MUMBAI: Expanding its footprint in the country, Discovery Communications today launched its sports channel DSPORT that will broadcast over 4,000 hours of live content a year across sports like horse racing, cycling, football, golf, motorsports and cricket among others.
"India is one of the first market where we are expanding our sporting play (beyond Europe). We have realised that there are some passionate sporting communities or fans, whose needs are completely undermet in India right now because of the over emphasis on cricket," Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific Senior Vice-President and General Manager, Karan Bajaj told reporters here.
Among the sports properties that the new channel will offer include football from Brazilian League, Chinese Super League, Portuguese League and Major League Soccer (USA); golf from British Open, US Open, PGA Championship and LPGA; NASCAR motor racing, and six Nations Rugby along with UK and Irish horse racing events.
"We have 4,000 hours of live content which is 3-4 times more than the next broadcaster in sports. We will have at least 10 hours of live content a day in sports that we think are very popular but yet underserved," he said.
"We know exactly who we are getting after. So it is not like we are spreading ourselves too thin by buying rights here and there. We are building scale in properties that we think have a wide viewership in India, who don't have currently access to them. We are picking up sports based on three criteria -- popular, unmet and causing a disruption -- (if we do that in our acquisition) then it is a home run for us," he added.
DSPORT is in advanced negotiations for selected high quality cricket events to add to its portfolio. "We are in advanced discussions with one or two cricket boards. If the business model turns out be right, if the properties are at the right valuation and we feel we can add value to it, we buy it. If we have enough live hours then we will buy it. We will have cricket very soon on the channel in next couple of months," Bajaj said.