Indian Sports Channels are public sports channel, featuring international games and national games apart from DD-Sports, a Doordarshan presentation. There are numerous private sports channels, which have penetrated into the Indian TV market.
Channels like ESPN, which is an American cable television network, broadcasting sports events 24 hours a day, have made its presence felt among the TV viewing audience. The other channels dedicated to sports are, STAR Sports, Zee sports, TEN Sports and Neo Sports. Neo sports is a channel which has its sister channels as Neo Cricket and Neo Sports Plus. While Neo Sports plus telecasts variety of sports like soccer, badminton, motor sports etc, Neo Cricket deals exclusively with cricket. Other sports channels which deal entirely with cricket, and are popular in India, are Star Cricket, Ten Cricket.
DD Sports:
Indian DD Sports is an old sports channel. This channel was the only source of cricket action to Indian sports lovers when dish antenna or cable network was not in vogue. DD Sports telecasts an array of sporting actions. There are debates, reviews and discussions that get broadcasted by this channel. Sporting events from around the world is also covered in great detail. Apart from competition of getting the rights to show a particular sporting event, only from the DD sports channel, there is also stiff competition among all these channels. Even after being a completely cricket dedicated channel, Neo Sports could not buy the rights to show the Cricket World Cup 2007 and 2011.
Zee Sports:
Zee Sports, India`s first private sports channel, promoted by Zee Telefilms Limited, India`s largest media and entertainment conglomerate. Zee Sports is a world-class channel with an Indian soul and its programming addresses issues and interests of Indian Sports. The main focus of this channel has been on cricket. Zee Sports holds the Indian Cricket Board`s rights for neutral venues and the addition of Ten Sports portfolio of rights creates the single largest repertoire of cricket programming. Zee Sports also has the rights to Indian Football, Davis Cup, WTA, Italian Series A. It has taken up the responsibility of promoting and showcasing Indian sports events with discussions, news and by direct broadcasting of games. In September 2010, Zee Sports was re-launched as TEN Action+. The channel was also launched in the United States of America as Zee Sports Americas, where it is exclusively aired via Direct to Home services.
Ten Sports: .
One of the premier sports channel available to sports lovers in India is Ten Sports. Ten Sports is the leading sports channel in India with the highest viewer ship amongst sports channels. It was incepted on 1st April 2002, and today it has achieved immense popularity in South Asia and reached out to an estimated 48 million viewers in Sub Continent, Asia, Middle East and Europe. Ten Sports, by far, is the most viewed sports channel in India. Ten Sports has rights to leading cricket events including the Pakistan Cricket Board, Sri Lanka Cricket Board and the West Indies Cricket Board. It also has rights to the UEFA Champions League, WWE, US Open tennis, Hockey World Cup, which rate amongst the most popular programs in India.
ESPN-Star Sports:
The channel is a joint venture between ESPN networks and STAR TV networks. The presentation of games and sports by ESPN-Star Sports is pretty user friendly. All major sporting events happening in India or abroad are telecasted by this channel. Sports like cricket, football, motor sports, tennis, golf, basketball, baseball, wrestling etc. are frequently aired on ESPN-Star Sports.
Neo Cricket:
Neo Cricket, launched on 2nd April 2008, is dedicated exclusively to cricket, broadcasts to 30 different nations, and is a part of Nimbus Communication Ltd with head quarters at Mumbai, India. Nimbus has the broadcasting rights to all domestic and international cricket matches played in India from 2006 to 2014. In 2008 alone the channel broadcasted around 6 international series, 4 featured India, which added to around 200 days of live cricketing action.
Star Cricket:
This is the sister channel for Star Sports-ESPN network. Star Cricket, owned by the Star TV, deals with 24 hours cricket actions. It broadcasts live and pre-recorded cricket matches. This channel, meant for Indian audiences, promotes cricket. It telecasts first class cricket programs of global reach. Star Cricket is mainly customized to Indian audience and dishes out interesting cricket related shows, panel discussions, quiz contest and interviews with legendary and young cricketers as well.
Ten Cricket:
After Star cricket and Neo Cricket, another 24 x 7 cricket channel got launched in India on 10th August 2010. Ten Cricket, launched by Taj Televisions and Zee Network, is the sister channel for Zee Sports and Ten Sports, which is actually a part of the Essel Groups. The channels telecasts live cricket matches as well as non-live matches, and also hosts engaging cricket related to debates and discussions where cricketing legends form part of the panel, making is even more credible. Presently this channel has the rights to broadcast cricket matches hosted by 5 playing nations, namely; Pakistan, West Indies, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Zimbabwe. In India this channel is available on Airtel Digital TV and Tata Sky.