket refusing to sharing signals with AIR.

AIR sources, who confirmed that Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni had agreed to talk to the Board for Control of Cricket in India on this issue, said Neo Sports had been approached well in advance by AIR for sharing signals but had received a negative response.

These sources told indiantelevision.com that the Empowered Committee of Prasar Bharati dealing with this issue had then conveyed the matter to the Ministry with their resentment on the issue.

Neo Sports, which possesses the rights for broadcasting cricket played in India, had demanded that Prasar Bharati should accept a new revenue sharing model failing which it denied signals to AIR - which is the only radio channel permitted to broadcasts cricket commentary or news in India.

Sources said AIR has been paying up to $6000 per match in order to buy the broadcast rights, but Neo Sports had refused to even accept $6250. Instead, Neo Sports is demanding a 50:50 revenue sharing model.

Nimbus COO Yannick Colaco said that the Sports Broadcasting (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act ("Sports Act") clearly states that, in the case of radio coverage for International ODIs featuring India, all advertising revenues generated from the same must be shared in the ratio of 50:50 between both parties.

"Since the inception of the Sports Act, Nimbus has repeatedly urged AIR to follow the Law as required by the same in broadcasting radio commentary of International cricket events. However ,AIR has steadfastly refused to share revenues and instead offered meagre amounts as license fees, many times amounting to less than 10 per cent of total revenues generated."

He added that it is a matter of record that AIR made revenues of Rs 12 million for India versus New Zealand series last year and paid Nimbus a license fee of approximately Rs 1.9 million.

"It is, thus, very obvious that AIR has routinely manipulated its position to ensure that AIR makes enormous profits by not abiding by the Sports Act and by offering meagre amounts in the form of License Fees."

Giving more figures, Colaco said that in the England Tour of Indian 2008 it is understood that AIR made revenues of Rs 21 million ($470,000 ). Despite this revenue potential, AIR has offered Nimbus a license fee of $36,000 i.e. approximately Rs 1.7 million for the current England tour.
Meanwhile, the Prasar Bharati and the Ministry are writing to BCCI asking it to take up the issue with Neo Sports and also to ensure that in future it does not sell the frequency to such companies which themselves do not have the broadcasting facilities and are not ready to share feed with AIR.

Relations between Neo Sports and Prasar Bharati are not too good, with the live telecast of the second ODI on Doordarshan having started late, with both sides blaming the other for the last minute permission under the Sports Broadcast Signal (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act 2007.

At present, the revenue split under the Act is 75:25 in favour of Neo, although the Empowered Committee has already demanded that this should be raised to 50:50 so that DD can earn more.

The provision under the Act says that any rights holder to "sporting events of national importance" (India?s international ODIs fall in that ambit) have to share the television feed with DD, and there is no reference to AIR in the Act.