As the Fifa World Cup heads for its grand finale tomorrow between perennial favourites Brazil and a determined Germany, some tallies are already being made. B4U Networks, which bought the terrestrial telecast rights from holder Taj Sports, says it managed a good profit from the event.

Speaking about the deferred telecast on national broadcaster Doordarshan, Says B4U's chief distribution officer Debashish Dey: The tournament was not only a great brand building exercise for us, but we broke even and even managed a tidy profit out of it." 

Responding to doubts as to the how much brand benefit was garnered from it considering that B4U's name only appeared in the credits, Dey said the telecast on DD1 with repeats on the 36 regional kendras (centres) was benefit enough. 

Dey said 70 per cent of the inventories had been sold and this was because the 11 pm timing was ideal if one considered that soccer viewing essentially had a male audience. Dey's contention was that it was only from 11 pm onwards that the TV remote was in the male hands. His point being that earlier than that it was the woman of the house that decided what was to be watched. 

Ten (Taj Entertainment Network) Sports, which held the rights for India, had sold the terrestrial telecast rights to LMB Holdings (promoter of B4U Networks). B4U then thrashed out an an agreement with DD that cleared the way for the deferred telecast on DD of four matches and a daily highlights capsule. 

As per the terms of the deal between Taj and LMB, the terrestrial rights allowed for transmission of four full games - the opening game, two semifinals and the finals on a six-hour delayed telecast. They also included a daily hourly highlights package, also on a six-hour delayed basis.