ITV

Tag: Pro Kabaddi League

  • Sports365.in launches U Mumba’s official merchandise

    Sports365.in launches U Mumba’s official merchandise

    MUMBAI: Sports365.in has launched the official merchandise of the Mumbai-based Kabaddi team, U Mumba, exclusively on its website. It has associated as the online channel partner for the team and its merchandising partner ‘Sports & Beyond’ in a bid to exclusively market their products online.

     

    Sports365.in founder and CEO G Chandra Sekhar Reddy, “U Mumba has won the hearts of many Indians, especially with its recent win over Puneri Paltan. It is one of the most popular and well-loved Kabaddi teams of the country and we are pleased to offer its official merchandise exclusively on our platform. The availability of the new product line will attract more Kabaddi fans to our online store and also further bolster the love for the sport in India.”

     

    As of now, U Mumba’s and its sports partner’s range of products is solely available on Sports365.in. The portal plans to facilitate the sale of the merchandise on other online marketplaces like Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, Paytm and Shopclues in the coming days.

  • Swachh Bharat, National Anthem, Amitabh Bachchan to dominate Pro Kabaddi 2 marketing blitzkrieg

    Swachh Bharat, National Anthem, Amitabh Bachchan to dominate Pro Kabaddi 2 marketing blitzkrieg

    MUMBAI: Bollywood’s quintessential superstar Amitabh Bachchan is emerging as the flag bearer of Star Sports’ Pro Kabaddi League season 2 marketing blitzkrieg. It all began with Bachchan composing and singing the anthem song ‘Le Panga’ for the league. Star India converted the entire recording studio voyage to a television commercial (TVC) and is telecasting it across its network.

     

    However, Bachchan’s contribution to the marketing campaign of Pro Kabaddi League season 2 is not just limited to the anthem that he composed and sung. This year, the tournament has integrated with many national awareness initiatives and special importance has been given to the Indian National Anthem. Bachchan will mark the beginning of Pro Kabaddi League season 2 not by lighting lamp but by crooning the National Anthem of the country.

     

    “Every match will start with the Indian National Anthem and we are delighted to announce that in the first match MrBachchan will sing the national anthem and mark the opening of the tournament. Kabaddi is a homegrown sport and pride and honour is deeply associated with the sport,” said Star Sports head NitinKukreja.

     

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com Pro Kabaddi initiator and Mashal Sports director Charu Sharma said, “Last year also we wanted to have renowned singers on board to start matches by singing National Anthem, but it wasn’t possible and we played the instrumental version of it. This year, we will have many significant dignitaries and Amitabh Bachchan is one of them. To start with him was pre-planned and his personality is one of the reasons behind it.”

     

    International Kabaddi Federation president Janardhan Singh Ghelot opined, “For every Indian whenever the national anthem is sung in a sports event, it’s a matter of pride and honour and Kabaddi is a sport with pride and honour enthralled in it throughout. So the National Anthem is the best way to kickstart the league. Kabaddi always made India proud but no one was aware of the achievements of Indian Kabaddi players. Thanks to Mashal Sports, Charu Sharma, Nitin Kukreja, Star India Team and all their initiatives that the sport and the players got global recognition. The day Kabaddi will find a spot in Olympics, my dreams will turn true.”

     

    According to a source close to the development, Star India is said to have paid Bachchan approximately Rs 2.5 crore for the ‘Le Panga’ campaign. However, the source also informed that Bachchan did not charge for the National Anthem appearance.

     

    The tournament also stretched its arm to shake hands with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign. In a silent support to the campaign last year, Star in one of its TVCs opposed throwing waste on the roads in a creative way. “This year, we are actively part of it. We decided to join the campaign and push it actively. We need a cleaner India, we need to stop throwing waste in the middle of the road. There are waste paper baskets to throw garbage and so we decided to talk about it more this year. We will talk about the campaign across every medium,” added Sharma.

     

    The tournament’s last year record may emerge as the biggest challenge this year. If Pro Kabaddi League 2 fails to garner more than 435 million viewers, will it affect the brand value and pose a question mark over the sustainability? Terming last year’s record as a compliment rather than a challenge, Sharma said, “I don’t take it as a challenge. Last year the tournament was over before people got into it. This year, people are waiting for it so I expect it to grow bigger and better.”

  • Amitabh Bachchan lends vocals for Pro Kabaddi League promo

    Amitabh Bachchan lends vocals for Pro Kabaddi League promo

    MUMBAI: The second season of Star Sports’ Pro Kabaddi League is set to kickstart on 18 July, 2015 and Star India has roped in none other than Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan to lend his baritone voice to its new commercial. 

     

    The iconic actor, who has an inimitable voice, has composed and sung the latest commercial of Pro Kabaddi League. 

     

    Star India CEO Uday Shankar said, “Star has a deep and abiding commitment to growing the sport of Kabaddi. The inaugural season introduced the sport in an aspirational and cool avatar. We are delighted to partner with Mr. Amitabh Bachchan for the second season of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi, to help galvanize the sport across the nation.” 

     

    Bachchan added, “The early years of one’s life are the moments deeply ingrained in us. Kabaddi formed an integral part of our daily sport. When Star asked me for my participation in its promotion under Pro Kabaddi, I readily agreed for one simple reason – an opportunity to relive our younger exciting days. The composition of the song, its tune and its singing by me, has been an absolute delight. During its recording, helped by music director Aadesh Srivastava, I actually felt I was playing the game.”

     

    The promotional film for Star Sports Pro Kabaddi, takes forward the #LePanga narrative in the form of a peppy, energetic and fast paced Bachchan song. The underlying visuals have superlative game and in action portraits of the heroes of the sport. What better booster than the baritone the country adores? This was the thought that motivated the very words of the film penned by India’s leading adman Ogilvy and Mather executive chairman and national creative director Piyush Pandey.

     

    Highlighting the concept, Pandey asserted, “The idea was to combine the martial energy of the great India sport with the great Indian tradition of ‘Veer Ras,’ one of the nine emotions or ‘Navrasas’ of our culture. With a sense of fun and fire, that is how I wrote this song. Thereafter Mr. Bachchan took over. He composed the music, sang the song and created a legendary track.”

     

    Star Sports Pro Kabaddi will be telecast live on Star Sports 2 and Star Sports HD2 in English; Star Sports 3, Star Sports HD3 and Star Gold in Hindi; Maa Movies in Telugu; Suvarna Plus in Kannada and Star Pravah in Marathi.

  • PKL 2: Star ropes in 5 associate sponsors for India; title sponsor for UK telecast

    PKL 2: Star ropes in 5 associate sponsors for India; title sponsor for UK telecast

    MUMBAI: The second season of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) is all set to go on air from 18 July and Star Network is busy amassing sponsors for the same.

     

    While the network has roped in five associate sponsors for the India telecast, it is expecting to pocket a few more before the series goes on air.

     

    Moreover, Star has sealed a deal with Clearwater Solicitors, which has associated as the title sponsor for the UK telecast of PKL Season 2.

     

    As a part of its distribution strategy in the United Kingdom, Star will also air the second season of PKL on Life OK. After out-bidding competitors, Clearwater Solicitors bagged the title sponsor rights to ensure increased exposure to the UK’s South Asian community.

     

    Speaking exclusively to Indiantelevision.com, Clearwater Solicitors co-owner Yaqub Mohammed said, “Kabaddi is a popular game for the UK South Asian Community and the partners are huge Kabaddi fans. We believe the sponsorship deal will be a fantastic way to increase our exposure to the south Asian audiences in the UK.”

     

    The sponsorship deal is only for the 2015 edition and is exclusively for the UK broadcast. However, Mohammed states that there are high possibilities of an extension. “This deal is only for this season but we will look to continue our sponsorship in the future too. Star Network is the number one network and we can get increased exposure amongst the South Asian community via them,” he said.

     

    Meanwhile for the India telecast, the broadcaster has already got in five associate sponsors namely cola brand Thums Up, e-commerce giant Flipkart, innerwear apparel VIP Frenzy, automobile ventures TVS Motors and Bajaj Electrical. What’s more, apart from these, a few more brands are expected to join in before the tournament kick starts.

     

    According to a media expert, the decision to not have an external title sponsor for the India telecast is a strategic move from the broadcaster. “A title sponsor comes with a lot of other deliverables, which includes ad space too but in sport like Kabaddi there is not much room for advertisement and hence instead of getting a title sponsor and giving it a major chunk of ad space, they decided to rope in a number of associate sponsors, which is a smart move.”

     

    As per the buzz in the market, Star India is said to be quoting Rs 10 crore for the associate sponsor tag. What’s more, as per experts, given the viewership the tourney garnered in its maiden season, Star will manage to get the desired amount for sponsorship.

     

    As was previously reported by Indiantelevision.com, ad rates during the tournament for a 10 second slot will be in the range of Rs 80,000 to 90,000.

     

    The first season of PKL was telecast in 39 countries and this time the network plans to extend it further. In the first edition it garnered cumulative reach of 435 million, which bagged it the second berth in terms of most viewed sporting event in India right after Indian Premier League (IPL), which managed a reach of 560 million. Both Star and Mashal Sports expect to create viewership records in the second edition of the tournament.

     

    It now remains to be seen the number of brands Star India manages to rope in for PKL Season 2 before the games commence.

  • Pro Kabaddi League season 2 to kick-start on 18 July

    Pro Kabaddi League season 2 to kick-start on 18 July

    MUMBAI: Pro Kabaddi League, which was a grand success in 2014, will be back with its second season on 18 July, 2015 with the opening leg to be held at National Sports Club of India (NSCI) in Mumbai.

     

    The season opener will pit the two finalists of last year, as host team U Mumba take on reigning Champions Jaipur Pink Panthers.

     

    The league promoted by Mashal Sports and Star India with the backing of the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India and International Kabaddi Federation, will feature 60 games played across 37 days in eight cities.

     

    Following the same ‘caravan style’ format like in the first season, the league will be played at each franchise city for a duration of four days, where the home team will play four of the visiting franchises. All seven visiting franchises will play a set of away games in each city.

     

    After the opening leg in Mumbai, the league will move on to the Netaji Indoor Stadium, Kolkata, followed by the home of current champions, Jaipur Pink Panthers at Sawai Mangsingh Stadium in Jaipur. The Indoor Stadium at the Patliputra Sports Complex, Patna will be the venue for the culmination to the first half of PKL season 2.

     

    Hyderabad, the new home of the Telugu Titans, will play host to the second half of the league with the caravan arriving at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium on 4 August. Moving on from Hyderabad, the league will be played in at Thyagaraj Indoor Stadium in the capital city and move onto the Kanteerava Indoor Stadium in Bangalore before culminating at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune.

     

    For the grand finale, the play offs will return to NSCI Mumbai, with the semi-finals scheduled for 21 August and the finals and play-offs scheduled for 23 August.

     

    For the entire schedule click here

  • Star India eyes big revenue from Pro Kabaddi League 2

    Star India eyes big revenue from Pro Kabaddi League 2

    MUMBAI: Kabaddi – a sport, predominantly known as villagers’ entertainment, successfully garnered cumulative reach of 435 million and managed to change popular perception when it made its debut in 2014. Star India’s Pro Kabaddi League became an avenue that has the potential to generate enormous revenue.

    While in the first edition, Star Sports was the title sponsor of the league instead of a brand, given the high ratings; it is unlikely that the second edition will see a similar occurrence. According to sources close to the development, in the first week of June, Star India will formally announce the sponsors and date of the tournament.

    So far, 2015 has been an action packed calendar for sports with the ICC Cricket World Cup, followed by the Indian Premier League (IPL). The entire sports loving fraternity is buoyed, which is a positive for broadcasters and organisers. However, an issue they might have to contend with is advertisers’ fatigue since multiple brands have spent heavily on the two cricket tournaments.        

    Pro Kabaddi League is a Mashal Sports initiative, which was initially a joint venture between quizmaster and commentator Charu Sharma and industrialist Anand Mahindra. However, Star India, in April 2015, acquired 74 per cent stake in Mashal Sports.

    Speaking about the second edition of the tournament, Sharma tells Indiantelevision.com, “It is going to be bigger and better than last year. The previous edition ended even before people got into it. While they wanted tickets, the stadiums were full. Pro Kabaddi League is an exhibition of athleticism and action. People liked the innovation because of the raw nature of the sport. This year, I am sure Star will back it with aggressive and accurate promotion, which will apprise the viewer of each and every minor occurrence. I am sure we are going to have an exquisite extravaganza this year.”

    A senior executive from the media fraternity is of the opinion that the ad rates for a 10 second slot during the tournament will be somewhere between Rs 75,000 – 80,000.

    Madison Media COO Dinesh Singh Rathod says, “Last year, it delivered the ratings and hence brands, who missed out on it or probably were unsure will aggressively forge for it. I see the sport as a good medium for promotions and subsequently won’t be surprise if there are brands galore in this edition.”

    The sports rules and regulations were twisted and turned to make the format interestingly elite says entrepreneur and franchisee owner Ronnie Screwvala. “When Charu introduced me to the facts and figures associated with the sport, I was surprised to know the number of players across the country who actively play Kabaddi and hence I was quite sure that the sport will work on television but for that it was necessary to make few changes and the federation (International Kabaddi Federation) was immensely cooperative. Mat came in, the sport from muddy outdoor land went indoor, the raider instead of chanting ‘kabaddi kabaddi’ without break of breath were given a time span to ensure fair judgment as it is impossible to make out for the referee if the raider broke the breath in an indoor stadium that is packed. So all this subtle changes made Kabaddi what it is,” Screwvala tells indiantelevision.com in an exclusive chat.

    Besides players and the innovations in the format, celebrities also played a vital role in the success of the tournament.  All eight franchises had a celebrity connect and names like Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan were spotted sidelines screaming ‘Kabaddi ek Kabaddi do,’ which in turn drove their fan base to the sport.

    It now remains to be seen how many brands go aggressively to use Pro Kabaddi League as a platform to grab eyeballs and whether the sport turns out to be a productive asset for the Rupert Murdoch owned Star Sports.

  • “Creating sporting events more important than acquiring expensive rights”: Sanjay Gupta

    “Creating sporting events more important than acquiring expensive rights”: Sanjay Gupta

    MUMBAI: Star India is in major over drive mode. The network has picked up a 74 per cent stake in Mashal Sports, which is the owner of Pro Kabaddi League.

     

    While delivering a keynote at the 2015 edition of Asia Pacific Video Operators Summit (APOS) Star India chief operating officer (COO) Sanjay Gupta spoke about the company’s aim to spawn a multi-sport culture in the country by promoting local content with events like Indian Super League (ISL) and Pro-Kabaddi League.

     

    “People are queuing up to buy an English Premier League (EPL), a LaLiga or a Bundesliga, but the question here is how much engagement do these games actually offer as compared to relevant local content. We tried this with ISL and Kabaddi and the initial response has been very encouraging,” Gupta informed.

     

    “Sports is a long haul business and it takes sustained investment to build something ground up. We need to have a long term commitment to build a sport… a 10 to 20 years approach to build it ground up. Take the example of EPL, which has been around for decades and has built an extremely strong consumer franchise, which advertisers are eager to associate with. The three year view of buying sporting rights has to change, which disallows most of the partners to make money and disincentives anyone trying to build a sport,” he further added.

     

    Talking about lack of innovation in stifling sports business economics, Gupta said, “When there’s a big sporting event, people congregate to watch in huge numbers. The only question is if there are enough of these happening and how much innovation has been happening.”

     

    Speaking about mushrooming ventures like ISL and Pro Kabaddi League, Gupta added, “Better engagement in sports will drive greater consumption. People don’t look happy when they win a sports bid. Practices in the sports business have become quite toxic. Instead of a content creation business this has been run as a rent a cab business. If I am league owner, chances are I’ll squeeze more money from you than you can ever hope to earn. One of the challenges that we are seeing is that almost all of the investment in sports is going into rights cost. We are trying to change that by investing in basic sports infrastructure apart from rights, whether it was grooming the players for an on screen experience in Kabaddi or partnering to get the stadiums ready for ISL.”

     

    Speaking about the stake acquisition in Mashal Sports, Star India CEO Uday Shankar said, “Star has acquired a majority stake in Mashal Sports with a vision to create an even more favourable ecosystem for the great Indian sport of Kabaddi and build on its successful launch. The investment, completely in sync with Star’s aim to spawn a multi-sport culture in the country, will further help in nurturing India’s sporting talent. We are totally committed to abiding with the vision of Mashal management and all stakeholders of Pro-Kabaddi and will further develop the league in the upcoming season 2.”

  • James Murdoch bets big on Star India; expects $1 billion EBIDTA by 2020

    James Murdoch bets big on Star India; expects $1 billion EBIDTA by 2020

    MUMBAI: The country’s leading broadcaster – Star India is betting big on the future. Star India, which has made a mark in the general entertainment as well as the sports broadcasting space, is looking at turning the company into a billion dollar entity by the turn of the decade, said 21st Century Fox co-chief operating officer James Rupert Murdoch.

     

     “We love the India business. It has now evolved enormously from Hindi entertainment to regional language broadcasting and now we are a national platform. The sports business for us is a new pillar and we are looking at the business in a long-term time frame. And if we keep innovating and investing in putting more creative and innovative content on screen, Star India will become a billion dollar EBIDTA by the turn of the decade,” said Murdoch at the just concluded Asia Pacific Pay-TV Operators Summit 2015 held in Bali.

     

    Addressing the gathering at APOS, Star India CEO Uday Shankar said, “Media content has a huge role in shaping the sensibilities of the society and this role should not be underestimated.”

     

    Stressing on the role of sports, Shankar added, “I am prejudiced towards aspirational content and cynical about cynical content. This is something we have always kept in mind while creating all of our content and it is the same philosophy that we are bringing to sports as well. Sports has a huge role to play in empowerment, especially in a country like India, where we need to make the society believe that even an uneducated person can aspire to something greater if he is talented in a sport. This is what has worked with Kabaddi in a big way.”

     

    Star has applied the same entertainment business philosophy into sports. “We are creating content with deep local affinity using the audience aggregation power that cricket gave you. Sports broadcasting has been plagued by laziness and lack of innovation, treated merely as a distribution agent of acquired rights, which is what we have tried to change with multiple local leagues. If it is your team that’s playing, even if it is not the best team, you would be deeply passionate about it. Creating a hierarchy of leagues across the country can be huge empowering phenomenon,” opined Shankar.

     

    Speaking about content creation and regionalization, he said, “India is a giant country with varied cultures and tastes. We used Asianet as a beach head for the south and elevated the quality of content dramatically with sharper storytelling, involving the best of the creative fraternity and breaking the caste divide between film and TV. For logistic reasons outsourcing production might make sense, but unless you internalize the core creative skill, you will not be able to sustain success, which is why we have build a robust internal creative team to ensure this.”

     

    Star India’s recently launched video on demand (VOD) platform Hotstar has become a talking point of sorts. “Our objective behind Hotstar was quite simple actually – a lot of audiences were consuming our content on other screens, but we were unhappy with the inability to control their viewing experience. We realised we own all of this IP and so came Hotstar. I do not think that this is a ‘free model.’ We need to keep the consumer at the center while thinking about this and in a market like India, where data costs are still pretty high, the consumer is still paying a lot for the data – so it’s not particularly consumer friendly to have them pay twice, especially at such a nascent stage.”

     

    Shankar is also buoyed by the over-the-top (OTT) services space as it allows for democratisation of creativity. “However this is not the same as saying that anyone can create content,” he said.

     

    He also stressed on the use of big data and analytics by the network. “At Star, we use a lot of data and we value it deeply. However, let’s not become data monkeys. Data helps understands patterns but to understand these patterns and take a leap to what should be created next, will still require creativity. No matter how much data we have, I don’t believe we will be able to automate the definition of the next blockbuster,” concluded Shankar.

  • Leagues propel Indian sports industry to Rs 48,069 million in 2015: GroupM

    Leagues propel Indian sports industry to Rs 48,069 million in 2015: GroupM

    MUMBAI: From being a country that thrived on a single sport namely cricket, India has come a long way in the last couple of years. The country witnessed a sports boom of sorts with the mushrooming of various sports leagues. And with that came in the moolah in terms of sponsorships and advertisements.

     

    According to a report by GroupM ESP and SportzPower, the overall sports industry in India has grown by 10 per cent – up from Rs 43,725 million in 2013 to Rs 48,069 million in 2015. However, cricket saw a dip in on-ground and cricket team sponsorship. While on-ground sponsorship fell from Rs 5083 million to Rs 4647 million, team sponsorship was down to Rs 3478 million from Rs 3892 million.

     

    The growth in the industry has come mainly on the back of the emergence of new sports leagues – Indian Super League, Pro Kabaddi League, World Kabaddi League, Champions Tennis League and Indian Premiere Tennis League. FIFA was the big factor for the increase in TV spends.

     

    The second edition of GroupM ESP and SportzPower’s report on sports sponsorship captures the emergence of new leagues in India along with other key highlights. The report captures the trends and developments in advertising and sponsorship in the Indian sports industry in 2014.

     

    Speaking on the future of sports marketing in India, GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas says, “Sports marketing is finally coming of age in India. Even though cricket has shown the way and continues to be the dominant sport, newer leagues are helping broad base sports and make it a great platform for brands. Digital, especially social media, is helping build a fan following much faster. At GroupM, we made inroads into sports marketing some years ago and are now scaling up our practice.”

     

    The second edition of report examines:

    • Emergence of five new leagues in India.
    • Advertising investments and sponsorship in Indian sport from four angles: On-Ground, Team Sponsorship (subset franchise fees), Athlete Endorsement, and On-Air spends
    • Investments in sports besides cricket
    • 10 trends in the sports broadcast industry

     

    Focusing on the key developments that are expected in 2015, GroupM ESP national director, sports & live events Vinit Karnik says, “The key highlights of this report are on-ground sponsorships, team sponsorships and franchise fees, social conversations and endorsements. The sports industry has grown by 10 per cent in 2014 and seen the formation of newer leagues and successful franchises. From a single sports country to a multi-sport country, India is witnessing a boom, which will benefit the sports business ecosystem. In 2015, we predict to see a change in the way consumers interact in the realm of sports and entertainment.”

     

    SportzPower co-founder Thomas Abraham further discusses the future of sports broadcasting in India. “Other sports are emerging gradually with the onset of many new league styled sport events. Even though FIFA was a big factor in the increase in TV spends in 2014, cricket yet dominated Indian sports TV broadcasting with back to back cricketing sports tournaments like the World Cup and IPL, although there was a rise in viewership of other sports too,” he says.

     

    Key Observations:

     

    · From a single sports country to a multi-sport country; India is witnessing a sports boom.

     

    · The entertainment value adds the necessary pull for the new leagues, as audiences are being offered a wide platter of sportainment that is being relished by one and all.

     

    · Split beam: India being a diverse regional market with large linguistic preference, networks have begun to offer feeds in regional languages too. This will grow further with split beams leading to ad-versioning with even regional advertisers getting a slice of the pie.

     

    · TV & Digital: The lines are now blurring. The ICC Cricket World Cup had more than 25 million views on digital. IPL is slated to surpass that in the current 2015 season.

     

    On Ground

     

    · Dip in cricket on-ground numbers are mainly due to lesser matches being held in India in 2014 – only eight cricket matches were played in India in 2014 vis-?-vis 21 matches in 2013. IPL also had no new central sponsor, resulting in a flat year for IPL ground sponsorship.

     

    · New leagues contributed in driving the growth for on-ground sponsorship. While ISL had 10 sponsors at the central level with almost Rs 500 million sponsorship amount; Coca Cola – IPTL was the landmark deal.

     

    Social Conversation

     

    · IPL had over 550,000 social conversations. In spite of the first season, ISL had around 200,000 conversations. 

     

    · PKL (70,000) has more conversation than IPTL (32,000) & HIL (11,000) put together, even though Kabaddi is the least talked about sports in India.

     

    · Pepsi received 41 per cent visible mentions with IPL, whereas 29 per cent associated with Hero Moto Corp with ISL.

     

    Team Sponsorship & Franchise Fee

     

    · Indian cricket team sponsorship price was reduced to Rs 20 million/match from Rs 33.3 million/match with the new sponsorship of Star India. Also IPL 2014 team sponsorship money saw a dip in 2014 from Rs 2750 million to Rs 2537 million, because of the tournament partly shifting to UAE.

     

    · Other sports have also contributed in growth of team sponsorship & franchise fee due to the new sports league. While Football registered a 227 per cent increase from Rs 265 million to Rs 603 million powered principally by the ISL, it was the emergence of other leagues – notably IPTL, CTL, PKL, and WKL that saw a spectacular 1,064 per cent jump from Rs 70 million to Rs 745 million.

     

    · Social & search data depicts different trends for different leagues – while the popularity of IPL led the Search and Social data trends independent to each other; Social and Search data for the other leagues were almost parallel to each other.

     

    Endorsement

     

    · A 14 per cent dip was seen in overall sports celebrity endorsement from Rs 3822 million in 2013 to Rs 3278 million in 2014.

     

    · While the new kids like Virat Kohli’s endorsement fee and number of endorsement brands are going up steadily, for the old boys like Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag, the number of endorsements and fee per endorsement have gone considerably down.

     

    · Moving off cricket and the top earners are all women of substance. Boxer Mary Kom, tennis ace Sania Mirza and badminton queen Saina Nehwal (in that order) are the Big Three of Indian non-cricket sports brand endorsements.

     

    · Tiger Woods endorsing Hero Moto Corp is first-of-its-kind in non-cricketing sports industry– Rs 500 million per year.

     

    · Social & Search Data – While Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar were the most talked about & searched on digital media athletes in 2014; Saina Nehwal, Mary Kom and Sania Mirza are keeping the flame alive for non-cricketing sports.

     

    Year 2015:

     

    · Non-cricket sports are likely to expand the sports business ecosystem.

     

    · Live match content is being repurposed in multiple ways to facilitate social consumption. This trend is slated to grow even bigger in 2015.

     

    · Sporting entities will evolve by building digital and social assets to drive their valuation.

     

    · Sports businesses are predicted to build strong grassroots engagement through experiential programs.

     

    · In stadium experience will be more social and thus, more enhanced. Given that 70 per cent of fans bring a mobile device to the stadium or arena, they are expected to use it during a game too.

     

    · Pro Kabaddi League is the one to watch out for!

     

    Conclusion:

     

    In 2015, non-cricket sports are likely to expand on the lines of various trends all around. Live match content will repurpose in multiple ways to facilitate social consumption. Sports businesses will build strong grassroots engagement through experiential programs. In stadium experience will be more social, more enhanced, as a large majority of fans bring a mobile device to the stadium or arena and will be expected to use it during the game.