MUMBAI: Sony Discovery is carving out a powerful distribution bouquet. Its latest prize catch: Ten Sports.
The distribution deal is for five years. SET Discovery and Taj Television (India) signed the contract.
Ten Sports will join the Sony Discovery's One Alliance distribution bouquet with effect from 1 April. Confirming this, SET Discovery president Shantonu Aditya says: "I am confident that this latest addition will complement the diverse mix of programming enjoyed by millions of viewers of TheOneAlliance."
One Alliance is working out the price of the new bouquet which will include MTV, Nick, NDTV Profit, Animax, Discovery Travel & Living and Ten Sports.
Ten Sports was earlier distributed by Modi Entertainment Network but legal disputes affected the contract. For several months, Ten Sports could not collect pay revenues as it did not have a distribution team in place. Taj Television, the holding company for Ten Sports, was in negotiations with Zee Telefilms and Sony Discovery for a distribution deal.
Welcoming Ten Sports to TheOneAlliance bouquet, SET India CEO Kunal Dasgupta says: "With Ten Sports joining TheOneAlliance, we are sure of providing more value to our customers. The combination of the overall content of Ten Sports, and especially its cricket properties, MAX's ICC Cricket rights will provide all sports fans in the country a great opportunity to savor the best events in the world ."
Adds Taj Television CEO Chris McDonald: "As a group, we are delighted with this development. Given the strength of TheOneAlliance distribution team on the ground, I am certain this is a step in the right direction. Ten Sports will continue to bring in quality sports coverage, including many hundreds of days of live cricket."
Sony Discovery will now have two channels engaged in sports broadcasting - the hybrid Max channel which has the World Cup cricket telecast rights and Ten Sports which has the telecast rights to the Indo-Pakistan series next year. Ten Sports broadcasts cricket from Sharjah, the West Indies, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Morocco
In the new distribution bouquet, Sony-Discovery will have MTV, Nick, NDTV Profit, Animax and the recently acquired Sab TV. The other channels in the bouquet include Sony TV, Max, Animal Planet, NDTV and Discovery, each addressing a specific genre of entertainment.
