Ten on Ten, No Doubt. Review on TenSports

Now I do feel a little guilty about this coz I was the one to request for Ten Sports to be put up on the category of products at MS and then took almost a month to write a review. Well like they say, better late than never. So lets see how this upstart of a channel has been doing in the two years that it has been around.

When you think of the Indian scenario for sports channels, ESPN and Star Sports had the entire market covered and it appeared as if there was no scope for another major player. The entry barriers were also set pretty high and it would take the deep pockets of a millionaire and some shrewd business decisions to give these channels a run for their money.

Ten Sports needs to be applauded for this fact as it has effectively managed to not only compete with Star and ESPN but also outperform them on several counts. The channel came on air in early 2002 and after some initial difficulties has managed to create a fan following for itself.

When entering a well-established market, you have got to offer something unique that captivates and captures everyone?s attention. That big bone for Ten Sports was the FIFA world cup in 2002, because of which tentative cable operators were forced to subscribe to Ten Sports even though Football as a game isn?t huge in India. But that doesn?t matter coz the bottom line is to create a hype around the product. Like they say in marketing ?Don?t sell the steak, sell the Sizzle? and that is exactly what Ten Sports did. It had the solid backing of Taj TV group in UAE so finance or raising capital wasn?t that much of an issue.

The second effective strategy followed by Ten Sports was the widely accepted ?Go Global, Act Local? policy. They promptly signed up Sanjay Manjrekar and Rageshwari on board, who they believed to be good brand ambassadors. Rageshwari even had her own show for a while where she interviewed famous sports personalities. Although that lasted only for a while, it hardly matters as it had created that familiarity and rapport that was required with the viewing audience. The third and probably the most unique offering that Ten Sports had in it?s bouquet was the Wwe programming.

Yes the muscle built macho men of the World Wrestling Federation, now known as World Wrestling Entertainment (Wwe) made their return to Indian television screens after nearly a gap of two years. And to think Star had exclusive rights to all Wwe programming until they decided to just give it up in 2000 or I am not really sure what happened. But Ten Sports picked up the ball and brought back wrestling into our homes once again. Like it or not, wrestling is huge in India and the people over here are easily fascinated by it.

Although I must say that most of them don?t have a clue about, how the whole business of wrestling is carried out. I mean sure they know it?s fake, but they don?t have an idea about ?storylines?, Wrestler?s being ?pushed?, who made a ?heel? turn and who is a ?face? and who has ?heat? with whom backstage. All those terms in quotes may sound un-familiar and meaningless, but don?t worry coz most of the fans in India are ?Marks? (another term that you might not know about).

Anyway everything said and done, Ten Sports offers the entire package of Wwe programming including Raw, Smackdown, Afterburn, Bottomline, Velocity, Heat and all the Pay-Per-View specials like Wrestlemania, Summerslam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble and a whole lot more. They have a deal with the Wwe till 2004, and I just hope they decide to continue with it coz I mostly tune in for all the rasslin and would really miss it, if it were gone.

Besides all that, Ten Sports has a number of interesting programs such as Speed, which covers the local racing circuit, programmes on local Derby racing, Fitness Beach, Legends (which features a great sports personality every month) and Gamer TV meant for all the gaming freaks out there apart from the cricketing action from the sub continent, general doses of Hockey, WTA tennis and a lot of Soccer thrown in.

The icing on the cake is Ten Sports is supposed to be the official channel to be showing India?s historic tour of Pakistan, but that still is up in the air as the PCB seems to have called for fresh tenders. However that minor glich aside Ten Sports is an exciting channel with loads of variety to offer. And with a wide consumer base in a country like India what more could we ask for.