Ten Sports scouts for equity partner

MUMBAI: Ten Sports, the channel owned by Dubai-based Abdul Rehman Bukhatir, which has been scouting for a partner to pick up an equity stake, is now in talks with Super Sport, South Africa’s leading sports channel for offloading a 50% stake.

“We have been in talks with various points for a while, however, we have not come to an agreement with anybody as yet. Also, there is no requirement on our part to get a strategic equity partner, if we are not satisfied with the terms and conditions,” Chris McDonald, CEO, Taj Television, told ET.

Several companies including Sahara One Media & Entertainment, Zee Telefilms and Sony had looked at the transaction but the talks hadn’t progressed due to differences over price. Ten Sports values itself at $135-160m.

Ten Sports’ agenda, very clearly, is to ensure it retains control, but also raise funds for future sporting rights. An insider pointed out that with an equity partner, Ten will manage to gain a stronger foothold in the sub-continent and in the rest of the world.

With a sudden spurt of sport channels, and more expected later this year with Nimbus planning to float three new channels, the race for sporting properties has become a high stake game. The most recent race was for the BCCI global media rights, which Nimbus eventually won for a whopping $612m for the next four years.

Buying into Ten Sports could make sense for Super Sport as it would get a major presence in a company that holds cricket properties in three important countries. A source familiar with the transaction said that the talks with Super Sport are at an advanced stage.

Currently, Ten Sports holds the telecast rights for the Tri Series in Sri Lanka coming up in August, with India, Sri Lanka and West Indies as well as the ICC bilateral tournaments between the three countries. Apart from that, the channel also has the US open rights and Pakistan and the World Cup Hockey apart from WWF events.

While Zee Telefilms was very keen on associating with Ten Sports, the deal did not go through as Zee was willing to pay only $50m. Sony, on the other hand, eventually got a distribution deal with Ten Sports on its One Alliance platform after the initial talks went nowhere.

Sahara One was also keen on the transaction but its failure to raise the required money through overseas convertible bonds ended all talks. The fact that Taj TV was unwilling to sell more than 50% also contributed to the failure of the talks with these three companies.