Tag: Star India

Star India, Microsoft, Anil Kumble redefine fan engagement with real-time bat stats

MUMBAI: With the support of Star India and Microsoft, Anil Kumble’s technology startup, Spektacom Technologies, introduced the latest cricketing innovation – the power bat on 11 October 2018. The technology is powered by the Microsoft Azure cloud platform using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) services. The technology provides players, coaches, commentators, fans and viewers with a completely new and unique way to engage with the sport and help improve their game.

The Power Bat is a unique concept whereby a lightweight, Azure Sphere-powered sticker is stuck on the shoulder of the bat — a form factor that is completely unobtrusive.

Microsoft has been working closely with Spektacom and its founder Anil Kumble, former Indian captain, to incubate and launch the product, as part of its Scale up program. Star India has used the technology successfully in recent series to provide real-time statistics and insights straight off the oval.

Microsoft executive VP Peggy Johnson said, “We’re excited to be a part of the work Spektacom and Star India are doing to enhance the cricket experience for fans, players and coaches. We’ve already seen the impact that connected devices have had in other industries, and we believe that with the advancements in our AI and cloud services, this is just the beginning of what’s possible for not only cricket but all sports.”

Star India senior vice-president Sanjog Gupta said, “All analytics are tools for storytelling and stories are what we engage fans with, more the stories, deeper the engagement. This technology can be used for other sports like football, kabaddi and maybe even other racket sports or where a bat is involved.

In a live match, as soon as the batsman hits the ball, data on different parameters (speed on impact, twist on impact and quality of the shot — percentage proximity of the ball’s contact to the sweet spot of the willow) are captured in a new unit of measurement titled Power Speks. Microsoft’s Azure Sphere ensures that the data is securely captured and processed.

As the stats will be detailed, every fan will get to see the analysis as the feed will not only be restricted to Star Sports Select but will also be on all the Star Sports channels.

Star India managing director Sanjay Gupta said, “Star India has always strived to redefine and elevate experiences for sports fans. From multi-language feeds and Select Dugout to VR and Watch n’ Play, the coverage of Vivo IPL demonstrates our commitment toward creating new benchmarks in how technology is deployed to deepen fan engagement. The Power Bat promises to be another step in the same direction, and we look forward to the partnership with Anil Kumble (Spektacom) and Microsoft in bringing it to our broadcasts.”

Kumble said, “Our vision is to bring sports closer to fans through interesting ways of engagement using real-time sports analytics. At the same time, it is important that the technologies used are seamless and do not disrupt the game or obstruct the players. With Microsoft, we have been able to create a secure and effective solution, and with Star India, we have a partner that can stimulate and excite fan engagement.”

Microsoft believes in leveraging its technology and its people to help sports teams and organisations solve their toughest challenges. By leveraging the company’s intelligent cloud and productivity solutions, sports organisations worldwide are connecting with fans, optimising team and player performance, and managing their operations in new, innovative ways.

October 12, 2018
Star India vs TRAI: Arguments conclude, SC likely to deliver verdict after Dussehra

MUMBAI: Arguments in the case relating to TRAI and Star India ended today in the Supreme Court. According to a source close to the development, the top court is likely to pronounce the verdict in the matter after the Dussehra holidays.

Despite the impending ruling, most broadcasters have already published their RIOs.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) was first out of the blocks in publishing the RIO, declaring the MRP and nature of channels in connection with its tariff order , which had a 31 August deadline. The Punit Goenka-led company was followed by TV18 Broadcast Limited ( TV18), Sony Pictures Networks India Private Limited (SPNI), who adhered to the regulator’s directive on September 4. Later, Disney India, Turner India International, Sun TV Networks have also published their RIOs in compliance with the order.

All the broadcaster have stuck to a maximum 15 per cent MRP discount to distributors. Earlier, Madras High Court chief justice did not uphold TRAI’s proposal of allowing highest 15 per cent cap on discounts despite giving the go-ahead to all other proposals. As any clarification did not come from TRAI, all the broadcasters are adhering to the order to avoid any further confusion.

The TRAI tariff orders, first contested in Madras High Court by the petitioners, were cleared by the Chennai court with certain riders after hearings that continued almost over 16 months in front of two benches of the court.

Though the petitioners were unable for comments, a legal eagle explained that the very fact the Supreme Court has allotted a day for hearing the petition of Star India and VijayTV, which basically revolves around copyright and why the regulator doesn’t have jurisdiction over such issues, highlights the fact that the judge doesn’t want to take a decision in a hurry.

After the Madras HC had given a thumb up to TRAI tariff order, and both the petitioners and the defendant (TRAI) had filed caveats in the Supreme Court, the regulator had bowled a googly saying that its tariff order would come into effect from 3 July 2018 () as all judicial compliances had been completed.

“Having complied with the judicial mandates in the matter, the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services (Eighth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff Order, 2017 and the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Interconnection (Addressable Systems) Regulations, 2017 as upheld by the Hon'ble Madras High Court and the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services Standards of Quality of Service and Consumer Protection (Addressable Systems) Regulations, 2017 come into effect from 3rd July 2018,” the regulator had said in a statement pointing out that all timelines mentioned in the original order should be adhered to immediately.

According to TRAI, implementation of the new regulatory framework will “bring in transparency”, enable provisioning of affordable broadcasting and cable TV services for the consumer and, at the same time, “would lead to an orderly growth of the sector”.

October 11, 2018
MTV bolsters original content offering to dominate youth channel space

MUMBAI: After Star India had decided to pull the plug on its youth channel Channel V, Viacom18’s MTV channel is the only one left to entertain viewers with the original content. The tug-of-war between MTV and Channel V was worthwhile as the audiences were served with the plethora of original content.

MTV seems to be enjoying its only presence in the youth and entertainment genre as the network is scaling up its pie by announcing 10 hours of new original content per week.

Viacom18 head—youth, music and English entertainment Ferzad Palia said that the network has seen a phenomenal response in the last 12-18 months and has grown from strength to strength on all counts. “Whether its ratings, revenue, buzz, social engagement, we are the only one creating this content. So we are literally a genre in ourselves with everyone else turning back to playing music videos.”

Being bullish about the youth genre, he said, “There’s only MTV, there’s no other youth genre, and who else do you compare with us? Everyone else who used to make any sort of original content has either folded up or has switched being the music video channel.” He added that when the channel had reorganised the portfolio in 2018, it had a clear vision that MTV Beats will take the lead when music is concerned and MTV will look at original content creation.

Palia said that the cluster had experimented in the last 12-18 months, which has resulted in great success on TV and digital. “Our ratings for TV has doubled and the consumption on digital space on digital has gone up three times. Whichever TG you look at, 15-30 years of age group, we are now at about 13 million gbm. We have upped the game almost 10 fold.”

The network has set its ball rolling to launch three new shows, the fourth season of India’s Next Top Model, premiering from 6 October every Saturday at 6 pm, Elevator Pitch—airing on 12 October, every Friday at 7 pm and Ace of Space ¬scheduled every day at 6 pm from 20 October.

When asked about the ad inventories sold for the new shows, Palia said, “A lot of the ad inventory is sold and a lot of them will get sold. Since it is also festive season so we are actually going oversold on MTV to drop many spots on the daily basis, we would love to accommodate it, but we cannot and that is thankfully the good problem to have currently. In addition, it is not just the inventories the sponsorships, the integration and the customisations that we do, we also have another source of revenue which is very healthy source of revenue and that is the branded content. We do a lot of turnkey work for advertisers who want to reach out to the youth and leverage them who can really speak best and integrate them as we did recently for Airbnb with Saif and Kareena.”

MTV had cemented its grasp over young India with 400 million viewers tuned into the channel and garnering 6 billion watch-minutes on Voot in the last one year. As per the BARC data’s week 39, MTV rules the chart with 18495 Impressions (000s) sum, followed by Zing, E24 and MTV HD+ securing second, third and fourth positions respectively with 10169 Impressions (000s) sum, 4128 Impressions (000s) sum and 190 Impressions (000s) sum.

October 6, 2018
Kabaddi beats football in popularity among Indian kids

MUMBAI: The sports viewership in India has been mainly restricted to cricket for the longest time. It is difficult for any other sport to lock horns with cricket. So the race is on for the second spot. We seem to have a winner for now. Star India’s homegrown property Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) has helped kabaddi carve its space and became the second most watched sport in the country.

With the sport gaining popularity across the country, not only adults and youth but kids are also enjoying the game. PKL season 6 is all set to commence on 7 October 2018. The league is by far the most popular non-cricket property, contributed 61 per cent of viewership share in season 4, according to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India.

Kids as an audience, contribute to 20 per cent of total TV viewership, which is the highest share across all age cuts. In 197 million TV households, there are around 211 million kids. In sports, after cricket, kids are watching kabaddi with 19 per cent viewership share from week 8 in 2017 to week 37 in 2018.

Ernst & Young partner, media and entertainment advisory services Ashish Pherwani said, “Star changed the way kabaddi was marketed in India. It created heroes, made the sport more involving for the audience and made it a faster exciting event.”

Rural India contributes to 74 per cent of the live viewership and the remaining by the urban market in the kid’s audience. Out of the 19 per cent share, kids mostly watch live telecast (55 per cent), whereas 26 per cent of the viewership comes from highlights.

PKL season five garnered 1.6 billion impressions from the live telecast on seven channels. The final match in season five garnered 25.4 million impressions compared to 13.9 million impressions in season four, which is 83 per cent growth.

Kabaddi as a sport is followed the most in AP/Telangana followed by Maharashtra/Goa and Karnataka. If we look at the region wise contribution in the two to 14 age groups, 44 per cent is shared between Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Goa. Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh contribute to 27 per cent of the overall viewership in the same age group.

As kids contribute to 20 per cent of the total TV viewership, a larger part of it is because of co-viewing. A further split is observed between channels whose primary audience are kids and all other channels where kids are the incidental viewers. GEC and movies channel together account for over 80 per cent viewership share on non-kids channels.

PwC India partner, media, entertainment and sports sector advisory leader Raman Kalra said, “Kabaddi is popular that is true and it will continue to grow also but there is a very clear rise of football. Even though the statistics are either way but clearly football is going to grow rapidly in India. I do believe that it is going to become a prominent sport in all the segments, especially given the kind of grassroots development and academies happening in that front.”

If we talk about brands, PKL season one hardly had any sponsor and partner but with the traction it had got for the past couple of seasons, it has managed to cross 100-mark in season five including individual team sponsors and partners. In 2017, Vivo signed a Rs 3 billion ($45 million) deal for five years with the league.

PKL season 4 had a high contribution from female viewers (44 per cent). Despite this, female-specific sectors are not present on PKL. Female-targeted sectors (personal care/ personal hygiene, household products, personal healthcare) contributed 15 per cent to the total duration of advertisement. As opposed to that, male categories (durables, banking/finance/investment, auto, fuel/petroleum products, alcoholic drinks) constitute 35 per cent of the total duration.

As kids watch kabaddi more than football, if we compare the ad sector between ISL and PKL, we can see the entire education sector missing in PKL. Education sector contributed to 11 per cent of total duration at the time of ISL. “That’s a natural phenomenon, brands will follow the audience no matter the sport. As the audience profile starts going up you will always see an appropriate shift of brands,” Kalra added.

Encouraging the growth of the sport amongst the younger generation, Star Sports has undertaken a pioneering initiative, KBD Juniors, to spread awareness by facilitating grassroots level engagement. KBD Juniors season 2 has already begun and will be broadcast on Star Sports and Hotstar during season six of PKL. The tournament will have 24 schools across 12 cities and 3,500 students between the age group of 11 to 12 years battle it out to make it to the grand finale.

The events included in the data are National Kabaddi Championship, Pune League Kabaddi Spardha, Vivo PKL Season 5 from 2017 and All India national style Kabaddi, Asian Games (Kabaddi), Big C Telangana Premier Kabaddi, Kabaddi masters Dubai, Kabaddi national and Pune League Kabaddi in 2018.

October 5, 2018
Star India pegged to earn close to Rs 450 cr from ISL 5

MUMBAI: Star India is aiming to earn more from this year’s Indian Super League (ISL). Industry experts believe it will earn close to Rs 450 crore revenue from advertising and sponsorship. The projected revenue includes broadcast as well as digital. Season 5 starts from 29 September 2018 to 16 December 2018.
“Star is eyeing around Rs 450 crore. This was the aim last time but this time it looks like they will be able to achieve it because they have put Star Gold and Star Utsav in the frame,” an industry source informed Indiantelevision.com on condition of anonymity.

September 28, 2018
Facebook appoints Hotstar’s Ajit Mohan as India MD & VP in major coup

MUMBAI: The social media giant Facebook finally ends its hunt to find a head for India operations. Facebook has appointed Ajit Mohan as Managing Director and Vice-President of Facebook India. He will join Facebook early next year.
In this newly created role of Managing Director for India, a VP-level role, one of the most important responsibilities for this person will be aligning teams and driving Facebook’s overall strategy in India. This is a new structure for Facebook India of having a senior leader reporting into Menlo Park and not Asia Pacific.
“India is one of the largest and most strategically important countries for Facebook. As we think about what it will take to achieve our mission of bringing people together and building community, we know that investment in India is critical. Ajit’s depth of experience will help us to continue to have a positive impact in India across communities, organizations, businesses and with policy makers”, Facebook Inc vice-president of business and marketing partnerships said David Fischer.
“I am delighted to take on the mantle of shaping Facebook’s charter in India. It is a unique opportunity to shape the agenda of a company that has brought the world closer together in one of the most exciting markets in the world. I look forward to championing India in Facebook and working with stakeholders across the spectrum to help build deep and meaningful communities across the country” Ajit Mohan commented.
He joins Facebook from Hotstar, the streaming platform launched by Star India, where he was Chief Executive Officer. He launched and built Hotstar into India’s leading premium video streaming platform. Ajit is an alumnus of McKinsey and Company’s New York office where he worked with media companies around the globe as well as served as a Fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute, where he focused on India’s rapid urbanization. He is a graduate of the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

September 24, 2018
Star India, Jio sign landmark 5-year cricket deal

MUMBAI: Star India and Reliance Jio unleashed a new era in sports entertainment by announcing a 5-year deal. The partnership will cover international matches in all three formats (T20s, ODI and test) and also the premier domestic competitions of BCCI.

Jio and Star will make all televised India-cricket matches available to users of JioTV and Hotstar in India. This will be the first time that a streaming platform and a high-speed data network have come together to deliver the best of cricketing content with connectivity to benefit the Indian consumers.

Star India MD Sanjay Gupta said, “Over the last five years, we have re-invented the sports experience in India across screens, both television and digital. Indian cricket under BCCI is one of the most compelling properties in the world and we are excited to apply the same lens of innovation and re-invention to the property that we have applied to other sports in the last few years. And, with a new partner in Reliance Jio, we will have even more opportunities to raise the bar for cricket fans.”

Jio director Akash Ambani said, “Jio continues to bring the most exclusive content to its users, this time around through the JioTV app. Cricket is not just played, its worshipped in India. Every Indian must have access to the best sporting events as well as quality and affordable bandwidth to consume the content. With this partnership, we intend to address both these objectives of providing the best sporting content with the best digital infrastructure to the Jio users. Jio promises to and will continue to bring a superlative customer experience in the areas of sports, AR, VR, immersive viewing and more in the coming days.”

Jio and Star have been instrumental in leading many such disruptive initiatives, where they have put the consumer in the centre of innovation.

September 22, 2018
TRAI vs. Star India case: next SC hearing on September 25

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court has deferred the hearing of Star India’s petition against TRAI tariff and inter-connect order to 25 September 2018. This is the fifth time in this month that the hearing has been deferred. Despite the impending ruling, several broadcasters have already published their RIOs.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) was first out of the blocks in publishing the RIO, declaring the MRP and nature of channels in connection with its tariff order , which had a 31 August deadline. The Punit Goenka-led company was followed by TV18 Broadcast Limited ( TV18), Sony Pictures Networks India Private Limited (SPNI), who adhered to the regulator’s directive on September 4. Later, Disney India, Turner India International, Sun TV Networks have also published their RIOs in compliance with the order.

All the broadcaster have stuck to a maximum 15 per cent MRP discount to distributors. Earlier, Madras High Court chief justice did not uphold TRAI’s proposal of allowing highest 15 per cent cap on discounts despite giving the go-ahead to all other proposals. As any clarification did not come from TRAI, all the broadcasters are adhering to the order to avoid any further confusion.

The TRAI tariff orders, first contested in Madras High Court by the petitioners, were cleared by the Chennai court with certain riders after hearings that continued almost over 16 months in front of two benches of the court.

Though the petitioners were unable for comments, a legal eagle explained that the very fact the Supreme Court has allotted a day for hearing the petition of Star India and Vijay TV, which basically revolves around copyright and why the regulator doesn’t have jurisdiction over such issues, highlights the fact that the judge doesn’t want to take a decision in a hurry.

After the Madras HC had given a thumb up to TRAI tariff order, and both the petitioners and the defendant (TRAI) had filed caveats in the Supreme Court, the regulator had bowled a googly saying that its tariff order would come into effect from 3 July 2018 () as all judicial compliances had been completed.

“Having complied with the judicial mandates in the matter, the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services (Eighth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff Order, 2017 and the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Interconnection (Addressable Systems) Regulations, 2017 as upheld by the Hon’ble Madras High Court and the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services Standards of Quality of Service and Consumer Protection (Addressable Systems) Regulations, 2017 come into effect from 3rd July 2018,” the regulator had said in a statement pointing out that all timelines mentioned in the original order should be adhered to immediately.

According to TRAI, implementation of the new regulatory framework will “bring in transparency”, enable provisioning of affordable broadcasting and cable TV services for the consumer and, at the same time, “would lead to an orderly growth of the sector”.

September 19, 2018
Star raises concern with ACC over revenue regeneration for Asia Cup; BCCI responds

MUMBAI: Star has expressed displeasure on Virat Kohli’s absence from the Asia Cup and had asked Asian Cricket Council (ACC) to get in touch with the BCCI, according to a report by Press Trust of India.

Star, in an email to ACC game development manager Thusith Perera, stated how Kohli’s absence will impact the financial aspect of the coverage.

“In our view, the announcement of the absence of one of world’s best batsmen from the Asia Cup, only 15 days before the commencement of the Asia Cup, is a severe dent to us (event broadcaster) and will severely impact our ability to monetise and generate revenue for the tournament,” the email stated.

The broadcaster had asked ACC to get in touch with BCCI as it was clear that MRA (Media Rights Agreement) obligations required ACC to ensure best national teams are playing the tournament.

The BCCI, however, in a sharp reply to ACC has made it clear that neither it nor broadcasters have any say in national team selection matters.

However, BCCI made it clear that it is solely the parent body’s prerogative to choose the national team and no outside interference would be allowed.

“Please note that selection of best available team for participation in a tournament is sole prerogative of BCCI,” BCCI CEO Rahul Johri replied to Perera.

“It is not open for ACC or its broadcaster to insist on selection of any particular player and/or to question the expertise of any selection committee as to which is the best available team for particular tournament,” Johri further wrote.

Kohli, inarguably the biggest draw in world cricket, was rested after an 84-day tour of England where he emerged as top run-scorer with 593 runs in five Tests.

Star India acquired the global media rights for Asia Cup from 2016 to 2023 in December 2015.

September 17, 2018
Trai vs. Star case: next SC hearing on Sept. 18

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court has deferred the hearing of Star India’s petition against TRAI tariff and inter-connect order to 18 September 2018 due to insufficient time. This is the fourth time in this month that the hearing has been deferred. Despite the impending ruling, several broadcasters have already published their RIOs.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) was first out of the blocks in publishing the RIO, declaring the MRP and nature of channels in connection with its tariff order , which had a 31 August deadline. The Punit Goenka-led company was followed by TV18 Broadcast Limited ( TV18), Sony Pictures Networks India Private Limited (SPNI), who adhered to the regulator’s directive on September 4. Later, Disney India, Turner India International, Sun TV Networks have also published their RIOs in compliance with the order.

All the broadcaster have stuck to a maximum 15 per cent MRP discount to distributors. Earlier, Madras High Court chief justice did not uphold TRAI’s proposal of allowing highest 15 per cent cap on discounts despite giving the go-ahead to all other proposals. As any clarification did not come from TRAI, all the broadcasters are adhering to the order to avoid any further confusion.

The TRAI tariff orders, first contested in Madras High Court by the petitioners, were cleared by the Chennai court with certain riders after hearings that continued almost over 16 months in front of two benches of the court.

Though the petitioners were unable for comments, a legal eagle explained that the very fact the Supreme Court has allotted a day for hearing the petition of Star India and Vijay TV, which basically revolves around copyright and why the regulator doesn’t have jurisdiction over such issues, highlights the fact that the judge doesn’t want to take a decision in a hurry.

After the Madras HC had given a thumb up to TRAI tariff order, and both the petitioners and the defendant (TRAI) had filed caveats in the Supreme Court, the regulator had bowled a googly saying that its tariff order would come into effect from 3 July 2018 () as all judicial compliances had been completed.

“Having complied with the judicial mandates in the matter, the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services (Eighth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff Order, 2017 and the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Interconnection (Addressable Systems) Regulations, 2017 as upheld by the Hon’ble Madras High Court and the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services Standards of Quality of Service and Consumer Protection (Addressable Systems) Regulations, 2017 come into effect from 3rd July 2018,” the regulator had said in a statement pointing out that all timelines mentioned in the original order should be adhered to immediately.

According to TRAI, implementation of the new regulatory framework will “bring in transparency”, enable provisioning of affordable broadcasting and cable TV services for the consumer and, at the same time, “would lead to an orderly growth of the sector”.

September 13, 2018