MUMBAI: The sports ecosystem has seen a see of development in recent past. Non-cricket as a whole graduated from a flying bubble to a serious entity. Pro Kabaddi, from an un-orthodox experiment has become a case study. Cricket is a serious business for the broadcast ecosystem and has been from a long period of time, but now Sports as a whole has become serious business: But What’s next? and that is what the next session of FICCI Frames 2016 is all about.
Indiantelevision.com will bring to you the updates of the session live and exclusive.
The panelists will be quizzed by ESPN Cricinfo, Senior Editor: Gaurav Kalra
Star Sports, President, Nitin Kukreja
Owner Gujrat Lions IPL franchise: Keshav Bansal
USports CEO Supratik Sen
SE TransStadia MD and CEO: Udit Sheth
FC Goa CEO Sukhwinder Singh
Kalra throws the ball at Nitin’s court. Asks him for his initial comment.
“This Country is in verge of witnessing something special,” Nitin gets the ball rolling.
“I still remember the morning we launched Kabaddi. We were still unsure. From there to now, we have learned a lot.” “We have learned that all stakeholders need to work together. Some stake holders need more convincing,” ‘collaboration is the key’ the biggest outcome from Nitin’s initial remarks. “Judging our success, it has come at the back of all our stake holders,” he gives credit to all the stake holders.
Now Kalra goes to the CEO of the most successful PKL team, Supratik Sen narrates how the interest on PKL came. “Ronnie came and said we are going to invest on Kabaddi and that’s where it all started. It was quite a challenge, in the initial days we heard ab gilly danda kyun nhi khel lete, but when we spoke to the 40 plus age group, the women and men have played it in their lives, the answer became easier.”
He further talks about the challenges, “Our challenge was to take it to the masses, so we reached out to them and got our talent, the we transformed these athheletes, into stars as we could mould them.
Nitin now asked about the perception ‘Kabaddi won’t work’ He terms it ‘Outsiders view’ “The second season has completely changed the face of the game, the stakes are higher now. You need to go to Ranchi to know how big Hockey is, go to Hyderabad to see how popular Kabaddi is” he remarks.
“Sporting has become even more local, even when it comes to sporrt revenuee. We were used to ccheer for team Inddia, but now there is a team Goa and team Kolkata” Nitin now talks about the paradigm shift.
“We don’t expect to make profit from our IPL investment. This investemt is more about marking and building a brand that will reach to millions,” realistic Keshav narrates.
Kalra quizzes on how to build interest on football to FC goa?
Singh now has the mic, “While cricket remains the religion, but if we manage to package well and make it more and more engaging for the fans, and allow financial partneers to come forward and be a part pf the process, there is a way to sustain it.”
“We are not sitting idle when the games are done. We are investing in the grassroots and keeping the aspiration about the game alive in the nine months when there is no league” Singh adds.
Is there an area we need to pay urgent attention, which has been neglected, to develoe a culture around sport? — kalra
Udit: Sport infrastructure wasnt thought of as a montisisng asset in our country. India has about 80 stadiums, but none of them are designed for television broadcast. When I was in talks with the Gujarat government, we told them we werent there to build a stadium, but to buld a sporting culture,” infrastructure is too a key, its not about getting them there but keeping them there and provide them quality experience……. great thoughts from Singh.
What role can broadcasters play in developing a sports culture? A heavyweight question and there can be no one better than Nitin to answer this.
“Ratings are important, from an advervenue perspective. But we realise that sport is not just a television product. We realise that grassroots play an important role too,” he is not done yet now he sheds light on the fact that the clubs too need to take a lot of responsibilities “we can do it to a certain extent, but the clubs will have to take it upon themselves to build the culture foreward”
Keshav now has the mic, “The success of any team worldwide largely depennds on how they perform, Brand building is important, and its a gradual process. The teams who have been in the league from thhe staart have an advantage. They had the time to build their legacy, and meerchandisisng followed. We are also working on building a brand, ut it will take time. Ultimately performance will speak.”
Are you monetisisng kabaddi enough? shoots a delegate sitting in the ballroom……Well can there be enough monetising ever? ……… Karla diverts the question to Nitin, “As long as you are dong the right thing for the sport, as long as you are investing in the right areas, the money will follow. Its a question whether its in one year two year or three years,”…….. answers Nitin
Karla now follows the ticker and wraps the session……
It was Indiantelevision.com Reporter Papri Das sending all the live updates from the venue…
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This is Anirban Roy Choudhury signing off for today…….
