Neo Sports - Dog in the manger attitude

Neo Sports, the Indian Sports broadcaster seems to be having more than it can handle on it's plate and have a dog in the manger attitude when it comes to the broadcast of the Rugby World Cup in the subcontinent. Neo Sports which were granted exclusive rights for the subcontinent are only taking into consideration the Indian public when it comes to the broadcast. An attitude endorsed by all other Indian Sports broadcasters. 

Over the last weekend the Davis Cup was given preference over the Rugby matches played, maybe in India the Davis Cup is more popular but in Sri Lanka the Rugby World Cup is more popular. Although Neo Sports runs two channels with Neo Cricket telecasting mostly reruns of old cricket matches specifically those that India won, they would be doing the Rugby fans a big favour by stopping broadcasts of the old cricket reruns and moving some of the rugby content or Davis content to Neo Cricket and telecasting all the Rugby matches without interruption. If not they can at least share some of the rights with another sports channel.

We hope the IRB would give serious consideration to the plight of the Rugby fans in Sri Lanka & the rest of the subcontinent when an exclusive rights holder doesn't live up to their expectations. In the future rights for India  should be awarded separately and for countries like Sri Lanka a sports broadcaster such as Setanta/Eurosports which is not influenced by India should be granted the rights for broadcasting the matches.

This not only stands true for Rugby but for all other non cricketing sporting content. We hope that the controlling bodies for all other sports would take note and do the needful. For the Rugby this time round it might be too late to do anything at all, if possible the IRB should strictly inform their exclusive rights holders to broadcast all the matches or strip them of the rights immediately and hand them over to broadcasters who are not influenced by India.

Everlasting Radio launched

Sri Lanka's newest English Language Radio Station hit the airwaves on FM 97.0 over the least weekend. The channel run by MJF media have also planned a Sinhala Language radio station & TV Channel in the near future.

Many radio stations have been popping up in Sri Lanka like little mushrooms but sadly only to wither away in a few months/years. Only the major high profile broadcasters have been able to carry on broadcasting and make an impact. The coverage of Everlasting Radio is verging on pathetic with some grey areas within Colombo and even worse as you move out of colombo. 

The frequency FM 97.0 has changed hands a couple of times already & we hope that Everlasting Radio would be able to make an effective impact on the Sri Lankan Media Industry.

Everlasting Radio website : http://www.everlasting.lk/

Channel Eye telecasts Rugby World Cup

Channel Eye Sri Lanka's premier Sports broadcaster has begun broadcasting the Rugby World Cup 2011 via Neo Sports on a link obtained from PEO TV according to reports. Usually local channels telecast the Rugby World Cup from the knockout stages and this is the first time that the matches played in the round robin stage are also being telecast by a local channel.

This is indeed good news for local Rugby enthusiasts with no pay television access. However due to Channel Eye telecasting the Australian tour of Sri Lanka during the Third Test match, Rugby enthusiasts may experience an interruption to the rugby action so we believe that Channel Eye should move the matches to Rupavahini or share rights with CSN who can telecast the matches that Channel Eye is unable to.

Max Television relauched

After an unsuccessful couple of years Max Television has now relaunched, this time as a 24hr English Language Television channel.

Only time will tell whether the new look Max Television will be successful or not. At present there are 5 English Language television channels and Max the 6th entrant would have to compete with the likes of ETV, Art TV, Channel One MTV, NTV & CSN. In addition Max will have competition from international cable television channels.

The days ahead for Max Television are not easy but they will have to focus on the non cable television subscribing English Language entertainment starved community in Sri Lanka and they could compete with the Cable TV networks by introducing programming not generally available on Cable networks in Sri Lanka.

We wish Max Television all the best in it's future endeavors.

Max Television : www.maxtelevision.lk