The major bugbear for new sports broadcaster the Bukhatir-promoted Ten Sports has been the lack of penetration in cable and satellite TV homes in India. That seems to be slowly becoming less of a sore point going by the announcement made this evening by Taj Television (the parent company of Ten Sports) chief executive Chris McDonald.
McDonald said in a press release issued late this evening that large MSOs such as RPG Netcom in Kolkata, Asianet in Kerala and Hathway in Bangalore and Chennai, have all begun airing Ten Sports as of today "With these systems signing on, the national networks of Hathway, Win Cable and Siticable are showing Ten Sports except for a few isolated pockets, which are expected to sign up in the next 24 hours," the press release stated.

McDonald added that the distribution tieups with these MSOs means that Ten Sports penetration across India now stands at 18 million homes, and is expected to go up further in the next two days, as the 2002 FIFA World Cup fever increases in intensity.

ESPN Star Sports may not have the telecast rights but just ahead of FIFA World Cup action, the channel launched this week the new version of it‘s live, pan-regional sports news program, SportsCenter Asia, with the addition of Jason Dasey as the resident anchor of the show.
SportsCenter Asia broadcasts entirely in English Mondays to Fridays at 8 pm and 11:30 pm (HK/Singapore time).

Besides taking on the role of presenter on SportsCenter Asia, Jason Dasey is also senior presenter of ESS‘ sports news programme, Sportsline. Prior to joining ESS, Dasey spent over two years as a sports anchor for CNN International based in Atlanta. His work history covering both print and television also includes six years as a sports anchor for the BBC in London and a year as a TV reporter and anchor for NBC affiliate KUSA-9 in Denver, USA.

SportsCenter Asia‘s segment sponsors include Federal Express, UBS, Adidas, Peugeot and Nikon. The Asia versions of SportsCenter reaches over an estimated 100 million viewers across the region.