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Tag: Australian Open 2020

  • SonyLIV to live stream 16 simultaneous feeds of Australian Open 2020

    SonyLIV to live stream 16 simultaneous feeds of Australian Open 2020

    MUMBAI: Foraying into the New Year, SonyLIV, India’s first premium video-on-demand platform, brings a visual treat for all its tennis aficionados with the decade’s first major sporting event – Australian Open 2020. Upping its ante in sports streaming, the platform, this year, will exclusively showcase live matches from across all 16 courts starting January 20 for its subscribers. With the big three Djokovic, Nadal and Federer headlining the tournament along with youngsters like Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev, all the action will go live across 16 courts from Melbourne only on SonyLIV for the first time ever.

    From the largest gamut of legendary players to some high- octane nail biting matches to a record prize money of USD 49.1 MN, there are enough and more reasons to binge onto Australian Open 2020. Not only is Novak Djokovic looking to defend his title in men’s singles, stakes are high for Serena Williams as well who bids for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam singles title, this time. But all eyes would be on the epic clash of titles between the greats – Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. While the former will look to continue his record beyond 20 grand slams, Nadal will go all out to come at par with the legend with 19 titles. Who will make the cut? 

    By building up further on live sports streaming, SonyLIV pushes the envelope in consumer delight by offering them the best from the tournament at one go. With 16 simultaneous feeds on the platform, subscribers will stand witness to all the action, beyond the central courts and stay updated on their favourite players on the go. 

    Home to the biggest sporting tournaments, SonyLIV has a packed calendar for fans ahead with the 16th edition of Euro 2020. Starting June 12, 20 teams will battle it out for a month across 12 cities in UEFA nations for the ultimate title. Next up is the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League with 79 teams from 54 UEFA member associations participating in the big clash. Also, in line is Olympics 2020 kicking off in Tokyo on 24 July with over 60 participants from India across 6 sports.

  • SPN’s Neville Bastawalla on ‘massification’ of niche sports and Australian Open broadcast extension

    SPN’s Neville Bastawalla on ‘massification’ of niche sports and Australian Open broadcast extension

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks India’s (SPN) sports segment is highly focusing on niche segments and so Tennis Australia and SPN have extended their broadcast deal by three years at the official Australian Open 2020 media launch. SPN sports business head-marketing and on-air promotions Neville Bastawalla said ‘massification’ is the only way to grow viewership for niche sports while the segment has huge opportunity.

    “There is a challenge and as well as opportunity. These are niche sports and the viewership is low. But the opportunity is certain. If you build the right relevance with these selective niche sports, identify and target them and build localisation, you will reach the tipping point and viewership will explode,” he said.

    He elaborated that there will be a 360 degree marketing like last year panning across sports network, social media. Last season’s heavy TV promotion primarily helped the network to grow the viewership of the Australian Open by 39 per cent in 2019 compared to 2018. He is also confident that it will grow further next year. He also added that the broadcaster is exploring the option of regional feeds for finales. He also added that they will integrate marketing plans for the league on SonyLIV together with TV as all screens are converging now.

    “We are going to synergise more this year with the Australian Open marketing team or how can we drive synergies to grow in India. We are going to work three months in advance,” he noted.

    Although cricket has a legacy, broadcasters are now betting on new sports too. Although the marketing spend on cricket still remains the highest, Bastawalla says that the focus on the Australian Open is similar to a non-Indian team cricket or the UEFA Champions League or WWE.

    He mentioned that the viewership of UEFA Champions league grew by 50 per cent in 2019 year over year. On the other hand, Serie A league has the highest reach in the country among football leagues. Although India is primarily a cricket-viewing country, there is a huge potential of other sports to grow by building relevance and localisation with the global entertainers of the world.

    Post the new tariff order, SPN has also come out with advertisements urging customers to pick its channels. “It’s more about telling consumers why they should subscribe to our channels also. Give them a reason to buy us. We constantly keep talking to our consumers with different propositions about why they should subscribe to SPN sports channels. This has to be a consistent effort – talking about subscription from a marketing perspective. We are very happy with the response we got so far with our campaigns,” he commented.

    Starting January, SPN will also commence promotions for another flagship event – the Olympics. This is almost six to seven months in advance of the games.

    However, despite the focus on niche genres, the channel has got over 200 days of cricket coming up, as they have rights to New Zealand tour of Australia, Australia tour of South Africa, England tour of South Africa, Big Bash League and T10 League.