MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprise Limited?s sports broadcasting network Ten Sports has inked a five-year broadcast rights agreement with Elite Football League of India (EFLI) till 2016 that will see the sportscaster televising approximately 370 matches.

Ten has acquired broadcast rights across cable & satellite, terrestrial, IPTV, HITS, DTH, Mobile, Internet and other distribution platforms.

The broadcaster has acquired rights for India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Europe, US, Caribbean, Australia & New Zealand, South Africa, Middle East, Asia including South East Asia and will try and distribute the EFLI games in all of these Markets.

Zee Sports Business CEO Atul Pande said, "We are delighted to partner with Elite Football League of India, the first professional American football league in India. We are looking forward for high decibel games with loads of excitement and passion."

Ten will televise four matches per week on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday through its broadcast channels Ten Sports and Ten Action.

In late 2012, there will be ten teams located in various cities across India, one in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and one in an unannounced city in Bangladesh, the EFLI said.

The first season of EFLI will kick start in September with eight teams including five from India, two from Sri Lanka and one from Pakistan. They will compete in American-style football.

MUMBAI: Broadcasting major Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) expects to cut down its sports losses this fiscal to Rs 700 million as subscription revenues are showing strong growth trends.

?The distribution revenues should see an upside. International syndication, including Pakistan and the Middle East, should look up. The cricketing lineup is also reasonable. There could also the possibility of a series between India and Pakistan in the fiscal,? a source said.

The live telecast of cricket properties in FY?13 include series like Sri Lanka-England and West Indies-Australia (April 2012); Sri Lanka-Pakistan (May-June); West Indies-New Zealand and Sri Lanka-India (July-August); Zimbabwe-Bangladesh (August-September); Zimbabwe-Pakistan and Sri Lanka-New Zealand (November-December); South Africa-New Zealand (December 2012-January 2013); and South Africa-Pakistan , Sri Lanka-Bangladesh and West Indies-Zimbabwe (February-March 2013).

The prime revenue from cricket will be from the India-Sri Lanka series. The company is targeting ad revenue of Rs800 million from the series. There is only one India-playing series this fiscal.

A weakening rupee , though, remains a concern. The weakening of the rupee had upset Zeel?s early guidance of capping sports losses at Rs 1 billion in the previous fiscal. Hit by forex losses to the tune of Rs 270-Rs 280 million, the company ended FY?12 with a loss of Rs 1.48 billion from its sports broadcasting business on a revenue of Rs 3.93 billion.

?Ten Sports (the sports broadcasting arm of Zeel) has seen a 13 per cent increase in content cost due to the softening of the Indian currency. When the content deals were signed, the rupee was around Rs 44 to a dollar,? a source said.

For the fiscal ended March 2011, Zeel?s sports losses stood at Rs 2.08 billion on a revenue of Rs 4.4 billion.

MUMBAI: The Elite Football League of India (EFLI) has retained Madison Street Capital, a provider of corporate finance and mergers and acquisition (M&A) advisory services, to raise capital and explore equity finance opportunities for it.

Ten Sports will telecast later all the 31 matches that the first season for the EFLI will have. The tournament has been preponed from November to 20 July in Sri Lanka.

Eight teams will take part, five of which are from India, two from Sri Lanka and one from Pakistan. They will compete in American-style football.

Madison Street Capital senior MD of the Capital Markets Group Barry Petersen said,?We are excited to be partnering with a highly experienced management team in media/entertainment who raised the initial equity and secured the global partnerships that will produce a successful first season launch. Given the demographics and the proven success of the IPL, Ten Sports and the WWE in India, the opportunity is substantial.?

EFLI director of operations Tausif Sheikh said that the company is not selling team franchises to corporates in the first year. "We want to take it to a stage where we establish value. People should feel that it is a good time to get involved. Once it airs on Ten Sports, people will come to know what it is all about. For the first year, we focussing on doing sponsorship deals for the teams. We are doing the event in Sri Lanka partly due to the monsoons. The players are ready to play and holding the event in November would not have made sense.

The tournament will be held next year in India. "We could hold it either just before the start of the IPL or just after," said Sheikh.

EFLI has support from high-profile sports and entertainment figures such as Kurt Warner, Mark Wahlberg, Mike Ditka, Michal Irvin, Brandon Chillar, and Ron Jaworski.

Coaches and players for the current eight-team league were selected from a field of 10,000 applicants, and were trained by US-based football coaches affiliated with EFLI.

EFLI will use the same model as the IPL, which recently received $2 billion for a 10-year broadcast contract, utilising a single stadium as the venue. The broadcast team is led by Sandy Grossman, the only television executive to direct 10 NFL Super Bowls.

The EFLI was established by the Elite Football Federation of India, the first sanctioned and recognised American football federation in India. The Federation acts as a pass-through entity for EFLI, distributing 15 per cent of its revenue to the Sports Ministry of India to help maintain its ongoing programs and facilities.

MUMBAI: Sporty Solutionz, the Delhi-based sports rights management company, has signed up Geo TV and Carlton Sports as official broadcast partners for the Indian Premier League in Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively.

Sporty Solutionz had acquired IPL broadcast sub-licensing rights for the two territories from Multi Screen Media, the official broadcast rights holder of the tournament in Indian subcontinent.

The company has earlier successfully acquired the worldwide rights to market and license the Bangladesh Premier League in the event?s opening season. It also plans to invest into various other sports properties besides cricket.