Category: Sports

Task Force being set up to study preparations for next three Olympiads

NEW DELHI: India sent its largest contingent to the Rio Olympics 2016, with even Sports Minister Vijay Goel being present there.

But clearly dismayed by the results, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced setting up a Task Force to prepare a comprehensive action plan for effective participation of Indian sports persons in the next three Olympic games 2020, 2024 and 2028.

In the announcement made at the meeting of the Council of Ministers, Modi said the Task Force will prepare overall strategy for sports facility, training, selection procedure and other related matters.
He said that the Task Force would be set up over the next few days.

The Task Force will comprise of members who are in house experts as well as those from outside.

August 27, 2016
Task Force being set up to study preparations for next three Olympiads

NEW DELHI: India sent its largest contingent to the Rio Olympics 2016, with even Sports Minister Vijay Goel being present there.

But clearly dismayed by the results, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced setting up a Task Force to prepare a comprehensive action plan for effective participation of Indian sports persons in the next three Olympic games 2020, 2024 and 2028.

In the announcement made at the meeting of the Council of Ministers, Modi said the Task Force will prepare overall strategy for sports facility, training, selection procedure and other related matters.
He said that the Task Force would be set up over the next few days.

The Task Force will comprise of members who are in house experts as well as those from outside.

August 27, 2016
SPN India supports India’ Paralympian’s for Rio 2016 paralympic games

MUMBAI: As a catalyst to the cause of empowering India’s sports talent, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) has partnered with the GoSports Foundation to identify and support Indian para-athletes across multiple Paralympic disciplines. The support covers high performance training, travel and competition needs, nutritional counselling, fitness and injury management, rehabilitation, physiotherapy and strength training.

The eleven Para Champions who will aspire to make India proud at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games are:

1) Devendra Jhajharia (Javelin Throw) – Paralympic Games Gold medalist, World Record Holder & Padmashree Awardee

2) Narender Ranbir (Javelin Throw) – Paralympian and Asian Para Games medalist

3) Amit Saroha (Club Throw) – Paralympian and Asian Para Games medalist

4) Suyash Jadhav (Swimming) – Only Indian Para swimmer to qualify for Rio 2016

5) Ankur Dhama (1500m) – Asian Para Games medalist

6) Varun Bhati (High Jump) – World No. 2

7) Rampal Chahar (High Jump) – World No. 6

8) Deepa Malik (Shot Put) – Asian Para Games medalist and Arjuna Awardee

9) Dharambir (Club Throw) – Qualified Paralympian at 2016 Athletics Grand Prix, Dubai

10) Pooja (Archery)- 2016 Para National Archery Championship medalist and World No. 5 at 2016 World Ranking Archery Tournament

11) Rinku (Javelin Throw) – Qualified Paralympian at 2016 IPC Athletics Grand Prix, Switzerland

Sony Pictures Networks India CEO NP Singh Said, “Sport is a terrific medium of empowerment and as responsible sports broadcasters; our long term vision is to improve the sports narrative in India. The para athlete’s achievements are incredible and humbling and we are happy to facilitate their ability to compete on the international stage. Sony Pictures Networks is proud to take up the social responsibility of empowering India’s talented sportspersons through such associations.”

SPN India CHRO Smriti K.Singh added, “ There is a dire need for support of differently-abled sports in India. It is largely through their own resilience that these athletes are creating a better quality of life for themselves and their families. While the will to excel is true of any sportsperson, the differently-abled are also fighting the social stigma associated with their disability. However, through sport, they have established that they are winners not just in their sport but also in life. We want to give life to their stories, as recognition for their efforts, inspiration to others and hopefully influence policy makers.”

GoSports executive director Deepthi Bopiah mnentioned, “Sony Pictures Networks is visionary in understanding the importance of developing sporting talent in India and within that, developing differently abled sports because of the larger challenges that these athletes face. It is a little known fact that India’s first Olympic gold medal in an individual sport, was actually won by one of our para athletes Devendra Jhajharia, an amputee, for Javelin throw and his world record is unbeaten even today. SPN’s support enables us to offer such athletes better sports facilities”.

SPN’S CSR Theme: Ek India Happywala is the CSR theme under the aegis of which SPN runs its CSR programme. Ek India Happywala focusses on creating a positive impact in our ecosystem and it built around the 3 pillars; empowerment, education and environment.

Factual Data about Disability in India:

• As per the Govt. census report of 2011, over 2.68 CR individuals in India suffer from disability. This accounts for 2.21% of the country’s population.

• These individuals face many challenges ranging from:

• Limited disabled friendly infrastructure and facilities

• In-equal treatment

• Social stigmas

• Reduced participation in society

• Low self-confidence / Inferiority complex & therefore an overall unsatisfactory quality of life

August 24, 2016
SPN India supports India’ Paralympian’s for Rio 2016 paralympic games

MUMBAI: As a catalyst to the cause of empowering India’s sports talent, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) has partnered with the GoSports Foundation to identify and support Indian para-athletes across multiple Paralympic disciplines. The support covers high performance training, travel and competition needs, nutritional counselling, fitness and injury management, rehabilitation, physiotherapy and strength training.

The eleven Para Champions who will aspire to make India proud at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games are:

1) Devendra Jhajharia (Javelin Throw) – Paralympic Games Gold medalist, World Record Holder & Padmashree Awardee

2) Narender Ranbir (Javelin Throw) – Paralympian and Asian Para Games medalist

3) Amit Saroha (Club Throw) – Paralympian and Asian Para Games medalist

4) Suyash Jadhav (Swimming) – Only Indian Para swimmer to qualify for Rio 2016

5) Ankur Dhama (1500m) – Asian Para Games medalist

6) Varun Bhati (High Jump) – World No. 2

7) Rampal Chahar (High Jump) – World No. 6

8) Deepa Malik (Shot Put) – Asian Para Games medalist and Arjuna Awardee

9) Dharambir (Club Throw) – Qualified Paralympian at 2016 Athletics Grand Prix, Dubai

10) Pooja (Archery)- 2016 Para National Archery Championship medalist and World No. 5 at 2016 World Ranking Archery Tournament

11) Rinku (Javelin Throw) – Qualified Paralympian at 2016 IPC Athletics Grand Prix, Switzerland

Sony Pictures Networks India CEO NP Singh Said, “Sport is a terrific medium of empowerment and as responsible sports broadcasters; our long term vision is to improve the sports narrative in India. The para athlete’s achievements are incredible and humbling and we are happy to facilitate their ability to compete on the international stage. Sony Pictures Networks is proud to take up the social responsibility of empowering India’s talented sportspersons through such associations.”

SPN India CHRO Smriti K.Singh added, “ There is a dire need for support of differently-abled sports in India. It is largely through their own resilience that these athletes are creating a better quality of life for themselves and their families. While the will to excel is true of any sportsperson, the differently-abled are also fighting the social stigma associated with their disability. However, through sport, they have established that they are winners not just in their sport but also in life. We want to give life to their stories, as recognition for their efforts, inspiration to others and hopefully influence policy makers.”

GoSports executive director Deepthi Bopiah mnentioned, “Sony Pictures Networks is visionary in understanding the importance of developing sporting talent in India and within that, developing differently abled sports because of the larger challenges that these athletes face. It is a little known fact that India’s first Olympic gold medal in an individual sport, was actually won by one of our para athletes Devendra Jhajharia, an amputee, for Javelin throw and his world record is unbeaten even today. SPN’s support enables us to offer such athletes better sports facilities”.

SPN’S CSR Theme: Ek India Happywala is the CSR theme under the aegis of which SPN runs its CSR programme. Ek India Happywala focusses on creating a positive impact in our ecosystem and it built around the 3 pillars; empowerment, education and environment.

Factual Data about Disability in India:

• As per the Govt. census report of 2011, over 2.68 CR individuals in India suffer from disability. This accounts for 2.21% of the country’s population.

• These individuals face many challenges ranging from:

• Limited disabled friendly infrastructure and facilities

• In-equal treatment

• Social stigmas

• Reduced participation in society

• Low self-confidence / Inferiority complex & therefore an overall unsatisfactory quality of life

August 24, 2016
Rio 2016: Swimming, archery get high viewership in opening week

NEW DELHI: India may not have a Michael Phelps, rather one doesn’t remember if an Indian swimmer even participated in Rio, but surprisingly swimming garnered maximum viewership of 30.8 (000) Impressions in the initial days of Olympics 2016.

According to BARC data for the period of August 6-12, 2016, swimming topped the list of Top 10 watched events/disciplines (basis sum of normalized impressions across 30 min) across the nine SD and HD TV channels of Star Sports and Doordrashan (TG: All India, 4+).

The swimming discipline was followed by archery in the second spot as the most watched sports/discipline in India, though this could be understood as the Indian women’s team, lead by world champ Deepika Kumari, was expected to win a medal in the team and individual sections at Rio.

Despite the fact the Indian men and women archers failed to shoot themselves to the medal podium, but viewership was an impressive 24.2 (000) Impressions; probably because in the land of Arjun and Karna, master mythological archers, archery is an attractive sport.

Impressions 000 is the number of individuals (in 000s) of a target audience who viewed an “event”, averaged across minutes. This is what is also known as TVT (Television Viewership in Thousands), according to BARC responsible for TV audience measurement in India.

Though PV Sindhu (silver medalist in the women’s section at Rio) was probably just starting her campaign at the Olympics during the period under review, but the presence of bigger stars like Saina Nehawal, Jwala Gutta, K. Srikanth, etc gave badminton the No. 3 spot in terms of viewership with 9.3 (000) Impressions.

It would be worthwhile to see the viewership figures for the women’s final match played on August 19, 2016 as and when BARC comes out with its data as facing a dismal Olympics 2016 campaign, the whole of India was rooting for the lanky Sindhu to win the yellow metal. Ditto for Sakshi Malik’s wrestling matches where India finally ended up getting a bronze medal courtesy a 23-year-old woman hailing from a patriarchal State of Haryana.

Interestingly, the Indian men’s hockey match against Canada, which ended in a draw, pulled in 9.1 Impressions in terms of viewership. But when before this match, India had played Ireland in the opener and won, the audience was a low 5.7 Impressions.

BARC’s Week 32 data on Rio 2016 telecast also highlights that telecast across nine channels for a cumulative 950 hours in the period 6-12 August garnered 210.9 million Impressions.

The opening ceremony garnered 0.5 million Impressions across all the 9 channels.

(Note: The viewership data corresponds to specific duration of the event/discipline and not a particular time band.)

August 20, 2016
Rio 2016: Swimming, archery get high viewership in opening week

NEW DELHI: India may not have a Michael Phelps, rather one doesn’t remember if an Indian swimmer even participated in Rio, but surprisingly swimming garnered maximum viewership of 30.8 (000) Impressions in the initial days of Olympics 2016.

According to BARC data for the period of August 6-12, 2016, swimming topped the list of Top 10 watched events/disciplines (basis sum of normalized impressions across 30 min) across the nine SD and HD TV channels of Star Sports and Doordrashan (TG: All India, 4+).

The swimming discipline was followed by archery in the second spot as the most watched sports/discipline in India, though this could be understood as the Indian women’s team, lead by world champ Deepika Kumari, was expected to win a medal in the team and individual sections at Rio.

Despite the fact the Indian men and women archers failed to shoot themselves to the medal podium, but viewership was an impressive 24.2 (000) Impressions; probably because in the land of Arjun and Karna, master mythological archers, archery is an attractive sport.

Impressions 000 is the number of individuals (in 000s) of a target audience who viewed an “event”, averaged across minutes. This is what is also known as TVT (Television Viewership in Thousands), according to BARC responsible for TV audience measurement in India.

Though PV Sindhu (silver medalist in the women’s section at Rio) was probably just starting her campaign at the Olympics during the period under review, but the presence of bigger stars like Saina Nehawal, Jwala Gutta, K. Srikanth, etc gave badminton the No. 3 spot in terms of viewership with 9.3 (000) Impressions.

It would be worthwhile to see the viewership figures for the women’s final match played on August 19, 2016 as and when BARC comes out with its data as facing a dismal Olympics 2016 campaign, the whole of India was rooting for the lanky Sindhu to win the yellow metal. Ditto for Sakshi Malik’s wrestling matches where India finally ended up getting a bronze medal courtesy a 23-year-old woman hailing from a patriarchal State of Haryana.

Interestingly, the Indian men’s hockey match against Canada, which ended in a draw, pulled in 9.1 Impressions in terms of viewership. But when before this match, India had played Ireland in the opener and won, the audience was a low 5.7 Impressions.

BARC’s Week 32 data on Rio 2016 telecast also highlights that telecast across nine channels for a cumulative 950 hours in the period 6-12 August garnered 210.9 million Impressions.

The opening ceremony garnered 0.5 million Impressions across all the 9 channels.

(Note: The viewership data corresponds to specific duration of the event/discipline and not a particular time band.)

August 20, 2016
SPN highlights scale of Spanish football league LaLiga through innovative campaign

MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) will kick-start the upcoming season of Spanish football league- LaLiga, with a bold statement: it’s not football. It’s war.

The season will be telecast on Sony Six and Sony Six HD from 20 August.

The channel hopes through the campaign to capture the scale of this property by showcasing the sportsmanship and competition between the teams and how their fans react to it in the most unique possible manner, building an instant connect with football fans all over India.

“We always aim to create new and innovative content for all our viewers. Through this campaign, we want to highlight the scale of LaLiga by reaching out to the football fans of India,” said SPN president distribution and sports business Rajesh Kaul.

“Since the inception of the sports cluster at SPN, we have strategically worked to establish it as the premier destination for an unparalleled football viewing experience. Through our tactical acquisition of marquee international tournaments and international domestic leagues, we have established ourselves as a one-stop destination for International football. and want to give our viewers an experience of the highest quality of club and international football,” he added.
The new season will have a complete 360 degree roll out across mass media.

The campaign will begin with three 30-second films which showcase the pranks between fans in unusual situations. The films showcase some day-to-day scenarios and the resultant football rivalry, all ending with the bold statement. The first one, The Breakup, shows an Atletico Madrid fan ruining his colleague’s (a Real Madrid fan) relationship by sending a fake break up message to his girlfriend. Airport Securityportrays an Atletico Madrid fan sabotaging the travel of a Barcelona fan at the airport by clandestinely packing a pair of nun chucks and a huge chopping knife in his hand baggage.

The third titled Pigeons shows a Barcelona fan ready to go on a big date shocked to see his shiny convertible completely covered in bird-poop, courtesy his neighbour – a Real Madrid fan.

The campaign has been created by J. Walter Thompson and is produced by Ignition Fims. While Senthil Kumar is the chief creative officer, Tista Sen is the national creative director. The campaign is directed by Rensil D’Silva and its executive business director is Anitha Krishnan.

The senior creative director’s team include Vinayak Gaikwad and Shounak Guhathakurta and the creative team has Vinayak Gaikwad, Shounak Guhathakurta, Sreenath Pillai and Ganesh Palkar. The senior account executive is Sanat Shende and account director is Saptarshi Banik.

LaLiga boasts of top seeds like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, Neymar, Antoine Griezmann, Gareth Bale, Pione Sisto, Ganso, Marlos Moreno, etc.

August 16, 2016
SPN highlights scale of Spanish football league LaLiga through innovative campaign

MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) will kick-start the upcoming season of Spanish football league- LaLiga, with a bold statement: it’s not football. It’s war.

The season will be telecast on Sony Six and Sony Six HD from 20 August.

The channel hopes through the campaign to capture the scale of this property by showcasing the sportsmanship and competition between the teams and how their fans react to it in the most unique possible manner, building an instant connect with football fans all over India.

“We always aim to create new and innovative content for all our viewers. Through this campaign, we want to highlight the scale of LaLiga by reaching out to the football fans of India,” said SPN president distribution and sports business Rajesh Kaul.

“Since the inception of the sports cluster at SPN, we have strategically worked to establish it as the premier destination for an unparalleled football viewing experience. Through our tactical acquisition of marquee international tournaments and international domestic leagues, we have established ourselves as a one-stop destination for International football. and want to give our viewers an experience of the highest quality of club and international football,” he added.
The new season will have a complete 360 degree roll out across mass media.

The campaign will begin with three 30-second films which showcase the pranks between fans in unusual situations. The films showcase some day-to-day scenarios and the resultant football rivalry, all ending with the bold statement. The first one, The Breakup, shows an Atletico Madrid fan ruining his colleague’s (a Real Madrid fan) relationship by sending a fake break up message to his girlfriend. Airport Securityportrays an Atletico Madrid fan sabotaging the travel of a Barcelona fan at the airport by clandestinely packing a pair of nun chucks and a huge chopping knife in his hand baggage.

The third titled Pigeons shows a Barcelona fan ready to go on a big date shocked to see his shiny convertible completely covered in bird-poop, courtesy his neighbour – a Real Madrid fan.

The campaign has been created by J. Walter Thompson and is produced by Ignition Fims. While Senthil Kumar is the chief creative officer, Tista Sen is the national creative director. The campaign is directed by Rensil D’Silva and its executive business director is Anitha Krishnan.

The senior creative director’s team include Vinayak Gaikwad and Shounak Guhathakurta and the creative team has Vinayak Gaikwad, Shounak Guhathakurta, Sreenath Pillai and Ganesh Palkar. The senior account executive is Sanat Shende and account director is Saptarshi Banik.

LaLiga boasts of top seeds like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, Neymar, Antoine Griezmann, Gareth Bale, Pione Sisto, Ganso, Marlos Moreno, etc.

August 16, 2016
Rio Olympics notches up impressive TV viewership numbers: Zapr

MUMBAI: Doubts had been raised whether arguably the world’s biggest competitive sports event – the ongoing Rio Olympics 2016 – would attract Indian viewers. Mainly because of the time zone differences between India and Brazil.

But lo and behold even the opening ceremony of the games lured viewers like a moth to a lamp; according to Zapr’s TV viewership audience pool. More than 5.6 million Indians tuned in at 4 am on 6 August 2016 to watch Gisele Bundchen stage her interpretation of the Girl from Ipanema, apart from a host of other Brazlilian singing and sports talents.

Day one of the Olympics received a grand viewership of 52.7 million viewers in India, despite claims that this year’s Olympics telecast has received the worst television viewership ratings compared to previous years in some parts of the world.

The repeat telecast of the opening ceremony later in the day was watched by 6.1 million viewers. According to the reports, 7.5 per cent of the viewers who watched the live telecast in the morning came back to watch the highlights.

The live telecast saw the highest viewership for the day between 8 pm and 11 pm pm during which famous Indian sportspersons took to the field: 14.4 million viewers tuned in between 8pm and 9 pm witnessing the Indian men’s hockey team’s first win in the Olympics this year.

The viewership increased to 15.4 million viewers in the next hour as Indian tennis players like Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza kicked off with their first matches in the tournament.

A large portion of Indian TV viewers who watched the Rio Olympics had previously followed other popular sport events on TV, a massive 73.4 per cent of viewers who watched the Olympics had also watched the biggest sporting league in India – Vivo IPL 2016. 36.4 per cent of the Olympic viewers also watched the Pro Kabaddi League while 19.3 per cent watched the UEFA Euro 2016. A smaller portion of 1.5 per cent of Olympic viewers watched both the recent tennis tournaments.

The audience also heavily consumed Hindi GECs’ programmes apart from the sports channels which were The Kapil Sharma Show on Sony Entertainment TV, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa on Colors TV and The Voice Kids on And TV.

The state of Maharashtra received the highest viewership for the Olympics telecast with 17. 9 per cent in urban and 7.9 per cent in rural. Uttar Pradesh received 10. 5 per cent urban share and 6.6 per cent rural. Down south , Tamil Nadu experienced the largest share of rural audiences watching the Olympics telecast in India. It recorded a 9.2 per cent urban share and 8.6 per cent rural share. On the other hand Andhra Pradesh generated an 8.7 percent urban share and 4.3 per cent rural. Karnataka got 8.6 per cent Uuban and 5.6 per cent rura shares while West Bengal notched up 7.5 per cent urban share and 6.0 per cent rural.

August 13, 2016
Rio Olympics notches up impressive TV viewership numbers: Zapr

MUMBAI: Doubts had been raised whether arguably the world’s biggest competitive sports event – the ongoing Rio Olympics 2016 – would attract Indian viewers. Mainly because of the time zone differences between India and Brazil.

But lo and behold even the opening ceremony of the games lured viewers like a moth to a lamp; according to Zapr’s TV viewership audience pool. More than 5.6 million Indians tuned in at 4 am on 6 August 2016 to watch Gisele Bundchen stage her interpretation of the Girl from Ipanema, apart from a host of other Brazlilian singing and sports talents.

Day one of the Olympics received a grand viewership of 52.7 million viewers in India, despite claims that this year’s Olympics telecast has received the worst television viewership ratings compared to previous years in some parts of the world.

The repeat telecast of the opening ceremony later in the day was watched by 6.1 million viewers. According to the reports, 7.5 per cent of the viewers who watched the live telecast in the morning came back to watch the highlights.

The live telecast saw the highest viewership for the day between 8 pm and 11 pm pm during which famous Indian sportspersons took to the field: 14.4 million viewers tuned in between 8pm and 9 pm witnessing the Indian men’s hockey team’s first win in the Olympics this year.

The viewership increased to 15.4 million viewers in the next hour as Indian tennis players like Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza kicked off with their first matches in the tournament.

A large portion of Indian TV viewers who watched the Rio Olympics had previously followed other popular sport events on TV, a massive 73.4 per cent of viewers who watched the Olympics had also watched the biggest sporting league in India – Vivo IPL 2016. 36.4 per cent of the Olympic viewers also watched the Pro Kabaddi League while 19.3 per cent watched the UEFA Euro 2016. A smaller portion of 1.5 per cent of Olympic viewers watched both the recent tennis tournaments.

The audience also heavily consumed Hindi GECs’ programmes apart from the sports channels which were The Kapil Sharma Show on Sony Entertainment TV, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa on Colors TV and The Voice Kids on And TV.

The state of Maharashtra received the highest viewership for the Olympics telecast with 17. 9 per cent in urban and 7.9 per cent in rural. Uttar Pradesh received 10. 5 per cent urban share and 6.6 per cent rural. Down south , Tamil Nadu experienced the largest share of rural audiences watching the Olympics telecast in India. It recorded a 9.2 per cent urban share and 8.6 per cent rural share. On the other hand Andhra Pradesh generated an 8.7 percent urban share and 4.3 per cent rural. Karnataka got 8.6 per cent Uuban and 5.6 per cent rura shares while West Bengal notched up 7.5 per cent urban share and 6.0 per cent rural.

August 13, 2016