DD Sports named official broadcaster of Lusofonia Games, to invest Rs. 15 cr.

DD Sports has been named the official broadcast partner for the Lusofonia Games to be held in Goa next month.

The channel itself is keen to put on a superb showing in terms of coverage and is reportedly set to invest about Rs. 15 crore for the project.

DD has sought accreditation from the organizers for nearly 200 of their crew members and the channel will be telecasting most of the competitions live.

A senior Lusofonia Games organizing committee member (LUGOC) said – “We will not get any money from DD Sports for broadcasting rights. The deal is payment-free but since there is huge production cost involved in telecasting an event like the Lusofonia Games, DD Sports will invest around Rs 14-15 crore.”

“DD Sports will do justice to the coverage. It will be good to have most matches being televised live. Many point a finger at DD Sports insisting their production is not of the highest quality but don’t forget that most major events are broadcast exclusively on DD Sports,” added the official.

Sources also reveal that no other foreign television channel had approached the games’ organizing committee for the rights with a few channels from Portugal and Brazil merely enquiring for 15-minute interval slots. Now any and every request to broadcast or share the feed will have to be directed to DD Sports and not the organizers of the Games.

“Even local television channels will not be allowed to shoot at the venues. For all their programmes, they will have to take the feed from DD Sports,” said the official.

The London Olympics in 2012 were covered by DD Sports and it turned out to be the most watched non-cricket sporting event in the history of Indian television. It had many sponsors such as Hero MotorCorp, Amul, LIC, ONGC, amongst others who helped the channel get back some of the investment that was made for the Olympics.

The Lusofonia Games is another matter altogether though and it remains to be seen how the channel goes about recuperating its costs.

12 countries, erstwhile colonies of the Portuguese, will be competing at these Games in the following disciplines – Athletics, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Football, Judo, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Volleyball and Wushu.