Tag: Cricket

Hotstar Trends 2017: Women, small town, cross-language consumption rises

MUMBAI: Want to get a handle on what kind of traction that India’s answer to Amazon and Netflix – Hotstar from Star India – is getting? Well, the OTT service has come out with an India Watch Report 2018 (IWR 2018) – just as the IPL is around the corner in a bid to pique brands’ and ad agencies’ curiosity and jiggle their memories.

Says Novi Digital Entertainment (Hotstar) CEO Ajit Mohan in a preface to the report: “The biggest change (between 2017 and 2016) has been how consumers are responding to the explosion in access to affordable data. Three years ago, most new data users would start with messaging, do text search, move on to social platforms and a few brave ones would watch video on the mobile network. This pyramid has been completely inverted. In a world that does not fear data charges, video is very often the first port of call for new data users. Familiar stories, whether TV shows, movies or sports, unconstrained by any language limitation, are acting as powerful triggers to light up their smartphones and their data connections.”

The study says that Hotstar was the most downloaded video app for 2017 with a total of 325 downloads per minute totting up to an incredible 170 million downloads cumulatively. Hotstar users gobbled 3 GB data per month as compared to the average user who consumes 1.6 GB a month. Almost 90 per cent users logged on to the Hotstar app on their handsets even as there was a 6X growth in those consuming it on their connected TVs. What were they watching? 96 per cent of them gulped down videos longer than 20 minutes, thus rubbishing the long held notion that OTT users snack on short form content.

According to IWR 2018, ViVO IPL 2017 saw a jump of 6.6 times in watch time as compared to 2016. And 70 per cent of men who consume video online were on Hotstar watching the T20 journey during its 2017 edition.

The good news is that women are also coming online in a big way, says Hotstar. Consumption by women from smaller towns (between one and 10 lakh population) grew by three times in 2017, even as that by women in one million plus population towns and in metros doubled. The consumption growth is pretty rapid when it comes to women from places like New Barrackpore (5X), Siliguri (6.5X), Kanchipuram (5X) and Ranchi (4.7X).

Overall watchtime is growing at an astounding clip, says the IWR in the non-metros. In cities like Moradabad the growth was 22 times, Allahabad (13X), Hubli (12X) and Sonipat (12X).

Hotstar notched up some other records, says IWR 2018 – it crossed a billion minutes of watch time in a single day several times in 2017.

Viewers cannot seem to be getting enough of the content IWR 2018 says: In 2017, cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune switched off their phones at 2:37 am, 2 am and 2:35 am respectively. In Gurugram, Amritsar and Kolkata, the curfew time came out as 2:08 am, 2:15 am and 2:05 am respectively while for Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderbad, the cutoff time was 1:59 am, 1:38 am and 1:54 am respectively. Not unexpectedly, the largest share of watchtime came from Mumbai.

What were Hostar subs watching?

Unsurprisingly, the nation’s most-watched genre is drama, and while West Bengal and Maharashtra can’t get enough of romance, Tamil Nadu and Delhi revel in comedy! And doing away with set notions that only women watch drama, IWR 2018 says that 50 per cent of watch time for shows such as Yeh Rishta kya Kehlata Hai was accounted for by men. Youngsters too are turning into drama with their tribe accounting for 63 per cent of watchtime of Ishqbaaaz. To add to that, Indian women accounted for 18 per cent of watchtime of Bahubaali 2: The Conclusion.

The report points out that 70 per cent of premium users who watched English shows and movies also viewed other programming genres and languages. 26 per cent of Modern Family watchers tuned into cricket; 26 per cent of Game of Thrones viewers watched Hindi TV shows, and 14 per cent of premier league watchers popped up the app’s Bengali TV shows.

The Champions Trophy final between India and Pakistan 2017 resulted in it – at 113 million views – emerging as one of the most globally watched online videos in the shortest span, that is eight hours. That same nail-biting final saw 4.8 million simultaneous viewers making it the event with the highest concurrency seen in APAC.

And the viewing of one day internationals saw a spurt of five times in 2017 vs 2016.

Which sports are gaining popularity in India?

The IWR 2018 says football is India’s second most loved sport and grew massively with watch time for the ISL rising 3.5 times and for the Premier League by 10 times. The Vivo Pro Kabaddi League saw its watch time skyrocketing nine times over 2016.

The crown of the most watched show in 2017, according to IWR 2018, goes to the Rajan Shahi produced Yeh Rishta Kya Kehalata Hai. No surprises in the English show category with Game of Thrones emerging on top, and Big Boss Tamil and Telugu reigning in their respective languages.

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March 15, 2018
SPN bags ECB’s media rights for 5 years

MUMBAI: In another major breakthrough, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) has acquired exclusive media rights from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for the Indian subcontinent for a five-year term. Millions of cricket fans across India now can watch men’s and women’s international matches, including Test matches, T20 Internationals and ODIs, played in England, the native origin of the sport.

The new deal allows SPN to both televise and digitally broadcast a bunch of international matches played in the territory of ECB within the Indian subcontinent. Five Test matches, three ODIs and three T20 Internationals of upcoming India cricket tour of England will also be broadcast live.

“The acquisition of the media rights of ECB for a five-year term, effective now through 2022, provides for some exciting cricket viewership. Cricket is a passion for most Indians and this term of ECB games includes three tours of the Indian cricket team which promises some thrilling cricket, the first of these coming close on the heels of the hugely exciting South Africa series. SPN will now be home to almost all international away series giving our fans a one-stop destination to view their favourite stars in action,” SPN managing director and CEO NP Singh said.

“Today’s announcement means millions of cricket fans across the Indian subcontinent can follow their favourite team in action the next time they tour England – as well as enjoying access to iconic cricketing contests like next year’s Ashes,” ECB CEO Tom Harrison added.

“It will also help further raise the global profile of the English game–giving both the England men’s and women’s teams valuable exposure in a part of the world where people are passionate about cricket and avid followers of the global game as well as their own national team.”

With this acquisition, SPN’s exclusive cricket portfolio includes most of the major international cricket boards, namely, Cricket Australia, ECB, Pakistan Cricket Board, Sri Lanka Cricket, Cricket South Africa, Cricket West Indies and Zimbabwe Cricket Board.

Earlier SPN acquired the exclusive media rights for all men’s international matches played in Australia as well as well as women’s international cricket played in the country. It even acquired the media rights of the newly introduced T10 Cricket League last year.

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March 5, 2018
Star India bags production rights for IPL 2018

MUMBAI: Star India, which holds the TV and digital rights of the Indian Premier League, today also won the audio-visual production rights for IPL 2018 as well as the BCCI’s domestic circuit for the 2018-19 season. The deal amount has not been revealed.

In a release, the board’s acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary said that the BCCI reserved the right to extend the term for one more season of the IPL and one more season of domestic cricket. “The board, at its discretion, can extend the term to include IPL season 2020, as provided for in the services agreement,” he added.

The BCCI had invited request-for-proposal (RFP) documents for services relating to the live production of all matches for the IPL and the domestic cricket season.

A lot is riding on this year’s season for sponsors as the T20 tournament has gone on to become the fifth most popular sports event in the world with more than 335 million viewers. Last year, Star India won the global IPL media rights for Rs 16,347 crore for a period of five years.

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February 19, 2018
SonyLIV celebrates 5 glorious years

MUMBAI: SonyLIV, launched in January 2013, completes 5 years this month. The launch of SonyLIV set the tone for the OTT industry in India. Over the last 5 years, SonyLIV has grown with the digital ecosystem and garnered key insights on the rise of video content, engaging mobile experience, power of choice to the consumer, transformation in payment mechanisms, data science and machine learning to better understand consumer behaviour better. As a brand, it has also paved the path for other national and international players to enter this category in India.

Aligned to its vision of transforming the video-on-demand space with edgy, relatable, and top-notch content, SonyLIV has many first to its credit. Through the journey of 5 years, SonyLIV has not only introduced new content formats like original web-series, including those in regional languages but also established a presence in top Indian metros.

Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) EVP and head-digital business Uday Sodhi said, “We take immense pride in the fact that we introduced OTT to India. Over the 5 years, we have learned, grown and been a vital part in building the digital ecosystem in our country. Post the launch of SonyLIV, we have seen a number of home-grown players enter the field along with some international heavyweights. The presence of all these players has further helped increase awareness about OTT as a platform among Indians and created a competitive environment that is beneficial to the industry as a whole. On our 5th anniversary, we would like to thank our viewers, advertisers and partners for being part of this remarkable journey and take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment towards providing great content and a supreme digital viewing experience. We LIV to Entertain and we will continue to entertain.”

SonyLIV also went beyond the ordinary entertainment and became the first OTT player to have over 4000 hours of food content and over 3000+ live matches and 4000+ hours of football action among other content. The brand has some of the best cricket properties and presently are the exclusive internet and mobile broadcaster for the India Tour of South Africa. SonyLIV has also enriched viewer experience by launching many contextual short films that not only entertain but also mirror trends in society.

SonyLIV is home to the widest range of sporting properties including cricket, football, tennis, WWE, UFC, basketball and much more.

The future for SonyLIV is towards more regional content acquisition and curation to cater to the rural audiences, which is where the next wave of consumption is estimated. SonyLIV is also building an app environment for lower bandwidth consumption. SonyLIV is taking strict measure and working closely with all partners to ensure no ad frauds happen while also ensuring brand safety.

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February 6, 2018
Viacom18, DSport join hands for simulcast of Nidahas Trophy

MUMBAI: In what may be a sign of things to come, Viacom 18 has struck a deal with DSport to live simulcast the Nidahas Trophy, a tri-nation series tournament featuring India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

DSport, Discovery’s sports channel, had acquired the exclusive India broadcast rights of Nidahas Trophy 2018 last week. In an industry-first initiative, the broadcaster has joined hands with Viacom18 to live telecast the series. While DSport will telecast English commentary, Viacom18-owned mass entertainment channels Rishtey Cineplex and Cineplex HD will feature Hindi commentary for the tournament. Rishtey Cineplex reaches out to maximum number of viewers across any Hindi Movie channel with a reach of 460 Mn+ individual viewers across India (urban and rural) and therefore will add more eyeballs to the international T20 series scheduled to begin on 6 March 2018. Cineplex HD will further add to the enhanced viewer base by taking the tourney to a premium Hindi content consumer base.

Explaining the rationale behind the partnership, Viacom18 group CEO Sudhanshu Vats said, “Sports broadcasting is a bit of a business conundrum–it represents a sizeable opportunity but the cost of entry tends to be prohibitive. It has been a white space that we have continuously been evaluating and this association with DSPORT to air the NIDAHAS tri series provides us with a fertile testing ground. As we endeavor to test waters with our very first broadcast of an international sporting property, what better than a cricket tri series involving the national team.”

This tri-nation internationalT20 tournament will follow a round robin format with all the three teams playing each other twice, and the top two progressing to the final to be played on 18 March 2018. All the matches will be played at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

“The future belongs to collaborative broadcasting and this association between Discovery’s DSPORT and Viacom18’s Rishtey Cineplex is a pioneering initiative that seeks to broaden the horizon of sports broadcasting in India,” said Viacom18 COO Raj Nayak. “Cricket is much more than a sport in this country – it is an emotion. With this collaboration, we will be taking this emotion to more than ~460mn additional viewers in India.”

Commenting on the partnership, DSport business head TS Panesar said, “In a first of its kind arrangement we are delighted to partner with Viacom18’s Rishtey Cineplex and Cineplex HD to bring Hindi telecast of the Nidahas Trophy to millions of fans in India. The Nidahas Trophy celebrates 70 years of Sri Lankan Independence and as such holds a special significance and we expect a keenly fought contest between India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.”

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January 30, 2018
Global appeal of Indian sports high, says Deloitte report

MUMBAI: The sports media market will continue to attract more global investments due to the high potential growth according to a report by consulting company Deloitte.

There has been plenty of foreign capital flowing into the sector, which also brought in a wave of consolidation in the sports broadcasting space.

The best examples are Sony Pictures Networks India acquiring Ten Sports from Zee Entertainment Enterprises for USD 385 million and Star India bagging the global media rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) for 2018-22 for a whopping Rs 1,634.75 crore after a bidding that saw as many as 24 players in the fray.

“The sports media landscape is evolving rapidly, especially in terms of who creates the content and who has the right to distribute them,” the report stated.

“These entities who have made the bids are not primarily in the sports broadcast business but put value on the table to acquire digital broadcasting rights of IPL. This proves the global appeal of Indian sports which is now identified as a potential growth area by global sports giants,” it added.

With the huge popularity of the IPL, there is a significant place for domestic sporting leagues in other sports and some like football and kabaddi have already generated interest, it said.

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January 27, 2018
Sony Pictures Sports Network aims to serve sports fans with all-day live multi-sports action on Republic Day

This Republic day, Sony Pictures Sports Network (SPSN) will serve sports fans whole day programming across a diverse range of live sporting events ranging from cricket, football, tennis, wrestling, boxing, basketball to golf and squash. Marquee sports events include the third test of South Africa vs India, the women’s double finals as well as men’s single semi-finals in the Australian Open and the finals of the Pro-Wrestling League.

Viewers can tune in and indulge on the very best of live action across sports.

Live Events Schedule:

January 25, 2018
Star India gets IPL to change match timings for 11th edition

MUMBAI: When Star India announced that it was coughing up a jaw dropping Rs 16,347.50 crore to acquire the all media rights of the prized IPL, it signaled an era of change. And more of that is coming. Star India has managed to convince the The IPL governing council (GC) to change the timings for the games for the eleventh season of the league being held from 7 April to 27 May. The IPL opening ceremony will take place in Mumbai on 6 April.

IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla confirmed to Indiantelevision.com that the 8 pm game will now begin at 7 pm while the 4 pm game was being pushed forward to 5:30 pm.

“The broadcaster has requested for a change in timings. By and large, the GC has accepted it. It gets too late in the night if the game starts at 8 pm,” said IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla after the GC meeting. “There will be an overlap but the broadcaster says it has enough channels to show the games simultaneously.”

At the meeting, it was also decided that Kings XI Punjab will play four of their home games in Mohali and three in Indore.

The home matches of Rajasthan Royals, who are returning to the IPL after serving a two-year ban, will be finalised after the Rajasthan High Court’s hearing on 24 January. Preference will be given to Jaipur if the stadium is ready and court clears RCA’s status.

“If that doesn’t happen, the alternate venue will be Pune,” said Shukla. A total of 578 players including 360 Indians will go under the hammer at the IPL auction in Bengaluru on January 27 and 28.

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January 24, 2018
Sports fans power 35-40% of traffic on SonyLiv

MUMBAI: Contrary to popular opinion, SonyLiv is attracting a significant quantum of viewership courtesy its base of hardcore sports fans. Despite a concerted effort to provide entertainment across genres, sporting events have managed to pull in the eyeballs for the over-the-top (OTT) player in spite of the fickle nature of the audience.

At present, more than a third of SonyLiv’s traffic is garnered by its sporting properties. Sony Pictures Network EVP and head of digital business Uday Sodhi says, “35 to 40 per cent of our traffic is from hardcore sports followers. This shoots up during large sporting events and then the share gets bigger. Time spent varies from 25 minutes to 40 minutes for sports.”

Cricket is undoubtedly the first choice of Indians and that is reflective on SonyLiv, too. After cricket, football and WWE grab the attention of consumers the most. Big Bash League is one of the best T20 leagues outside India and it is getting more popular in India. Sodhi expects people to slowly warm up to this long-term property.

Going forward, the OTT platform will bet big on sports events. Talking about future plans, Sodhi says, “We run three sports television brands in India – Sony Six, Sony ESPN and Ten Sports. With these three brands, we have a strong sports network and we sport it in a big way on digital, therefore we are a large sports player on digital. The network is currently running India vs South Africa cricket series, Big Bash and from Monday will air Australian Open.”

The channel does a complete 360-degree coverage around sports that includes sports live, VOD, analysis and programming. “From our perspective, sports are a big part of SonyLiv and we will continue to get more and more rights for our users,” he adds. He also states that Sony’s digital platform is profitable.

On the entertainment front, SonyLiv released a short film ‘Ek Nayi Shuruaat’ in the new year. The platform is keen to syndicate short films from third parties. It is also giving the final touch to three Hindi web originals that will launch in February and March.

Sodhi expects more OTT players to join the fray in 2018 with focus on the regional market but he does not think consolidation will take place in the near future. Rather, the improvement in bandwidth will increase consumption on screen with increased adoption of Chromecast, Apple TV and regional media devices.

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January 16, 2018
BCCI invites brands to acquire third-party rights for IPL

MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has invited third parties to indicate their interest in acquiring rights pertaining to the VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL).

There will be three types of partner rights, which include official partner rights, strategic time out partner rights and umpire partner rights. The term for each partnering rights will be of minimum three and maximum five years.

Last year, Star India won the global rights, which include broadcast and digital, by bidding Rs 16347.5 crores.

According to a BCCI release, the official partner rights include the exclusive association of the brand as the official partner, right to use the official IPL composite logo and official partner status in all communications, category exclusivity across all the central sponsorships for Vivo IPL and also the first right refusal on broadcast sponsorship in product category.

For on-ground, the official partner will be on LED perimeter advertising boards, pitch mat on the outfield at midwicket, boundary rope branding across all matches, branding on all interview and press conference backdrops and logo featured on back panel of team dugouts.

The cut-off date for sending in expressions of interest (EoI) is 17 January 2018.

On the digital side, brand logos will be featured on the IPLT20 website. Match day activation integration will also be done on the website. These will be applicable to all the three types.

The second type, IPL strategic timeout partner rights includes the right to use the official IPL composite logo and strategic timeout partner status in all communications, category exclusivity across all central sponsorships for Vivo IPL, first right of refusal on broadcast sponsorship in product category.

On-ground will include branded timing graphic on the big screen at each strategic timeout for all the matches.

The last type is IPL umpire partner rights, which includes the right to use the official IPL composite logo and umpire partner status in all communications, category exclusivity across all central sponsorships for Vivo IPL and first right of refusal on broadcast sponsorship in product category.

The TV facing branding includes static logo branding on LED sight screens (50 per cent on each sight screen), big screen for 3rd umpire decisions and DRS decisions, on all interview and press conference backdrops, logo featured on back panel of team dugouts, umpire shirts, trousers, hat/cap, match referee shirts and jacket.

No more than one third party will be granted rights in relation to each product category. BCCI intends (but shall not be obliged) to appoint up to a maximum of six official partners, one strategic timeout partner and one umpire partner. Third parties may express an interest in acquiring the rights in respect of more than one product category but no single third party will be appointed as an IPL official partner, IPL strategic timeout partner or IPL umpire partner in respect of more than one product category.

The grant of the rights shall be conditional upon the relevant third party entering into a binding agreement with BCCI, the form of which will be sent by BCCI to any relevant third party. No legally binding obligations shall be assumed by or imposed on BCCI or its nominated representatives in connection with this document and its subject-matter, and none of the rights shall be granted until such time as a binding agreement is entered into by BCCI and any relevant third party.

BCCI anticipates a period of negotiation with third parties submitting EoIs till 31 January 2018, and does not intend to consider any offer for the rights which are received after this date. The above time schedule is subject to revision by BCCI in its discretion.

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January 12, 2018