The Prasar Bharati has announced that UK-based Satellite Information Service Live (SIS) will be its official broadcaster of next October’s Commonwealth Games.

Host broadcaster for the 12-day event starting October 3 next year, Prasar Bharati had earlier this year called for bids from international broadcasters to telecast the event in high-definition mode

SIS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Satellite Information Services (Holdings) Ltd and is owned by a combination of leisure and financial investors. It has formed a consortium with SIS Broadcast and Satellite Information Services Limited as lead partner for the event. A K Mattoo, treasurer of the Games organising committee, confirmed that SIS has been finalised from the two consortiums shortlisted by the Information and Broadcasting ministry in August this year — the company shortlisted was the Mumbai-based Nimbus Communications.

The decision comes ahead of the World Broadcasters’ Summit, scheduled to be held in the Capital on October 26.The summit will see participation of all broadcasters from Commonwealth nations on one platform — on agenda is a discussion about each other’s preparations for telecasting the event. Doordarshan officials said Prasar Bharati wanted to finalise the Games broadcaster before this meeting to streamline broadcasting issues with the selected company and move ahead with finalising other aspects of the event.

While the contract size of this deal is not known, estimates suggest any international production company that covers sports events involving a host of nations — like the Olympics or Asian Games — for 15 days tend to charge between $300 million and $ 500 million.

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