Particularly in the US, we’ve seen TV networks do their damnedest to get whatever live content they can. This ranges from the Olympics, to NFL games, musical productions, and whatever variety show they can put together. The reason? DVRs. You can’t simply skip live shows which means you’ll be sitting through those precious ads to view them. This is especially true with sports where not only do teams bring with them huge fan bases, but that those fans don’t want to be spoiled by the results and in turn are much more likely to tune in live.

Sony Pictures, though typically known for their movies, is also a big producer of TV content like The Blacklist, Seinfeld, Community, Breaking Bad, and Jeopardy to name a few. Now to better boost their TV production, Sony is going after the sports market.

 In a bid to boost its sports profile, Sony Pictures, part of Sony Corporation SNE, inked a definitive agreement to buy the sports broadcasting business of India’s Zee Entertainment Enterprises — TEN Sports Network — for $385 million. 

For Sony in South Asia, this means getting access to cricket, football, and fight sports all which do big numbers on live TV.

 Ten Sports operates a multitude of sports channels including Ten 1, Ten 2, Ten Cricket and Ten Sports, which are broadcast across India, Hong Kong, Maldives, Singapore, Middle East and the Caribbean. The network is predictably weighted toward cricket and soccer, and will augment Sony’s rewarding holdings of broadcast rights for the Indian Premier League’s Twenty20 cricket tournament as well as the 2018 FIFA World Cup. 

Really all you need to say is World Cup but there is a lot more.

 Furthermore, this network will add a number of tournaments such as English Football League Cup, Tour de France and Moto GP along with broadcast rights to key sporting events like the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. 

With NBC having paid well over a $1 billion for exclusive US rights for the Rio Olympics, this deal frankly seems cheap. Sure the market is quite different and would be far more expensive had the deal been for Europe but nonetheless, I think this should prove to be quite lucrative for Sony Pictures.

And who knows, perhaps deals like this are a way for Sony to get in a better position to roll out PlayStation Vue for the world.

Discuss:

Are you more likely to watch a sports event live versus a traditional TV show?

[Via Yahoo]