ESPN STAR Sports bags Best Sports Channel Award

Media Release, November 10

New Delhi

ESPN STAR Sports, Asia’s leading sports network, has bagged the Best Sports channel award at ‘The Hero Honda –Indian Television Academy Awards’ for the fifth consecutive year. Sports channel ESPN was adjudicated as the best sports channel for the year 2005.

HHITA is one of the biggest awards ceremonies by the television industry that recognises the talent and achievements of the entire fraternity. ESPN STAR Sports has won the beat sports channel award ever since the HHITA awards were instituted in 2001. ESPN has won the best sports channel award in the year 2005, 2004, 2003 & 2002 while STAR Sports won the award in 2001

Speaking on the occasion, R C Venkateish, Managing Director, ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd. said, “ESPN STAR Sports has played the key role of a catalyst in developing sports culture in India. We have clearly established ourselves as the benchmark in sports broadcasting and this award is a recognition of our efforts & commitment to deliver high quality sports entertainment to the television viewers in India. We will continue in our endeavor to showcase world class sports programming on our networks. ”

ESPN STAR Sports is a 50:50 joint venture between two of the world’s leading cable and satellite broadcasters, ESPN Inc. and STAR. We are Asia’s complete sports provider reaching over 128 million households for ESPN and over 54 million households for STAR Sports (as of December 2003). We have 11 networks - ESPN Asia, ESPN India, ESPN Taiwan, ESPN Philippines, MBC-ESPN (Korea), ESPN Singapore, STAR Sports Asia, STAR Sports India, STAR Sports Taiwan, STAR Sports Singapore and STAR Sports S.E.A. We bring the world’s premier live sports and leading regional events to viewers 24 hours a day. On the ground, the ESPN STAR Sports Event Management Group manages and promotes premier sporting events around Asia, including the Asian X-Games and the San Miguel Asian 9 Ball Tour. On-line, espnstar.com, espnstar.com.cn and espnstar.com.tw interact with millions of users providing them with in-depth sports news, results and competitions. This multilingual, online platform which is closely integrated with ESPN and STAR Sports on air networks, has established the sites as the number one on-line sports destination in their respective markets.

For further information, contact:

ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd. Tel: 011-5154 4444-51

Sameer Bajaj, Manager

Corporate Communications.

Mobile: 9811222700,

Email: sameerb@espnstar.co.in

Or, Tarundeep Singh,

IPAN. 9871313339, 011-52492100.

Email: tarundeep.singh@ipan.com

For the latest schedules and programme information visit www.espnstar.com