NEW YORK: EchoStar Communications and Zee TV USA celebrated the successful launch of Zee Sports America, which was launched in the US, at a dinner reception in Manhattan on Dec 12.

Adding yet another feather to this multi-colored South Asia package, EchoStar Communications and its Dish Network satellite TV service launched Zee Sports America in September this year, following an agreement with the premier Indian content provider Zee TV USA. Besides cricket, Zee Sports America, the 24-hour sports channel, provides coverage of South Asian sports such as Indian football, golf and motor sports including Zee's award-winning original productions such as the Daily Sports News, Sports Café, Football Café, Sports Sunday, World Motor Sports Magazine, Twenty-Two Yards, Cricket Talk and Cricket First.

Addressing the media on the occasion, S. Venkatasubramanian, Head of Americas, Zee Network said it was the coming together of two pioneers, both front runners, and their singular passion for sports that made this happen.

"This is a very important channel to the South Asian community in the US and we are very pleased to expand on our long term relationship with Dish Network that dates back to 1998," he said. "Zee Sports programming is broadcast today throughout South Asia and with the launch of this channel much of that quality content will now be available to the South Asian community in the US."

Giving a brief history of Dish Network's foray into international programming, Michael Kelly, of EchoStar talked about the time when DirecTV, the pioneer in satellite TV service, had an absolute monopoly over the broadcast of NFL Sunday ticket, which is what prompted Dish Network to explore the prospects of international programming.

"DirecTV still has exclusive rights to NFL Sunday ticket, but our international programming market has proved to be far bigger than the NFL Sunday ticket," he said proudly. Kelly pointed out that with US being the second largest cricket economy in the world, it made sense for EchoStar to go for a dedicated South Asian sports channel like Zee Sports."

And Zee Sports like about leveraging the best programming available from India," he added. "From anti-regulated environment to where we are today, in terms of technology and services, our best days are still ahead of us." In a separate statement, Eric Sahl, senior vice president of Programming for EchoStar said, "Dish Network is a leader in providing entertainment and movie channels to the South Asian community in the US and now it adds a sports channel to that line-up.

We view the addition of Zee Sports America to our family of South Asian channels as further evidence to our commitment to be a leader in South Asian programming." "Zee Sports is the first homegrown Indian sports channel and through its grassroots activities redefines the traditional role of a television channel," said Himanshu Mody, CEO, Zee Sports.

"Launching in the US is the first step in its continued efforts to spread its wings." Zee Network channels span the globe and reach over 300 million viewers in over 80 countries. Dish Network is the fastest growing pay-TV provider in the US since 2000 and currently serves more than 13.5 million satellite TV customers.