WORLDSPACE® TEAMS WITH GLOBAL CONTENT LEADERS TO DELIVER SPORTS CHANNEL “PLAY”
Country’s First All-Sports, All-the-Time Channel will Offer Global News and Features from BBC, TWI and Radio Mid-Day
SILVER
SPRING, Md., Dec. 6, 2005-- WorldSpace
Satellite Radio, (Nasdaq: WRSP), one of the world leaders in
satellite-based digital radio services, today announced that it has teamed with global content providers, including BBC World Service, TWI, and Radio Mid-Day, to deliver India’s first all-sports satellite radio channel, “PLAY.”
PLAY will feature comprehensive cricket coverage—India’s number one sport—as well as coverage of sports like Formula One racing, tennis, rugby, football, hockey and golf. Programming will include news, live call-in shows with Indian sports experts and sports information such as top-of-the hour reports, celebrity appearances and “sports desk” programs.
“PLAY will be a first for the country,” said Billy Sabatini, vice president of global content, WorldSpace. “By incorporating the best available content from local and global providers, we are creating a truly new and compelling sports experience for our Indian subscribers. We are thrilled to be working with the BBC, TWI and Radio Mid-Day to make our sports vision a reality in our primary market.”
Debuting on the WorldSpace satellite radio network Dec. 5, PLAY will be the only channel to offer all sports, all the time with both a local perspective and a global reach for the entire subcontinent of India. Content providers were selected based on their collective ability to deliver the right mix of original and archival programming, sports personalities and an on-the-ground network of production talent.
Neil Curry, Senior Commissioning Editor, BBC World Service, said the BBC is delighted to be selected by WorldSpace for global sports reporting. “BBC World Service is proud of its reputation as the leading international multimedia broadcaster benefiting from the world’s most comprehensive newsgathering networks, with hundreds of specialist correspondents and journalists right across the world. With editorial independence and expertise at the heart of our coverage, we’ll deliver the WorldSpace subscribers top-quality sports programming specially targeted to listeners in India, giving them the global perspective of sporting events.”
TWI’s Head of Radio Carolyn Smyth said: “WorldSpace has created a stellar group of content providers for PLAY, and effectively leveraging TWI’s long-standing relationships in the sports world will help to ensure its success. In addition to our extensive experience in maximizing radio sports rights, we are also pleased to offer our documentary and event programming expertise,” Smyth added. “We believe that subscribers in India will respond very positively to this new WorldSpace service.”
“We are pleased that WorldSpace recognized the importance of teaming with an Indian media company to realize its goals for PLAY,” said Shariq Patel, Radio Mid-Day. “Radio Mid-Day is the ideal organization to deliver the local perspective on cricket and other sports like football, tennis and F1 racing to WorldSpace’s growing subscriber base. Working together, WorldSpace and Radio Mid-Day can deliver what the sports news subscribers in India want, when they want it.”
About WorldSpace, Inc.
WorldSpace (Nasdaq: WRSP)
is the world's only global media and entertainment
company positioned to offer a satellite radio
experience to consumers in more than 130 countries
with five billion people, driving 300 million
cars. WorldSpace delivers the latest tunes,
trends and information from around the world
and around the corner. WorldSpace subscribers
benefit from a unique combination of local
programming, original WorldSpace content and
content from leading brands around the globe
including the BBC, CNN, Virgin Radio, NDTV
and RFI. WorldSpace's satellites cover two-thirds
of the globe with six beams. Each beam is capable
of delivering up to 80 channels of high quality
digital audio and multimedia programming directly
to WorldSpace Satellite Radios anytime and
virtually anywhere in its coverage area. WorldSpace
is a pioneer of satellite-based digital radio
services (DARS) and was instrumental in the
development of the technology infrastructure
used today by XM Satellite Radio.
About BBC World Service
BBC World Service is an international radio and online broadcaster delivering programmes and services in 43 languages. It uses multiple platforms to reach 149m listeners globally, including SW, AM, FM, digital satellite and cable channels. It has more than 2,000 partner radio stations which take BBC content, and numerous partnerships supplying content to mobile phones. Its international online sites, which include audio and visual content and offer users opportunities to interact directly with world events, receive over 330m page impressions a month.
About Radio Mid-Day
Radio Mid-Day is one of the pioneers of radio in India. Radio Mid-Day has been operational since 1993, when it programmed time bands on the state broadcaster All India Radio. Since 2002 it has been operating a leading FM station in Mumbai, Go 92.5 FM. Radio Mid-Day is part of MidDay Multimedia Ltd., a leading media group based in Mumbai, having interests in Print, Radio, and Internet. For more information, visit www.mid-day.com or www.go925fm.com
About TWI
TWI is the television, broadcast and new media arm of the IMG, the world’s premier sports marketing agency. It is the world’s largest independent producer, packager and distributor of sports programming, producing more than 6,000 hours and distributing nearly 9,000 hours of live events and original programming each year, across 200 countries and covering more than 240 sports. TWI has 40 offices worldwide and production centres in London, Hong Kong, New Delhi, New York, Seoul and Sydney. It also represents television rights to many of the world's premier sporting events and has the world’s biggest sports archive with more than 200,000 hours of footage.
TWI, which produces more than 2,500 hours of radio programming annually, is the only production company to deal with radio as a separate entity, thereby maximizing rights revenue from events. Clients include the FA Premier League, Wimbledon and the iRB. It continues its relationship with the Rugby World Cup forward to 2007, after mounting the 2003 Rugby World Cup Radio Host Broadcaster operation. TWI’s non sports-programming includes I’d Do Anything, for the BBC, The 2005 Oscars, and the BAFTA-award-winning Colour of War documentary series. |
