The I-League a difficult TV rights sell?

The fourth edition of the I-League is set to kick-off in three days and the AIFF still has no TV partner, who would do the live broadcast of I-league matches. And it is high time to sort out this crucial issue otherwise clubs are in a fix about TV coverage of the I-League, which wouldn't be liked by their sponsors.

The AIFF made a last ditch effort to find a TV partner at short notice for this seasons I-League by even posting the requirements onto the AIFF website, but none of the sports channels showed any interest. The only interested parties are three regional Bengali channels.

So who are the interested channels?

First there is news channel 24 Ghanta, who happen to belong to the Zee Group. 24 Ghanta has shown quite a bit of Indian football in the recent past. They have shown I-League matches, the recent Federation Cup knockout matches, the Bayern Allstars vs East Bengal Allstars match, and will show tomorrow's Super Cup match.

Then there is Rupashi Bangla, an entertainment channel launched in the summer, who had shown a football reality show in July and for that had brought down Romario, Branco and Diego Forlan. It ended with the reality show casted team taking on Mohun Bagan.

And the third bid is a joint approach by Kolkata TV and Channel 10. Kolkata TV have shown matches from the Calcutta Football League in the past.

AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das told PTI, "We have received proposals for invitations of telecast rights but a decision will be taken after review by the (AIFF) finance committee and the rights holder."

With no alternatives available the AIFF might have to go for the regional Bengali option. But would any of these channels show any matches not involving Mohun Bagan and East Bengal? I would seriously doubt that as they also have to look at their TRP ratings. And only East Bengal and Mohun Bagan count in Bengal...