Sony, ESPN to launch JV in India later this month


Details

Rebecca Hawkes

| 12 January 2016




Sony Pictures Network (SPN) and ESPN are launching two co-branded sports channels on direct-to-home (DTH) platforms in India on 17 January 2016.


Replacing Sony Kix, Sony ESPN and Sony ESPN HD will also gradually be rolled out across India’s cable networks. They will join existing SPN sports offering Sony Six, and may be joined by other channels as well as a multi-platform sports app in the future.

“At least two more channels are there in the pipeline and if the content demands more, we might launch more. But at this stage, we have two channels launching on 17 January and two more in the near future,” said Ramesh Kumar, VP ESPN India and South Asia.

The news comes after the conclusion of a three -ar separation from ESPN’s previous business partner in India, Star.

“ESPN is the leader when it comes to sports broadcasting globally. They have their expertise, which will use to add value to our existing content. We would like to keep the commercials confidential, but yes what we both were looking for was in alignment and hence we decided to get together. It took close to six months to close the deal,” NP Singh, CEO, SPN India is quoted as saying by Indiantelevision.com.

The pay-TV partnership will enable Sony to access ESPN’s global studio feed, with analysis and opinions – beginning with coverage of the Australian Open. In total the deal includes 1,000 hours of original content from ESPN.