South Asian Games sells broadcast rights for the first time

Kathmandu, Nepal, November 20, 2019: The broadcast rights for the 13th South Asian Games has been sold by the South Asian Olympic Committee to Indian company NK Media Ventures Pvt Ltd. for Rs. 80 million (around US$700,000).

Nepal is hosting the regional sporting extravaganza from December 1-10 in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Janakpur. It is the first time the broadcast rights – video and photo – has been sold by the governing body of the Games, SAOC.

South Asian Olympic Committee president Jeevan Ram Shrestha, who is also the president of the Nepal Olympic Committee, welcomed the historic deal.

"The South Asian Games began in Nepal and we sold the broadcasting rights for the first time. The Olympic Games took huge strides after selling broadcast rights and today various cities toil hard to get the hosting rights of the Olympics. Broadcasters even bid huge for the rights for the Asian Games," Shrestha pointed out.

SAOC and Nepal Olympic Committee General Secretary Nilendra Raj Shrestha and Managing Director of NK Media Prabhat Ranjan Mallick inked the memorandum of understanding at a signing ceremony last week.

As per the deal, the Bhubaneswar-based NK Media will telecast the South Asian Games on 15 television channels in all seven participating countries and will also share the advertisement income on equal basis.

The SAOC then signed another MOU with the Nepal National Sports Council, whereby the former will provide the sports governing body with 50 per cent of the amount received from NK Media.

NSC Member Secretary Ramesh Kumar Silwal said: "We reached the agreement as we did not want to limit the South Asian Games just to our country."

More than 5,000 delegates including 3,250 athletes will take part in the regional Games that will feature 27 sports.

Source: The Himalayan Times

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