ZEE UK’s next channel ‘ZEE Sports’?

It has emerged this morning that ZEE Network UK’s next channel launch could well be ZEE Sports.

Since the sudden demise of South Asia World (SAW) last month, speculation has been rife as to which replacement channel ZEE will launch in SAW’s Sky Digital vacant slot.

Two ZEE channels have been firm favourite to launch – ZEE News and ZEE Sports, with the latter looking more likely to launch after tests were spotted on SAW’s old test label.

If ZEE Sports does eventually go live in the UK, this will be the UK’s first Indian sports channel. Recently ZEE Network bought a 50% stake in Dubai broadcaster Ten Sports, which has resulted in ZEE Sports gaining access to some of Ten Sports biggest sporting properties.

ZEE Sports UK will no doubt screen Indian football, which ZEE has a ten-year exclusive deal with; furthermore, ZEE Network UK also holds global rights to Indian cricket played on neutral ground.

Ten Sports on the other hand holds rights to cricket played in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West Indies.

Tests of ZEE Sports has currently been screening a preview still (pictured above) of a forthcoming football match ‘Peerless Federation Cup’. Visual and audio tests can be viewed by tuning manually on Sky Digital using the following frequency: 11.343 (V) under the label “SAW”.

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