ITV

Category: Sports

  • IPL 13 grows and grabs television viewership

    IPL 13 grows and grabs television viewership

    BENGALURU: Live telecast of the Indian Premier League (IPL) must seem an abomination for competitors’ networks. Year in and year out, the period during which the cricketing bonanza is played, all genres and competing sports networks have seen viewership numbers dip as Indians tuned into the channels of the network that aired the event live – the network being Star India in this edition of IPL or IPL 2020 or IPL13 as it is known. The Covid2019 pandemic delayed IPL by around five to six months. In a normal year, IPL commences around the end of March or at the beginning of April every year and runs for about six weeks or so. The event this year clashes with flagship programmes such as the twelfth season of Hindi Kaun Banega Crorepati hosted by Bollywood doyen Amitabh Bachchan and with the initial weeks of the Salman Khan hosted fourteenth edition of the Hindi Bigg Boss. This paper comes with a caveat – the conclusions in it are based on BARC weekly data of the top 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 channels/programmes of various genres in different languages/platfroms in the public domain.

    Week 38 of 2020 (Saturday,19 September 2020 to Friday, 25 September 2020, week or period under review) saw television viewership climb 2.4 percent to 17.0 billion weekly impressions from 16.5 billion weekly impressions reported for the previous week according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data published in the public domain. Viewership in week 38 of 2020 was 15.1 percent higher than the pre-Covid2019 average of 14.77 billion weekly impressions. Ratings watchdogs BARC and Nielsen have standardized the average data for weeks 02 and 04 2020 as the pre-Covid2019 average. As is obvious from the figure below, television viewership had started declining from week 34 of 2020. IPL 13 week saw viewership growth. 

    BARC weekly list of the Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across genres saw Star Sports 1 Hindi catupult into it, and that too at rank 1.  Though the combined ratings of the Top 10 Channels in this list grew 5.8 percent to 8,322.475 billion weekly impressions in week 38 of 2020 from 7,863.577 billion weekly impressions in the previous week, seven of the channels in the list saw a decline in viewership. Two channels exited the list in week 38 of 2020. Star Sports 1 Hindi entered the list as mentioned above at rank 1 with 1,247.407 billion weekly impressions. It must be noted that Star India is airing IPL 13 on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 HD, Star Sports 2, Star Sports 2 HD, Star Sports 1 Hindi and Star Sports 1 Hindi HD TV channels as well as live streaming on the Disney+ Hotstar digital platform.

    Read more news on IPL

    Analysis of BARC data in the public domain of the top 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 channels of various genres in different languages/platfroms for week 38 of 2020 reveals that the top channale of all major genres such as GECs’, news, movies and kids saw ratings dip. According to BARC-Nielsen reports these four genres garnered around 90 percent of television viewership. BARC data shows that combined impressions data for the Top 5 Sports channels grew 8.6 times to 1,734.956 billion weekly impressions in week 38 of 2020 from 201.549 billion weekly impressions in the previous week. It is quite obvious that the sports genre has helped television viewership grow, while at the same time has eaten into viewership of other genres/sub-genres across platforms – be they pay or free or combined free and pay.

    Top 10 Channels on All Platforms, Pay Platform and Free Platform Across Genres

    The Star India Network pulled viewership eyeballs with five channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Plaform Across Genres in week 38 of 2020. There were two channels from Sony Pictures Network (SPN) and one channel each from Enterr10 Television, Sun Tv Network and Zee Entertainment Enterrpises Limited (Zeel) besides those of Star India in the top 10 weekly list for the week under review.Two channels, Viacom18’s Hindi GEC Colors Rishtey and Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV exited the list and were replaced by Star Sports 1 Hindi and Star India’s flagship Tamil GEC Star Vijay. There were six Hindi GEC channels, two Tamil channels and one channel each from the sports and the Telugu genres in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres.

    BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres also was dominated by Star India channels – there were four of them. Besides, there were 3 channels from Zeel and one channel each from SPN, Sun Tv Network and Viacom18. While the combined weekly impressions of the Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres increased 10 percent to 7,285.986 billion weekly impressions in week 38 of 2020 from 6,624.357 billion weekly impressions in week 37 of 2020, five of the channels saw week-on-week (w-o-w) decline in weekly impressions. One channel – Star India’s flagship Bangla channel Star Jalsha exited the list in week 38 of 2020 and was replaced by Star Sports 1 Hindi. There were four Hindi GECs’, three Tamil channels, two Telugu channels and one Sports channel in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay channels Across Genres.

    BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 38 of 2020 had the same line up of channels in the same order as in the previous week. However, the combined weekly impressions of the 10 channels in week 38 of 2020 declined 1.5 per cent to 3,535.728 billion weekly impressions from 3,588.256 billion weekly impressions in week 37. Six of the channels in the list saw viewership decline, while four saw viewership increase. Six of the channels were Hindi GECs’ while four were Hindi Movies channels. There were three channels from Zeel, two channels from Viacom18, and one channel each from B4U Network, Enterr10 Television, Goldmine Telefilms, Star India and SPN in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 38 of 2020.

    Please refer to the chart below:

  • 200 million tuned in to watch the opening match of IPL: Jay Shah, BCCI

    200 million tuned in to watch the opening match of IPL: Jay Shah, BCCI

    Season 13 of the Indian Premier League has opened to a grand start with millions of audiences across the world watching it on their television and mobile screens. It is one of the biggest live sports events that is happening after a gap of nearly six months. The matches are played in UAE.

    Star India is the official broadcaster for the tournament and its live feed is available in multiple languages. On the other hand, the network is streaming the matches live on its OTT platform Disney+Hotstar.

    The tournament kickstarted on 19 September and the first match was played between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.

    BCCI secretary in a tweet quoted the Broadcast Audience Research Council and mentioned that an unprecedented 200 million people tuned in to watch the match.

    Shah further went on to claims that it is the highest ever opening day viewership for any sporting league in any country- no league has ever opened as big as this.

     

     

    His claim was further acknowledged by Star Sports in its retweet where they mentioned the same number and claimed it as a record.  

    However, there is no official communication from BARC on this data until the filing of this story.

    In 2019, the reach for the tournament across TV and digital was 462 million. 

  • Star Sports brings back the excitement in MI vs CSK IPL 2020 opener

    Star Sports brings back the excitement in MI vs CSK IPL 2020 opener

    MUMBAI: It promised a lot, and it did deliver. The Star Sports broadcast of the inaugural match of the IPL 2020 at the Sheikh Zayed stadium in Abu Dhabi between arch rivals Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) served all the dishes that make for a delightful platter. Thankfully, there was no gaudy, boring opening ceremony. The focus was on the sport. The venue, well it looked, perfectly fit for cricket with a green carpet on the ground. The sport too lived up to its potential. At least for the viewer at home on his Disney + Hotstar service or on their Star Sports channels.

    A rusty looking MI side muffed many a chance on the field and let a fitter looking –though having more retired players – Chennai Super Kings romp home with enough balls to spare in the twentieth over. The Rohit Sharma-led team began like they have done in many a previous IPL – losing their inaugural game. Their sloppiness in the field aided by rather inexplicable field placings, Jasprit Bumrah’s inability to bowl the yorker which he is renowned for and a collapse by most of the batters helped ease CSK’s passage to victory

    Of course one has to hand it to Mahinder Singh Dhoni’s captaincy while making his bowling changes and field placements. Piyush Chawla’s audacious spinning spell which tied the MI batsmen in knots, deserve a mention. The fielding was sharp and catches the Chennai Super Kings held their catches. The ball seemed to chase Faff du Plessis in the outfield who accepted two mishits by the Mumbai Indian batsmen and one strike near the ropes, which he lobbed back on the playing field to catch.

    On the batting front there was the reborn Ambati Rayaduand supportive Faff du Plessis, who helped stabilize the CSK innings – after two of its batters Shane Watson and Murli Vijay – departed cheaply. Once he got his eye in, Rayadu thumped the ball all around – and over – the ground – hitting three maximums – and scoring a brisk 71. Du Plessis was steady as she goes accumulating runs at regular intervals, and then came Sam Curran with his hurricane six ball 18, just when the match seemed to be getting a tad tight for the CSKs.

    Sharma and his men appeared to be helpless bystanders and just watched the ball going past them to and over the boundary or for doubles and triples. CSK’s victory broke its five match losing streak against the MI.

    Sharma, on his part, has to go back to the planning board, after what can be best described as a pedestrian performance by his team against an older side. He himself needs to hit the treadmill as his waist line showed. More of the top order need to get amongst the runs, the fielding needs to be polished, and the bowlers need to get more time at the nets, turning their arm over with the evening-dew-laden slippery ball.

    The lack of stadium attendees – while we wanted to see a sea of faces painted, smiling, energized, disappointed, praying fervently – was felt, but only marginally. For players on the field, many found it strange and they expressed it as such, without the constant roar of the tens of thousands of cricket lovers. But in this age of Covid2019, sport has to be revived without fans in the stands, life has to go on with social distancing to prevent the SarsCov2 virus from finding more victims. Dhoni expressed this best when called on during the post-match presentation. He nearly walked up to the presenter but was told to step back, reminding him of the two-metre distancing rule that needs to be maintained. Dhoni was apologetic but expressed that it felt strange, different to be doing so.

    On television and OTT, Star Sports used some tricks, like canned audience roars, screams and yells, fans and sponsors representatives popping up on giant sized screens placed in the stadium from their homes. As did videos of the cheerleaders doing their routine during exciting moments of the match, Then the Disney Star India fans too shared their Instagram reels – short video clips by fans commenting on cricket, the IPL and their experiences while watching at home. The commentators of course added to the excitement by being higher pitched than they are prone to be so early on in the tournament.

    Around seven million viewers on Disney + Hotstar at peak is a good number, considering the streaming service has put the IPL telecast behind a pay wall. The adverts on it and on Star’s channels were a-plenty, whether TVCs or banners or offers popping up. Of course that means good revenues. That should come as good news for the TV broadcast industry – which like many other sectors – is struggling with a poor five-month period of clamped up ad spends.

    And it’s good tidings for sports and for cricket buffs, who number hundreds of millions in India. As Dhoni said during the pos- match presentation: “It’s great that cricket is back after so long. For us and for the devotees. It takes a lot for those behind the scenes. We can be critical. But it takes a gigantic effort to put it all together. A big thank you to all them.”

    Indeed. Cricket and IPL fans echo his sentiment.

    (Today’s match between Delhi Capitals and Kings Xi Punjab at 7:30 promises to be another cracker.)

  • Leveraging the power of IPL with limited outlays

    Leveraging the power of IPL with limited outlays

    MUMBAI: Newspapers and online news media have been flashing headlines how this company or that brand has invested huge outlays to get associated with the Dream11 Indian Premier League (IPL) as a sponsor. These numbers could cue that the IPL is out of bounds for in brand managers in mid-sized and smaller companies or firms with limited budgets and lower amounts to spend on a high impact event like the IPL and possibly kept them from considering it as a property to be associated with.

    But, wait, the IPL is not a big spender’s game alone. As we analyse some campaigns and advertisers from previous editions we see that brands have chosen smaller outlay routes in line with their budgets, campaign timings and business agendas. For instance, brands can associate with the IPL for less than 10 matches – rather than all the 56 matches. Then, there is the option of tying up for the live programming before and after each clash, featuring sports specialists and cricketing experts who dissect the upcoming game as well as the result of the just concluded one.

    Experts opine that many a brand has opted for one of the two and hit their sales out of the park just like Pollard wallops many a bowler mercilessly for those deep sixes.

    Read more news on IPL 2020

    Take for example, Grofers.

    In 2019, online grocery ecommerce platform Grofers went in for a burst of sharp advertising for a limited time period. It aired its commercials for as little as a week during the IPL matches between 31 March 2019 and 7 April 2019. The reason: research had pointed out that family habits had evolved and they were shopping for the entire month in bulk in the first seven days. So, it was looking at opportunities to make Grofers the first port of call for this activity. It partnered with banks and credit card companies and announced its Houseful Sale offering discounts on purchases with specific plastic brands.

    The net outcome: searches on the market place surged 2.2x times at peak on 5 April and averaged a 50 per cent hike for the entire duration of the TVC.

    Grofers vice-president marketing Prashant Verma was delighted with the results. Said he: “Advertising during the IPL elevated the impact of our campaign and we saw great results on both brand and business metrics – in terms of organic reach, brand lift on consideration, growth in order volumes, and new user acquisition.”

    Cricket legend MS Dhoni has been associated with consumer electricals company Orient Electric as its brand ambassador. The CK Birla group outfit, which is known for its exotic fans, has also been a partner of the Chennai Super Kings team for several seasons now.

    It opted for the IPL’s team package and through it found a way to target audiences and followers of CSK matches and was able to build the association of Orient MS Dhnoi and CSK.

    It strewed its commercials featuring Dhoni in all programming related to the IPL and team CSK. And it worked wonders. According to BARC data, the brand’s reach not only increased in the urban markets in the 22-50 age group, – which was the brand custodian’s objective – but its business grew at a scorching 30 per cent in revenues – double its competitor’s ramp ups.

    Brands also have the option to choose feature properties, like the Orange Cap, the super sixes, or the fours, or the fall of wickets, or super catches. Just like, TooYumm – the healthy snacking brand from the RPG-Sanjiv Goenka group stable – did by becoming the fall of wickets partner and resorted to moment marketing successfully. You can find out more about what it did and the results it got by reading How Too Yum hit a Six with the IPL.

    For advertisers it’s a win-win all the way. Even as the outlays are smaller as they are for a limited quota of matches, they manage to get amassive bang in terms of impact intheir limited spots.

    BARC data highlights this.

    The reach for the first 10 matches varied between 345 million and 241 million in 2019’s IPL (U+R 2+). As compared to this, a top rated GEC show during the festive season generated a reach of 185 million on the higher side.

    The ad breaks during the IPL cricket matches are usually less than a minute long and do not show more than three to four ads at once, while in a general entertainment channel, the ad breaks are of five minutes duration with 14-25 ads in them, so the clutter is much higher. Also, due to the longer ad break duration attention (eyes on screen during ad break) in IPL is high – up to two times than in GEC breaks. 

    So with an imaginative and attention-grabbing creative and campaign, advertisers can but be sure that they will get a return for their hard earned buck.

    According to Group M entertainment and sports head Vinit Karnik the festival called IPL offers innovative ideas and smaller packages that the broadcaster’s sales team churns up. “Brands are willing to explore these opportunities and will find reasons to associate with them. In these Covid times, the Indian Premier League has become that little cheer which we will watch in our living rooms,” he says.

    Clearly, that’s a thought to ponder upon.

  • Star signs Daily Hunt as an associate sponsor for IPL

    Star signs Daily Hunt as an associate sponsor for IPL

    NEW DELHI- Star Sports, theofficial broadcaster of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2020), has signed a partnership with Daily Hunt as an associate sponsor. A close source confirmed the development to Indiantelevision.com. The brand aims to maximise its reach via advertising on IPL 2020.

    The local language content discovery platform recently launched a short-video app ‘Josh’. As per reports, the IPL broadcast sponsorship will be used to promote the new launch.

    Announcing the official launch on Wednesday, Dailyhunt said gaining phenomenal traction through the beta phase, Josh is Dailyhunt’s tribute to Bharat, celebrating its creative beauty and diversity. “In the last 45 days of its beta launch, Josh numbers have exploded: 200+ A-rated exclusive creators, 4 mega music labels, 50+ million downloads, 1+ billion video plays per day, 23+ million daily active users (DAUs), 21+ minutes time spent per DAU, and over 5 million User Generated Content (UGC) content creators,” the platform claimed.  

    Star Sports already has signed up with brands like PolyCab, ITC, Coca Cola, Rummy Circle, AMFI, P&G, Kamla Pasand as associate on-air sponsors in the category. DailyHunt will be the 11th brand in the associate sponsorship category. 

    Other than this Star Sports will have Dream11, Phone Pe, Amazon, and Byju’s as Co-presenting sponsors of the league in IPL 2020.

  • Sony Pictures Sports Network showcases the first Championship Belts wins of WWE Legends and Superstars with ‘Birth of a Champion’

    Sony Pictures Sports Network showcases the first Championship Belts wins of WWE Legends and Superstars with ‘Birth of a Champion’

    Sony Pictures Sports Network (SPSN), the exclusive destination for all WWE action in India and home to some of the best international sporting action in the world, is all set to showcase “Birth of a Champion” during their primetime programming band, ‘WWE Blockbusters @ 8pm’, exclusively on SONY TEN 1 and SONY TEN 3 channels for the month of September.  

    ‘Birth of a Champion’ captures the special moment when WWE Legends and current superstars won the WWE World Championship belt for the first time ever in their careers, presaging the arrival of greatness. During the month of September, fans can revisit and celebrate the first moment of greatness of an ensemble list of legends and superstars like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Brock Lesner, John Cena, Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy and AJ Styles among others.

    Watch WWE ‘Birth of a Champion’ every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 8.00 pm only on SONY TEN 1 (English) & SONY TEN 3 (Hindi) channels

    Date

    Superstar

    Event

    Channels

    09.09.2020

    Chris Jericho

    Vengeance 2001

    SONY TEN 1 & SONY TEN 3

    11.09.2020

    The Rock

    Survivor Series 1998

    SONY TEN 1

    13.09.2020

    Kurt Angle

    No Mercy 2000

    SONY TEN 1

    14.09.2020

    Brock Lesnar

    SummerSlam 2002

    SONY TEN 1 & SONY TEN 3

    16.09.2020

    Eddie Guerrero

    No Way Out 2004

    SONY TEN 1

    18.09.2020

    Randy Orton

    SummerSlam 2004

    SONY TEN 1 & SONY TEN 3

    20.09.2020

    John Cena

    Wrestlemania 21

    SONY TEN 1 & SONY TEN 3

    25.09.2020

    Rey Mysterio

    Wrestlemania 22

    SONY TEN 1

    27.09.2020

    Daniel Bryan

    Wrestlemania 30

    SONY TEN 1

    28.09.2020

    Jeff Hardy

    Armageddon 2008

    SONY TEN 1 

    30.09.2020

    AJ Styles

    Backlash 2016

    SONY TEN 1 & SONY TEN 3

     

  • SPSN’s campaign ignites the discourse of real and fake cricket fans

    SPSN’s campaign ignites the discourse of real and fake cricket fans

    Sony Pictures Sports Networks (SPSN) is running a campaign to promote the ongoing Australia tour of England. The campaign “Asli Fans ke Liye” (for real fans) sparks the age-old funny debate of real fans versus fake fans.

    As the cricket frenzy nation missed the action for the last four to five months, SPSN is embracing the excitement of the live sports not only through the campaign but with a contest. The ‘ Asli cricket fan’ contest is a fun banter between “Asli cricket fan” and “Naklicricket fan”. Sony Pictures Networks India sports channels marketing and on-air promotions head Neville Bastawalla elaborates more on the campaign.

    Talking about the ideation of the campaign, he reminds us of the cliched truth that observation is the key to any creative process. According to him, SPSN’s marketing team relies heavily on a combination of observations and deep-rooted consumer insights.

    He spoke about a commonplace incident which also helped to form this campaign. While there are discussions on sport in almost every office each morning, many of the group members do not actually watch the matches. Rather, they check online updates in the fear of missing out. This sharp insight has been married with SPSN’s old conviction “love for cricket knows no boundaries.”

    “If you scan an office environment, you will see there are die-hard fans of every sport especially cricket fans in India who watch ball-by-ball play of every match. We wanted to create a provocative communication which would hit the heart of cricket fans, especially the fake fans who don’t watch but only follow updates on non-India cricket,” Bastawalla says.

    The campaign’s core bull’s eye is 25-40 age group which is consuming content across Sony Picture Network India’s channels and digital platforms. While one of the films has been shot during this crisis period, he adds that they had taken additional steps along with implementing the SOPs.

    He also notes that it is very rare for any broadcaster to go for Hindi commentary on international non-India cricket, SPSN is doing so for this series. He also adds that twelve brands have already come on board including Dream 11, My 11 circles, HDFC Life, Maruti Suzuki, Skoda, Dafa News.

    “To be honest, I am not seeing any change. We are just being true to the consumers. As a marketeer, my job is to get consumers to watch my content. Everybody is trying to win the heart of consumers,” he comments on post-Covid communication.

  • Star Sports adds two more IPL associate sponsors

    Star Sports adds two more IPL associate sponsors

    Mumbai: The latest promo for the IPL by Star Sports features members of a building society felicitating their security guard Alok who has been single handedly serving them during the pandemic lockdown period. A heart-warming and touching film.

    The promo has also revealed another two associate sponsors’s Association of Mutual Funds of India (Mutal Funds sahi hai) and Gillette Guard 3 – to add to the earlier ones that had been displayed in the sponsorship plate of the first IPL film.

    To recollect: the co-presenting sponsors are Dream 11, online shopping major Amazon, digital payments company, and edutech unicorn Byju’s.

    The previously announced associate sponsors include: Cadbury Dairy Milk, Sunfeast, Coca-Cola, Polycab, Rummycircle, Kamla Pasand Masala and McDowell’s.

    That takes the total number of broadcast sponsors on board the IPL at 13.

    Experts expect Star Sports to touch last year’s sponsorship levels which is about Rs 2,200-2,400 crore, by the time the league ends in the UAE on 10 November.

  • Star Sports reveals IPL 2020 sponsors in promo

    Star Sports reveals IPL 2020 sponsors in promo

    Mumbai: The Disney Star India (read: Star Sports sales) team seems to have done it again: breasted the broadcast sponsorship tape for the IPL 2020 in good time, even as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has yet to close many of its deals.

    The roster of sponsors, which was revealed in the first IPL promo look pretty healthy, clearly showing the confidence that brands have in the success of the tournament which is slated to flag off on 19 September in the Dubai International Sports Stadium in the UAE.

    It’s digital first brands, as expected and predicted, that have come on board as co-presenting broadcast sponsors. This includes fantasy sports app Dream 11, online shopping major Amazon, digital payments company PhonePe, and edutech unicorn Byju’s.

    Amongst the associate sponsors figure some old sports backers and some new ones: Cadbury Dairy Milk, Sunfeast, Coca-Cola, Polycab, Rummycircle, Kamla Pasand Masala and  McDowell’s.

    For this year, Star Sports claims to have already sold out 75 per cent of the IPL inventory. There are over 60 advertisers, including FMCG, auto, BFSI, online shopping, edutech, and other new-age brands, for spot buys, PPL shows, and features. Some of the brands in this list include Coca Cola, ITC, Mondelez, P&G, Nestle, Colgate, Britannia, GSK, and Reckitt. Star has also indicated that the number of advertisers and the amount of ad spends is higher than the usual. The network claims to have witnessed heavy demand from brands as Dream11 IPL cuts across gender and ages

    The broadcaster reveals that brands from BFSI categories have shown great interest in this season of Dream11 IPL. They are seeing it as a unique combination of festive and a high impact opportunity to engage and influence consumers whose buying behaviour has been disrupted.

    On the programming front, Star Sports has increased its content for pre-shows thus making more inventories available for this popular asset for brands that want to participate in this high impact property during the festive season.

    IPL is the biggest live sporting event happening in the subcontinent after a hiatus of nearly five months. People are keenly awaiting the tournament to begin. It is expected that the viewership of the game will be higher as audiences have sorely missed live sports. As per BARC, currently, TV consumption is higher over pre-Covid2019 times as people are restricted to their homes. The matches, this year start at 7:30 pm and will increase audience availability by more than 20 per cent, as per BARC.

    Over the years, the league has been regarded as the biggest platform reach and engagement for brands as it has continued to set viewership records across demographics year-on-year. The twelfth edition of the league witnessed 613 million viewers (consolidated + PPL + Surround). The broadcaster will continue with its focus on regional channels. IPL 2019 also saw some record-breaking numbers through women viewership. Nearly 175 million women viewers aged 15 years and above watched Vivo IPL across India between 23 March and 12 May 2019. As per the data from the broadcaster, the top 50 shows among women include cricket and IPL dominates primetime with 3.5 per cent leadership margin.

  • Premier League & its growing band of Indian followers

    Premier League & its growing band of Indian followers

    MUMBAI: If there’s one sport that unites people all over the world, it is football. Cricket maybe a religion in India, but football is life for billions of fans in every nation. When a Neymar changes teams for $260 million, as many – if not more – weep or rejoice. India too has its legions of football lovers: Estimates are that 283 million of them viewed football in 2018-19. The Premier League remains by far the most watched and supported football league with an awareness level of 79 per cent amongst soccer fans, according to  a  Brand Finance research report. The league itself has estimated that 155 million Indians track it, its teams and the players throughout the year, religiously. In the 2018-2019 season, 30 million actively watched the Premier League. 

    Run by the UK’s Football Association, the 28-year-old league is available in 643 million homes in 212 countries globally with a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion. 20 clubs each play 38 matches against each other (at home and away) on Saturdays and Sundays in the afternoon.

    In 2017, the league roped in Gully Boy Ranveer Singh- who is also a keen Arsenal follower – as its official brand ambassador for India, thus broadening its appeal within the country. 

    The typical Premier League enthusiast is a new millennial, affluent, someone who wears either Levis or Killer jeans or a  Zara T-shirt, goes on a  holiday in India at least a couple of times a year, uses personal transport,  orders from an e-commerce platform at least once a month,  and is located in the metros and mainline cities. He meticulously follows the game scores, is tech savvy, tweets and posts about the game on social media. Women also seem to have developed a fancy for the Premier League  as they comprise a sizeable 30 per cent of the fan base.

    The Premier League mania is so strong that official clubs have sprouted up nationwide in almost every metro supporting the top teams: Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, and Tottenham Spurs. These clubs have affiliations with the mother clubs in the UK and have a presence in almost every metro and major city in India. Memberships run into 500 plus in almost each city, making for a massive fan base. 

    31-year old Mayur Bhosale is a Chelsea fan and also the marketing head of the team’s official fan club in India.  “For me football is my life. I am so looking forward to the next season of the Premier League. This time the gap between the previous season and this one has been short, which is good.”

    MAYUR  BHOSALE (SECOND FROM LEFT):A DIEHARD CHELSEA FAN

    Mayur’s day job is as a chief engineer with one of Airtel’s data centres in Pune. But the nights are devoted to football. “I watch every match – even when the kick-off is late at night 12:30 and ending at 2:30 am. I will wake up the next morning and head to my meeting weary in body but fresh in spirit.” 

    Tony George, who works in a pharma company, is the chairman of the Arsenal India Supporters Club, Kerala chapter. “We have been following the Premier League for the past 19 years and especially Arsenal. We are expecting the team to do better this year, with new signings.” 
     
    In fact, the supporters’ clubs normally have screenings when the matches are on, with 50-200 members gathering in a club, and making merry while watching the furiously-paced game on a large screen.  Brands such as Budweiser, Kingfisher and Heineken have supported the get togethers in the past. Other brands which have been consistent partners  – especially  of the Manchester United Supporters Club – include: HCL, nutrition brands like ON and RiteBrite, Apollo Tyres and home grown beer brand White Owl. 

    “People come dressed in colours of their favourite team,” says Mayur. “They are tattooed and they cheer every forward’s move and defender’s success at intercepting a rival’s pass. We replicate what we believe is happening in the stadium. Budweiser is the partner for many of our initiatives and for us Budweiser is our favourite beer and  is equal to the Premier League.”

    According to him, most of the members of the fan clubs are either students or those who are newly into their professional careers.  “70-75 per cent of them are in that age group of 23-29 years,” he reveals. “25-30 per cent are above 30 like me.”

    With clubs being shut thanks to the pandemic,  fans have migrated to the virtual world. Mumbai-based Chelsea fan Andre Rodrigues says meetups have happened over Zoom  ever since the pandemic hit India.  “The Mumbai chapter has organised some Zoom meets for quizzes and discussions over the last few months. And we will continue to do so for the coming season as well during the matches as well.”

    Mayur adds that the Chelsea Fan Club has made five Zoom bridges bringing together 600-700 fans across cities, thus catching their reactions towards the action during the live matches and screenings in the past few months. ”We have done at least four or five these,” he says. “These probably are here to stay. Then we have our Whatsapp group, Instagram handles, and our Facebook pages where we constantly engage.”

    Disney Star India – the broadcast partner of the Premier League in India – organises large format match screenings for various team fans across cities under the brand Select FC. 

    Mayur, who loves his Jawa two-wheeler, wears Woodland or Adidas shoes, when he goes to screenings, remembers his experience fondly. “It was a fantastic vibe,” he says. “They gave us a few gifts, had quizzes, free beer coupons and the fact that we were all together egging our team on was memorable. For us, Premier League fans, it rules.”

    This access to young affluent and passionate fans of Premier League is wooing over marketers, media buyers and planners. The platform helps drive associative value for brands and categories which want to target this unique audience and are driving initiatives and association which help them dive right into the fan sentiment and integrate/embed themselves amidst this tribe and get the rub off and preference of this audience.

    PREMIER LEAGUE FANS GATHER FOR A SCREENING IN A CLUB

    For instance, Hero Motocorp associated with the Premier League broadcast on Star Sports last year in a Twitter contest towards the fag end of the tournament. Fans were asked to send their #HeroFanMoment with the hashtag #Raiseyourgame to support their respective teams.

    Net result: the contest generated 6.9 million impressions, with Star Sports reaching out to 2.59 million unique accounts. The original announcement of the contest alone generated 3.53 million impressions and 125,725 engagements, and took the initiative amongst the top 10 trends in India for an hour and a half on the short messaging engagement platform. 

    Then, lubricants major Gulf Oil is a votary of the Premier League, especially in the current circumstances.  According to the company’s CEO & managing director Ravi Chawla,  the English Premier League is one of the most awaited seasons for football enthusiasts. Amidst the gloom around Covid, these sporting events are bringing back much-needed excitement among the consumers. Although the fans may not be able to watch the action in the stadium, we feel that a combination of the digital adoption behaviour and aspiration to continue to see their favourite players on the field will keep the fans glued more than ever. Keeping with the enthusiasm, Gulf Oil released a global film #GulfGetMovingAgain with Manchester United illustrating a new world emerging post lockdown to communicate a strong message that – "The world may have changed but our dreams haven’t”. It garnered an engagement of 4.5 million plus Manchester United fans.”

    “…given that  EPL is an extended format, it will have relevant brand associations.  Brands are evaluating all opportunities very keenly right now,” expounds Havas Media India managing director Mohit Joshi. “The football fan base has only been increasing in India over the years and that is clear from the buzz around the sport. In this Covid year, viewers have been deprived of live sports. As a result, the season will do extremely well. More than viewership, it is the social buzz that one can already feel around it.”

    With that kind of positive sentiment, don’t be surprised if during this season, brands rain heavily on the Premier League, rather than just the just the normal summer showers.