Sony Sports Network, formerly Sony Pictures Sports Network, and also known as Sony TEN, is a group of

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

sports channels owned by Culver Max Entertainment (formerly Sony Pictures Networks India). The original TEN Sports channel was first established on 1 April 2002 by

Abdul Rahman Bukhatir Abdul Rahman Bukhatir is an Emirati businessman, media entrepreneur, and cricket administrator. He is the founder of Bukhatir Group which has business interests in construction, education, information technology, real estate, shopping, sports and ...

. It was acquired by Essel Group in 2010, and was added to Essel's existing Zee Sports channel, launched in 2005. After the acquisition, Zee launched two new channels, TEN Cricket and TEN Golf, and rebranded Zee Sports as TEN Action. In August 2016,

Sony Pictures Networks India Culver Max Entertainment Private Limited, doing business as Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN or SPNI), is an Indian media conglomerate owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Culver Max Entertainment manages and operates 26 television channels, ...

acquired all of the sports channels under Zee from Essel. In 2017, the networks were formally merged with Sony's existing

Sony ESPN Sony ESPN was an Indian pay television sports channel which was a joint venture between ESPN Inc. and Sony Pictures Networks India. The channel targeted the Indian subcontinent including India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It was part of th ...

and

Sony Six Sony Sports Ten 5 (formerly Sony Six) is an Indian English-language pay television sports channel operated by Culver Max Entertainment. It is part of the Sony Sports Network. History Sony SIX was launched in April 2012 by Sony Pictures Networ ...

channels as Sony Pictures Sports Network, with the TEN channels rebranded as Sony TEN. The channels were then rebranded as Sony Sports Network in October 2022, with all five channels now carrying the "Sony Sports Ten " prefix.

History

In January 2001, Taj Television Ltd. was formed in

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

with

as a backer. Bukhatir had various business interests and was known for transforming

Sharjah Sharjah (; ar, ٱلشَّارقَة ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi, forming part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. Sharjah is the capital o ...

as a major international cricket venue. The company launched the channel as TEN Sports (as part of its Taj Entertainment Network) on 1 April 2002. As of March 2004, the company was headed by Chris McDonald as CEO and had 100 employees. In June 2005, Zee Telefilms Limited launched Zee Sports, reportedly India's first private sports channel.

Zee Telefilms Essel Group, (also known as Zee Group) is an Indian multinational conglomerate holding company and corporate promoter headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The company has had business interests in mass media, infrastructure and pac ...

acquired a 50% stake in TEN Sports for 800

crore A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is e ...

rupees Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...

(₹) in 2006, and eventually acquired the remainder of its Indian operations in 2010. The sale did not include its Pakistani operations, which were retained by Essel Group via the subsidiary Tower Sports. In 2010, Zee rebranded Zee Sports as Ten Action which featured adventure sports and non-cricket content. In 2011 Zee launched a new channel called Ten Cricket, exclusively for cricket matches. In March 2016, all channels in the Zee network were rebranded as Ten 1, Ten 2, and Ten 3 respectively. Sony TEN logo new

In August 2016,

announced its intent to acquire Zee's sports networks for US$385 million; the first phase of the sale, which included equity stakes in the holding companies Taj Television (India) Pvt. Ltd. and part of Taj TV Limited Mauritius, was completed in February 2017 for US$350 million. On 18 July 2017, all of Sony's sports channels in India were rebranded as Sony TEN, and high-definition feeds of Sony TEN 2 and 3 were also launched. The remainder of the sale was completed in September 2017. The networks, along with new sisters

and

, were branded under the umbrella name Sony Pictures Sports Network, and began to phase in a rebranding as Sony Sports in 2020. Sony ESPN was shut down on 30 March 2020. In June 2021, Sony launched Sony TEN 4, which broadcasts in the

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

languages. Actor

Rana Daggubati Ramanaidu "Rana" Daggubati (; born 14 December 1984) is an Indian actor and producer known primarily for his work in Telugu language films, in addition to Hindi and Tamil languages. Rana is described as one of the few actors in India who were ...

served as a promotional ambassador for the network's launch. On 24 October 2022, the Sony Pictures Sports Network was rebranded as Sony Sports Network, as part of a wider rebranding of all Culver Max Entertainment channels under versions of the global Sony television branding. Its channels were likewise rebranded under the new prefix "Sony Sports Ten", and Sony Six was brought under the Ten branding for the first time as Sony Sports Ten 5.

Programming

In 2019, SPN renewed its agreement with the

Ultimate Fighting Championship The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...

for Sony TEN 2 and SonyLIV, through 2023.

WWE programming

Sony Sports is the Indian rightsholder to

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

programs, under a contract dating back to 2002 and its establishment as TEN Sports, and most recently renewed in 2020 under a five-year deal. The current agreement covers its weekly programs ''

Raw Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...

'', '' SmackDown'', and ''

NXT NXT may refer to: Professional wrestling * '' WWE NXT'', a professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that began in 2010 ** NXT (WWE brand), WWE's Florida-based brand and former developmental territory * '' NXT UK'', the British spi ...

'', WWE Network content on SPN's streaming service SonyLIV, and includes a commitment to hold "even bigger live events" in the country. In 2017, SPN and WWE began producing a

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

-language program ''WWE Sunday Dhamaal'', which airs on

Sony Max Sony Max (known popularly as Set Max) is an Indian pay television entertainment channel which is a sister channel to Sony Entertainment Television, operated by Culver Max Entertainment. The channel started broadcasting on 20 July 1999 and is a ...

, and features recaps of ''Raw'' and ''Smackdown'', as well as interviews and interactive features. In January 2021, WWE produced a two-hour special event specifically for the Indian market,

Superstar Spectacle WWE Superstar Spectacle was a professional wrestling television special and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It featured wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and NXT brand divisions. The event was taped on January 22, 2021, and aire ...

, to coincide with Republic Day, which featured matches showcasing current and developmental WWE talent of Indian heritage, and was simulcast with English and Hindi commentary across Sony TEN and Sony Max. WWE has considered India to be one its largest international markets; in 2019, WWE's Senior Director of Talent Development

Canyon Ceman Canyon Ceman (born June 29, 1972) is a former beach volleyball player. He won the silver medal at the 1997 World Championships in Los Angeles, California, partnering Mike Whitmarsh. He was most recently the Senior Director of Talent Development ...

stated that that ''Raw'' and ''SmackDown'' had an average of 50 million viewers weekly on SPN.

Channels

Sony Sports Ten 1

An English-language channel that broadcasts events from the World Athletics Championships,

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

and Sukma Games. Its programming schedule also consists on live coverage of tennis, rally, horse racing, beach volleyball events and basketball. ''

WWE Raw ''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television show, television program produced by WWE that currently airs live every Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time Zone, ET on the USA Networ ...

'' and ''SmackDown'' are currently broadcast live weekly, along with ''

'', ''

Main Event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

'', ''Sunday Dhamaal'' and all premium live events.

Sony Sports Ten 2

An English-language channel that broadcasts football matches from European football leagues such as

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

of Germany and

MMA Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorp ...

promotion

(UFC) in English.

Sony Sports Ten 3

A Hindi-language channel that airs cricket matches from the

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

cricket boards. It also broadcasts football matches. Sony Ten 3 and Sony Ten 3 HD broadcasts UFC matches in SD and HD format respectively in Hindi language.It also broadcasts WWE with Hindi commentary.

Sony Sports Ten 4

and

-language channel launched on 1 June 2021.It broadcasts WWE in Tamil and Telugu commentary.

Sony Sports Ten 5

An English-language channel originally launched as Sony Six in April 2012, prior to the acquisition of TEN. It has historically featured international cricket.

Former channels

Sony ESPN

Sony KIX Sony ESPN was an Indian pay television sports channel which was a joint venture between ESPN Inc. and Sony Pictures Networks India. The channel targeted the Indian subcontinent including India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It was part of t ...

was launched on 8 April 2015 by what is now Sony Pictures Networks India, it was the second sports television channel launched by the company after

. The channel was rebranded as Sony ESPN on 17 January 2016. Sony_ESPN_logo

Sony and ESPN would partner together on website and app efforts, with ESPN providing and producing content such as

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

motorsport Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two ...

along with other events. Sony Six and Sony ESPN, which were launched before Sony's purchase of Ten, effectively became part of the group when the acquisition was completed. Sony ESPN was shut down on 31 March 2020.

Sony Ten Golf

It was an HD, golf-focused channel launched on 7 October 2015. It had the broadcasting rights to the European Tour,

Asian Tour The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan, which has its own Japan Golf Tour, which is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Official money events on the tour count for Wor ...

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...

, LPGA Tour,

Royal Trophy The Royal Trophy was a men's professional team golf tournament which was played between 2006 and 2013. The competing teams represented Europe and Asia. Eight man teams played a series of 16 matches involving foursomes, four-ball and singles for the ...

US PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's Men's major golf champ ...

Senior PGA Championship The Senior PGA Championship, established in 1937, is the oldest of the five major championships in men's senior golf. It is administered by the Professional Golfers' Association of America and is recognized as a major championship by both PGA ...

Professional Golf Tour of India The Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Tata Steel Professional Golf Tour of India, is a professional golf tour for men based in India. The tour was formed in 2006, as the successor to the Indian ...

, and

Ladies European Tour The Ladies European Tour is a professional golf tour for women which was founded in 1978. It is based at Buckinghamshire Golf Club near London in England. Like many UK-based sports organisations it is a company limited by guarantee, a legal stru ...

. The channel was closed on 31 December 2018.

Programming rights

Tennis

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

* US Open *

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

Cricket

* International Cricket in England - Till 2028 *

Big Bash League The Big Bash League (known as the KFC Big Bash League for sponsorship reasons, often abbreviated to BBL or Big Bash) is an Australian professional club Twenty20 cricket league, which was established in 2011 by Cricket Australia. The Big Bash Le ...

, 2017-18 to 2022-23 * International cricket in Australia 2017-18 to 2022-23 * International cricket in Sri Lanka 2020-23 *

International cricket in Pakistan The history of cricket in Pakistan predates the creation of the country in 1947. The first international cricket match in what is now Pakistan today was held in Karachi on 22 November 1935 between Sindh and Australia (see Figure 1). The match w ...

2021-23 *

Pakistan Super League The Pakistan Super League (PSL) is a professional Twenty20 cricket league contested during February and March of every year by six teams representing six cities of Pakistan. The league was founded on 9 September 2015 with five teams by the Paki ...

2021-23 * India's Tour of Bangladesh 2022 * Lanka Premier League

Football

National teams

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

* UEFA European Championship qualifying *

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

* International friendlies -

Clubs

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

* UEFA Conference League *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was originall ...

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

FA Community Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier Le ...

Mixed martial arts

UFC The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...

Professional wrestling

Volleyball

Prime Volleyball League Prime Volleyball League (PVL), also known as RuPay Prime Volleyball League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional men's Volleyball, indoor volleyball league in India. The inaugural season took place in February 2022. The league is an initia ...

Footnotes

References

{{Sony Television channels and stations established in 2002 Television stations in Mumbai Sony Pictures Networks India 2017 mergers and acquisitions 2002 establishments in Maharashtra