Discovery Communications today announced its foray into the sports telecast space in India with the launch of an all-new channel DSPORT.
“Combining India’s passion for sports with our global expertise in sports production, DSPORT will offer a daily dose of (over) 10 hours of live content for viewers across the country,” Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific Senior Vice President and General Manager, Karan Bajaj said in a statement.
Discovery has been present in India for nearly 20 years with different global brands such as Discovery Channel, TLC, Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, Science and Turbo/Velocity.
DSPORT is in advanced negotiations for selected high quality cricket events to add to its portfolio. At launch, DSPORT will be a part of the Sports Tier via a subscription model on both DTH and Cable in both HD and SD, the company said.
Former Managing Director of ESPN Star R C Venkateish will be working closely with DSPORT, especially in areas related to content acquisition for the channel.
Discovery already has a huge presence in sports broadcast in Europe through Eurosport.
The launch of DSPORT in India perfectly complements the wider strategy to provide fans with more live action across a plethora of sporting genres, the company said.
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.