Beyond cricket: Neo Cricket is now Neo Prime

The all-sports channel was launched on June 3. The move comes after Neo lost the BCCI telecast rights to Star India. It plans to acquire top drawer marquee programming

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | June 4, 2012

Neo Sports Broadcast, after recently losing the all-important BCCI cricket telecast rights to Star India, has renamed its channel Neo Cricket as Neo Prime from June 3, 2012, to position it as an all-inclusive sports channel. To differentiate it from its second channel, Neo Sports, Neo Prime's focus will be on acquiring top drawer marquee blockbusters to effectively showcase maximum live sporting action during primetime. Apart from this, all feed is in HD.

Prasana Krishnan, COO, NEO Sports Broadcast, said, “Neo Prime is the prime feed of a premium all-sports channel. The channel will showcase HD ready sports content and will shortly launch an HD offering.”

Justifying the decision, Krishnan explained, “With a surge in volume across multiple sports and reduced emphasis on live India cricket, two all-sports channels is the current need of the hour. In a nutshell, Neo Prime will create the ultimate primetime destination for the sports fan with a healthy mix of live blockbuster action and engaging and innovative programming including the award winning Academy, Dial C for Cricket, etc.”

Given that the fallout with BCCI did not make sense for Neo to have a 24x7 channel dedicated to cricket, Krishnan said, “We were evaluating the rebranding for quite some time. But regulatory clearances and other things take time. We were thinking of launching a third channel dedicated to all sports but decided against it once we lost out on the marquee cricket properties.”

As part of a long-term strategy, Neo has been acquiring some of the biggest sporting events including UEFA Euro 2012, French Open, World Series Hockey, Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, Copa America and Rugby World Cup in addition to the existing bouquet of Asia Cup, German Bundesliga, Davis Cup, US PGA Tour, BWF Badminton Super Series, Fed Cup, etc.

The network will shortly announce a slew of big ticket acquisitions and ensure scheduling conflicts are addressed to maximise the network's two all-sports channels.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com