Update Neo Sports decides to break away from The One Alliance

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Three weeks after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued its television content aggregation regulation, Neo Sports Broadcast has decided to break away from its distributor The One Alliance.

A statement from the company states that the broadcaster has decided not to renew its agreement with The One Alliance that expires on 31 March. From 1 April, the sportscaster will be distributing its channels Neo Sports and Neo Prime through an in-house distribution team.

When Indiantelevision contacted The One Alliance spokesperson, he says “We were looking at renegotiating the deal with Neo Sports after the completion of the contract. We were also going to inform them that we can’t pay them even one tenth of what we are paying them currently because of lack of content. So maybe this is what would have triggered the move from their side.”

Apart from Neo Sports, The One Alliance currently distributes television channels of Multi Screen Media, Discovery, Times Television Network and TV Today.

Neo Sports believes that it can on its own strength build a robust relationship with cable operators, DTH operators and HITS companies. Even when its channels were being distributed by the aggregator to cable platforms, it was handling distribution through DTH on its own.

 

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NEO Sports to handle its own distribution

NEO Sports Broadcast has decided to handle its channels' distribution on its own instead of continuing ties with The One Alliance, the distribution venture of MSMD. The in-house team of NEO Sports will be at the helm of NEO Sports and NEO Prime's distribution to cable and HITS operators from April 1.

Announcing this move, the NEO spokesperson says that as the company shares a "fantastic" relationship with DTH operators and other digital platforms, it is confident that it will be able to build a robust relationship with cable and HITS companies across the country. "The dawn of addressability is a great opportunity for all of us; we are confident that we will be able to forge an equally robust and healthy relationship with cable companies as we start selling channels directly through our team," the spokesperson says.

NEO Sports had given its cable distribution rights to MSMD in 2010 despite its in-house team managing a portion of the distribution to DTH and other digital distribution platforms.


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