Cup of woes? But, Neo plays on for more anchor sponsors
FOR all the hoopla about brand-wariness with cricket, Neo Sports begs to differ. The cricket broadcaster, which roped in Hero Honda and Perfetti earlier, is looking at more anchor sponsors in the telecom and retail banking category to garner up to Rs 1,000 crore from all its anchor sponsors. The company has already raised about Rs 300 crore from Hero Honda and Perfetti. Neo Sports CEO Shashi Kalathil told ET, “We are looking at signing at least two more anchor sponsors. At least one of them would be from the telecom sector, while the other would be retail banking segment.” These sponsors would have access to about 20-25% of the channel’s total inventory. According to market sources, Hutch and Barclays may join the anchor sponsor bandwagon. However Mr Kalathil declined to comment. Meanwhile, Neo’s parent company Nimbus has paid Rs 400 crore as the first instalment of bank guarantee to BCCI. The sports broadcaster has also appointed KPMG as its independent auditor to quantify the loss it will incur due to nonencryption of cricket feed by Prasar Bharati. Nimbus Communications executive chairman Harish Thawani said, “ The independent auditors appointed by BCCI and Nimbus will quantify the fee reduction we should be given. The independent auditor will quantify a current compensation component and would also calculate compensation component for future years.” Talking about the speculation that broadcasters like Sony are looking at buying stake in Neo, Mr Thawani said, “In the first quarter meeting of Neo Sports’ board, the members felt that the channel has enough funding for immediate needs and will decide future course of action by the second or third quarter.” In January, 3i, Cisco and Oman Investment Fund (OIF) pumped in Rs 552 crore in Nimbus Communications which would be largely deployed to fund sports acquisitions and develop global sport events. In September last year, Nimbus Communications launched cricket centric sports channel Neo Sports and noncricket sports cahnnel Neo Sports Plus. It made Star India its distribution partners and is now pushing for better connectivity for the India- Bangladesh cricket series in May. For Neo Sports Plus, the company is looking at leveraging sports like soccer, badminton and cycling.
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