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  • Arsenal VS Chelsea: When & where can India tune in?

    Arsenal VS Chelsea: When & where can India tune in?

    MUMBAI: Arsenal and Chelsea are two of the fiercest rivals in modern day football and hence the 2015 FA Community Shield is certain to become the perfect curtain raiser for European Club Football fanatics.

     

    FA Community Shield is played between the champions of Barclays Premier League and FA Cup. Chelsea is under the leadership of Jose Mourinho, won the 2014-15 league title, while Arsene Wenger guided Arsenal to their back to back FA Cup title. The duo is renowned for their sideline sillies and whenever they come together, it’s never short of action.

     

    But when and where can India see all the action?

     

    Multi Screen Media’s (MSM) sports boutique Sony Six and Sony Kix acquired the broadcasting rights of FA Cup and Serie A for three years (2015 – 2017) and hence will be the official broadcasters of the Community Shield match too. The rights of both the tournament were previously with Star Sports. The match will be played in Wembley Stadium and the kickoff is scheduled at 3.00 pm BST, which is 7.30 pm IST on Sunday (2 August, 2015). The SD feed can be watched at Sony Kix, while Sony Six HD will air the High Definition feed.

     

    Speaking exclusively to Indiantelevision.com, Sony Six and Sony Kix EVP and business head Prasanna Krishnan says, “Community Shield match between Arsenal and Chelsea will be the perfect way for us to begin the football year. So far in our portfolio if anything was missing, it was quality club football action. With FA Cup and Italian Serie A, we fill that need gap. Being the official broadcaster of FIFA and UEFA Euro, we already had all the major International Football tournaments in our kitty. Now we can say that we are the only sports broadcaster to provide a quality mix of international and club football action throughout the year.”

     

    As per TAM Peoplemeter system analysis, FA Cup’s cumulative reach has gone up by 27 per cent in the past two seasons. In 2013 – 14 season, the tourney secured 5.61 million but in 2014- 15 season, it went up to 7.13 million in CS4+ Target Group all over India.

     

    According to a report by KPMG, with 215 million GVTs Football remains the second most watched sports entity in India after cricket, which garnered 254 million GVTs. Sports genre plays a pivotal role when it comes to revenue generation through subscription for broadcasters.

     

    “We have to keep the fact in mind that Sony Kix is just a couple of months old and still in the developing process. With Community Shield, India VS Sri Lanka test series, the reach will get stronger. We are already there in all the DTH players and our presence in cable is also enhancing. Kix is positioned to feature football and fight sports,” asserts Krishnan.

     

    In football, the scope of generating ad revenue is very less. UEFA Champions League, which is aired on Ten Sports, has no brands associated with it. However, there is multiple special programming, which is exclusively curated to explore monetizing avenues. Pre match, post match and half time analytical programs remain the biggest slot to rope in advertisers. Also weekend reviews and previews garner good viewership.

     

    A media planning expert asserts, “Football is not cricket so putting an ad in the middle of the game is not an option. But whenever there is an injury stoppage or celebrations after goals or for that matter when the replays come in, relevant brands can be roped in as side captures or pop ups. Prime time in football begins five minutes before the match, the half time analysis program is also considered prime time in football.”

     

    “In order to monetize and generate revenue we will not intrude into the flow of sport neither will we disturb our viewers. Disturbing viewers with an ad is not how we do business,” informs Kirshnan.

     

    So no disturbances for Indian football fans this weekend, as an action packed match between Arsenal and Chelsea takes centre stage on Sony Kix and Sony Six HD. 

  • Twitter empowers Premier League with fan map

    Twitter empowers Premier League with fan map

    MUMBAI: The social media platform Twitter has been more helpful than just generating social conversations. It has been useful in understanding drivers of various sports properties in areas like cricket and football. Now with the Twitter fan map, the 20 Premier League clubs can view their fans’ locations by a detailed global breakdown of their followers.

     

    As each country divides municipalities differently (counties, states, territories, etc.), Twitter has employed a technique called hexagonal binning, which divides the map into equally-sized hexagons, like a honeycomb, so you can see fandom by region instead of treating each country as one big region. 

     

    Below are a few Asia, UK and global trends that have been collated:

     

    The Asian split:

    The outlook is different in Asia, where Manchester United takes a strong grip on India and Pakistan, while battling with @ChelseaFC for control of football-mad Malaysia and Indonesia. @LFC fare slightly less well in those countries but bounce back with a big lead in Thailand. Meanwhile, @Arsenal taste success in Japan, South Korea and The Philippines.

     

    UK: Old order remains: 

     

    A glance at the UK map shows that Liverpool (@LFC) dominates. There are pockets of red (Manchester United, @ManUtd) and yellow (Arsenal – @Arsenal), but green is most prevalent, spreading from Merseyside north to Scotland, south towards London and into Wales and Ireland.

     

    @LFC, @ManUtd and @Arsenal have 51 top-division titles between them, and that historic success shines through.

     

    Gunners take London: There are six Premier League teams in London, but one stands apart from the rest in terms of Twitter followers: @Arsenal. Not only do the Gunners have more followers in their own locale of Highbury and Islington, but they also edge out arch-rivals Tottenham (@SpursOfficial) and @ChelseaFC in their backyards. Crystal Palace (@CPFC) also see their home turned Arsenal yellow, while West Ham (@WHUFC_official) and Queens Park Rangers (@QPRFC) are shaded out by Liverpool green.

     

    Manchester City (@MCFC), meanwhile, win one valuable territory in the centre of Manchester, amid a sea of @ManUtd red.

     

    Derby day: Football centres around traditional rivalries and four of the biggest in the Premier League end with home wins. North London is very much red with @Arsenal getting the better of @SpursOfficial; The Merseyside derby sees @LFC overcome @Everton on this occasion; The battle in Manchester sees the red of @ManUtd sink the blue of @MCFC; In the Midlands it is @AVFCofficial that take ownership of Birmingham at the expense of West Brom (@wbafcofficial); And it’s @NUFC that claim the northeast with more territory than bitter rivals @SunderlandAFC.

     

    Player power: In many countries, Premier League allegiance appears to be related to, at least in part, the presence of local players. That’s evident for Suarez and Sanchez in Uruguay and Chile, and also for Edin Dzeko (@EdDzeko) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Manchester City takes a rare first place.

     

    Off the pitch: What other factors, beyond the more obvious ones such as player affiliation and geographical impact, could influence a team’s fan base?

     

    A few other interesting connections from the report are as follows:

    · @Arsenal break @ChelseaFC’s dominance in the Middle East by edging ahead in United Arab Emirates, which is home to their stadium and kit sponsors, Emirates Airline (@emirates).

     

    · @QPRFC hugely outperforms their average Twitter follower ranking in Malaysia, where they are seventh. Malaysian entrepreneur and the club chairman Tony Fernandes may have something to do with this.

     

    · Last word goes – as it often does in the football world – to Roman Abramovich. The Russian businessman owns @ChelseaFC, which leads with fans across Russia and the former Soviet countries.

     

    Each view of the interactive map can be Tweeted or embedded by clicking either the ‘Tweet this view’ or ‘Embed this view’ buttons at the top of the screen.

     

    The interactive map has been built by Twitter’s visualisation scientist Krist Wongsuphasawat, to discover which teams dominate each country, and where loyalties lie at a district-level in the United Kingdom.

     

    The map was created by looking at the official Twitter accounts for each team, using their followers as an indicator of allegiance (as opposed to, say, instances in which people mention a team while watching an interesting matchup or talking about a team’s rival).

     

    The primary view shows at a glance, which teams dominate each country around the world:

     

    Finding ones club: Discover how a club fares in each country. Use the ‘Zoom to’ function in the right-hand corner of the map to instantly explore your club’s presence in any given country.

     

    Compare clubs: Pick any two teams and compare where they have their biggest density of followers. Compare local rivals such as Arsenal and Chelsea FC who face each other in a London derby this Sunday.

     

    Most popular clubs: Use the dropdown menu to determine who the most popular clubs are in an area of your choice.

     

    UK: This is the only view where you can zoom right in, region-by-region, to discover a breakdown of where loyalties lie at a local UK level.

     

  • Liverpool FC’s – DSK Shivajians – gets shot in the arm with investment of Rs 50 crore

    Liverpool FC’s – DSK Shivajians – gets shot in the arm with investment of Rs 50 crore

    MUMBAI: With football fever reaching a crescendo with the recently concluded Hero Indian Super League (ISL), the country seems to have fallen in love with the game once again. It definitely has more to do with the rugged game itself rather than its celebrity owners. While foreign clubs have a fair fan share in India right from Man U to Real Madrid and AC Milan, many of them have spotted opportunities and carried out various initiatives in India to further build on this huge supporter base for the game. A case in point is Manchester United and Chelsea, with both conducting clinics in India.

     Not only this, Arsenal too has had multiple training centres in New Delhi, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Liverpool, on the other hand, has a tie-up with DSK Shivajians, and has formed India’s first internationally-branded residential football academy, called the Liverpool International Football Academy- DSK Shivajians. “With a total investment of over Rs 50 crore, we are confident that India will experience the international flavour of football,” says LFC International Football Academy, DSK-Shivajians CEO Ardeshir Jeejeebhoy.

    The Academy located at Pune, promises to provide aspiring young talent with the right platform to get trained under expert supervision and world-class infrastructure. It has a state-of-the-art 4G pitch, along with a natural turf, self-contained accommodation, gym and swimming pool and a cafeteria serving varied dietary requirements. The Academy thus far has enrolled 64 players from all across India in the Under 17 and Under 19 age groups. They will also be provided group tutorials for core subjects, which aggregate over 660 hours of classes over the year. When asked about the long-term objective of the Academy, Jeejeebhoy informs, “The aim is to give a platform to aspiring talented footballers to train and get direct supervision from two full-time talented coaches from Liverpool FC. We look at it as an opportunity for taking Indian football to international standards.”

    About the players and franchise owners, he opines that the League is an excellent platform for Indian talent to get noticed on the international arena and a great opportunity for stakeholders in football across the country to engage with the youth.

    “Sponsors get more visibility for their brand due to the sheer magnitude and uniqueness of the event and with the use of modern methods of advertising and marketing in the digital space. The new format does not have a clutter of brands, which ensures the brands that have partnered with the ISL get valuable presence and recall,” he says.

    “One of the many ways that the League could be looked at to bring in-stadia spectators closer to the game, would be to invest in refurbishing existing infrastructure and building stadia, where its sheer design and layout allows spectators to be closer to the pitch. This will establish a better connect with the game,” the executive goes on.

    Moving on to  Star India, a promoter of the League,  Jeejeebhoy feels the commitment from the Network with prime time spots and live HD telecast, added to the quality of the product. “Over the past couple of years, audiences have shown a growing interest and acceptance in sports as varied as football, motorsports, kabbadi and tennis among others. Boxing also has true potential going forward,” says Jeejeebhoy.

    The growing TV viewership for FIFA World Cup and football leagues such as UEFA Europa League from Europe, have shown the increasing popularity of football as a viewership sport in India. The game has always been followed at a regional level and one would hope with the ISL, that the game is accepted across the country.

    Concluding on a high note, he is of the opinion that, “with the advent of the ISL and the country hosting the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2017, it has created a lot of positive buzz around football.”

    “It’s the very first time that something of this magnitude has been attempted for football in the country, and has generated interest not only from football followers, but also neutrals, who have flocked in large numbers to the stadia. Fans, who erstwhile did not have such an opportunity to watch live matches, have turned up in huge swarms,” he concludes.

     

  • Twitter invites football fans to follow Premier League teams

    Twitter invites football fans to follow Premier League teams

    MUMBAI: The concluded FIFA World Cup saw 672 million tweets from around the globe being shared. Whilst memories of the World Cup begin to fade, the Premier League springs back into action today as Manchester United host Swansea City in the first match of the 2014-2015 season.

     

    With all 20 Premier League teams on Twitter, following each team will help fans to get closer to the action throughout the upcoming year. For India specific updates, fans can look out for updates from broadcaster Star Sport India’s Twitter handle.

     

    Arsenal is the most followed team in the premier league with 4.24 million followers followed closely by Chelsea football club with 4.18 million followers, Liverpool FC and Manchester United FC with 3 million followers each. The fifth in the list was Manchester City with 1.92 million followers.

     

    More than 60 per cent of premier league players are now on Twitter as well as two managers; Ronald Koeman of Southampton and Gary Monk of Swansea.

     

    Tottenham will begin the new season with 76 per cent of their first-team squad on Twitter – the highest of any Premier League team. However with the transfer window open until 1 September, it remains to be seen whether they will maintain that position into the autumn.

     

    Earlier this year, research from global Web Index highlighted that 57 per cent of Twitter football lovers in India said that football news breaks fastest on Twitter. Throughout the season, many of the best-known voices within the game tweet their observations and opinions, directly engaging with fans in real-time.

  • Arsenal creates record with kit deal with Puma

    Arsenal creates record with kit deal with Puma

    MUMBAI: Soccer club Arsenal has signed the biggest kit deal in English football history with Puma.

    Reports state that the parties have signed an agreement worth more than ?30 million a year. So the five year contract is said to be worth around ?170 million.

    The deal betters Liverpool‘s ?25 million a year contract with Warrior. Before the new deal with Puma Arsenal had a 20-year relationship with Nike, which was worth ?55 million over seven years.

    Nike has done a deal with Manchester City that kicks off next season.