Set point PVL Season 4 spikes big with a digital first play

MUMBAI: If proof of growth is in the numbers, the Prime Volleyball League has just served an ace. Season 4 of the RR Kabel Prime Volleyball League, powered by Scapia, wrapped up earlier this year in Hyderabad with a landmark 239 million views across live TV and Youtube. The figure represents a 27.2 percent jump over Season 3, making it the league’s most successful outing yet and underlining the impact of its digital-first strategy.

Beyond match broadcasts, the scale widened dramatically. Season 4 clocked 1.1 billion views across content categories and platforms, aided by a first-of-its-kind partnership with YouTube, a first for any Indian sports league. PVL also leaned into short-form storytelling through platforms such as Snapchat, while formally recognising volleyball-focused creators as league ambassadors, pushing the sport beyond matchday viewing and into everyday feeds.

The approach delivered tangible results. Youtube emerged as a central engagement driver, hosting over 500 hours of live coverage across six channels of the Sony Sports Network and in six languages. On television, cumulative live viewership touched 88.2 million, a 7 percent increase over the previous season, with a notably balanced audience split of 57 percent male and 43 percent female.

For the first time, PVL streamed all live matches on YouTube in Hindi, English, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada, generating 151 million cumulative views. Significantly, 80 percent of the digital audience fell in the 18–44 age bracket, reinforcing the league’s appeal among young, mobile-first viewers at a time when emerging sports are fighting for attention.

Reflecting on the season, Prime Volleyball League CEO Joy Bhattacharjya said innovation has always been central to PVL’s thinking, from presentation to consumption. He noted that Season 4 demonstrated how strongly a platform-led, digital-first approach resonates with modern audiences.

Social traction mirrored broadcast gains. PVL generated 105 million social engagements during the season, nearly 30 times higher than the previous year. Creator-led content proved disproportionately powerful, delivering 48 million views across 353 videos, despite only a marginal increase in output compared to Season 3.

Baseline Ventures managing director and co-founder Tuhin Mishra PVL’s exclusive marketing partner, said the focus was on putting digital at the centre of growth. By integrating platforms and creators meaningfully into the league ecosystem, he added, PVL was able to expand its audience in a way that felt both authentic and sustainable.

With surging digital consumption, steady gains on television and a rapidly expanding youth fan base, PVL Season 4 has set a clear benchmark. For emerging sports leagues in India, the message is hard to miss: build where the audience lives, speak their language, and the numbers will follow.