Sports Illustrated to debut in India on Oct 5

New Delhi: The Indian edition of the American sports magazine, Sports Illustrated, will hit the stands on October 5 at a cover price of Rs 100.Founded in 1954, the Time Warner publication would be launched in India by Dennis Media Transasia (DMT) (a 50:50 joint venture between UK-based Dennis Media and India`s Media Transasia ) under a licensing agreement with the American media conglomerate.

"Sports Illustrated will be launched as a monthly with a print run of one lakh copies. It will provide in-depth analysis to readers across sports like golf, football, Formula One, horse racing, tennis and cricket," Dennis Media Transasia Publishing Director Richard Downey said. Sports Illustrated, which sells 3.2 million copies a week in the US, will compete with existing sports magazines like Sports Star and All Sports in India. Cricketers Sourav Ganguli, Mohammad Kaif and Farooq Engineer and golfer Shiv Kapur have been roped in to write columns for the magazine, Downey said. The magazine has earmarked Rs 50 lakh as marketing and promotion budget. "We will have TV commercials, web ads and a series of print ads running...We have earmarked Rs 50 lakh for this," Downey said. The company has also signed an exclusive distribution deal with Reebok for selling the magazine through its outlets, Downey said. DMT also publishes music magazine Blender and Maxim. Bureau Report