ITV

Tag: Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League

  • 60 crore ad revenue, 36% viewership hike: Pro Kabaddi League a hat-trick of success

    60 crore ad revenue, 36% viewership hike: Pro Kabaddi League a hat-trick of success

    MUMBAI: The third season did not make fans wait for the too long a period of a year. After a gap of merely a few months Star Sports Pro Kabaddi league was back in action. The mats were the same and there was no change in the number of teams or formats. The only change was the sport had become popular and the tournament had to deal with the burden of expectation. 

    “Star India is a champion when it comes to dealing with expectations” says a franchisee owner on condition of anonymity. He further adds, “Many media people will tell you about the marketing and packaging, but the distribution push that they have given has done a world of good for the sport. Only Star Sports would have got them 40 per cent of the reach they have got. Star Gold and other channels is what has done the trick.” 

    The broadcaster has roped in six associate sponsors for season 3 in Bajaj, TVS, Flipkart, State Bank of India, Gionee and Idea, while Fair & Lovely, Nissin and Mountain Dew are associated as partners. “The ad revenue generated this time would easily count to Rs 60 crore, which is a twenty per cent growth compared to the last edition. This signifies the smart way of monetising that Star has adopted” asserts a media sports media planning expert.

    The broadcaster did not sell the title sponsor slot as that takes away majority of the inventory, and instead decided to keep it to itself. “The biggest reason why it’s successful is because the broadcaster is the primary owner and the selling is packaged. The brands get the ROI by having presence both on ground and on television, hence they show immense interest.” opines a senior media planning expert.

    The 20 per cent hike in revenue is well complemented by a 36 per cent rise in viewership.  While viewership at All India Urban level increased by 36 per cent from 54.5 TVMs in season 2 to 74 TVMs in season 3, Rural India also joined the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi fan bandwagon, delivering a staggering 135 TVMs according to the BARC CS4+ Rural for its first week in season 3. 

    On the rise of viewership Star India CEO Uday Shankar had said in a media statement, “No other sport has grown so fast and gained such wide and deep following with fans across urban and rural India, across audience segments – men, women and kids and across screens (television and digital). The sport has truly become a unifier in its appeal, second only to cricket. This brings us a great sense of pride and is a reflection of our commitment to promote a multi-sports-culture in India.”

    The moment the twice a year concept was unveiled, critics started prophesising, possibilities of fatigue were magnified, and the quality of matches was questioned. “The seasons so far have answered all those questions, I believe” says Mashal Sports director Charu Sharma. He further adds, “The debate of exploitation does not exist in the case of Kabaddi because we are not there for a good 40 weeks time. The nature of the game is such that we need to be there twice at least for our fans.”

    The organisers are also toying with the idea of roping in more teams to make it a 12 team format. The new franchises will certainly be sold at a higher price when compared to the first set of buyers. “The game is now established and evolved, but all this will at least take more than a year. The plan is to make it a longer running tournament and then we might have a once a year outing” adds Sharma.

    Defending champion, U-Mumba is again in the semis and this makes a 100 per cent success ratio for the team. For all the three, seasons U-Mamba has managed to reach the semis which twice before they have won to qualify for the finals. “They are a formidable force with quality players in the team. The way it is managed, Ronnie and his team also plays a vital role behind their progress. I am happy with the fact that Bengal has made it to the semis, Earlier, Bengal was lacking when it comes to Kabaddi and this is a success of the tournament that new teams are reaching the knockouts” explains Sharma.

    “There has been no evidence of fatigue and the wear and tear that are common in any sport and to reach the final stages takes hard work. We had a great season and now we are looking ahead towards the semis,” says UMumba CEO Supratik Sen 

    Now steps taken by the franchises will determine the next level of success for the league.

  • 60 crore ad revenue, 36% viewership hike: Pro Kabaddi League a hat-trick of success

    60 crore ad revenue, 36% viewership hike: Pro Kabaddi League a hat-trick of success

    MUMBAI: The third season did not make fans wait for the too long a period of a year. After a gap of merely a few months Star Sports Pro Kabaddi league was back in action. The mats were the same and there was no change in the number of teams or formats. The only change was the sport had become popular and the tournament had to deal with the burden of expectation. 

    “Star India is a champion when it comes to dealing with expectations” says a franchisee owner on condition of anonymity. He further adds, “Many media people will tell you about the marketing and packaging, but the distribution push that they have given has done a world of good for the sport. Only Star Sports would have got them 40 per cent of the reach they have got. Star Gold and other channels is what has done the trick.” 

    The broadcaster has roped in six associate sponsors for season 3 in Bajaj, TVS, Flipkart, State Bank of India, Gionee and Idea, while Fair & Lovely, Nissin and Mountain Dew are associated as partners. “The ad revenue generated this time would easily count to Rs 60 crore, which is a twenty per cent growth compared to the last edition. This signifies the smart way of monetising that Star has adopted” asserts a media sports media planning expert.

    The broadcaster did not sell the title sponsor slot as that takes away majority of the inventory, and instead decided to keep it to itself. “The biggest reason why it’s successful is because the broadcaster is the primary owner and the selling is packaged. The brands get the ROI by having presence both on ground and on television, hence they show immense interest.” opines a senior media planning expert.

    The 20 per cent hike in revenue is well complemented by a 36 per cent rise in viewership.  While viewership at All India Urban level increased by 36 per cent from 54.5 TVMs in season 2 to 74 TVMs in season 3, Rural India also joined the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi fan bandwagon, delivering a staggering 135 TVMs according to the BARC CS4+ Rural for its first week in season 3. 

    On the rise of viewership Star India CEO Uday Shankar had said in a media statement, “No other sport has grown so fast and gained such wide and deep following with fans across urban and rural India, across audience segments – men, women and kids and across screens (television and digital). The sport has truly become a unifier in its appeal, second only to cricket. This brings us a great sense of pride and is a reflection of our commitment to promote a multi-sports-culture in India.”

    The moment the twice a year concept was unveiled, critics started prophesising, possibilities of fatigue were magnified, and the quality of matches was questioned. “The seasons so far have answered all those questions, I believe” says Mashal Sports director Charu Sharma. He further adds, “The debate of exploitation does not exist in the case of Kabaddi because we are not there for a good 40 weeks time. The nature of the game is such that we need to be there twice at least for our fans.”

    The organisers are also toying with the idea of roping in more teams to make it a 12 team format. The new franchises will certainly be sold at a higher price when compared to the first set of buyers. “The game is now established and evolved, but all this will at least take more than a year. The plan is to make it a longer running tournament and then we might have a once a year outing” adds Sharma.

    Defending champion, U-Mumba is again in the semis and this makes a 100 per cent success ratio for the team. For all the three, seasons U-Mamba has managed to reach the semis which twice before they have won to qualify for the finals. “They are a formidable force with quality players in the team. The way it is managed, Ronnie and his team also plays a vital role behind their progress. I am happy with the fact that Bengal has made it to the semis, Earlier, Bengal was lacking when it comes to Kabaddi and this is a success of the tournament that new teams are reaching the knockouts” explains Sharma.

    “There has been no evidence of fatigue and the wear and tear that are common in any sport and to reach the final stages takes hard work. We had a great season and now we are looking ahead towards the semis,” says UMumba CEO Supratik Sen 

    Now steps taken by the franchises will determine the next level of success for the league.

  • Star Sports Pro Kabaddi names Rana Daggubati as brand ambassador

    Star Sports Pro Kabaddi names Rana Daggubati as brand ambassador

    MUMBAI: Star Sports’ Pro Kabaddi League has roped in actor Rana Daggubati as its brand ambassador for the third season.

     

    Daggubati will promote the Pro Kabaddi League across mediums with a special focus on the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana regions .

     

    Star India COO Sanjay Gupta said, “With season 3, we will scale up our reach and keep raising the league’s value for viewers, players and franchises through high-end production, marketing, communication and grassroots programme. The fact that kabaddi is now the country’s second most viewed sport, second only to cricket, brings us great pride. For Season 3, Rana Daggubati lends his bold, powerful image to Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League. With his pan-India popularity, we hope the association will aid our goal of fostering a multi-sport culture in the country.”

     

    “For me, Kabaddi has always been a fun sport growing up and excited that Star India has pushed the envelope in promoting the sport and making it even more popular in this new format. I’m particularly excited to meet the amazingly talented players as I am also their fan. This will be a great experience,” Daggubati added.

     

    “Star Sports Pro Kabaddi has been an emotional journey for us and it is a matter of pride that the league has been extremely well received in our regional markets with spectacular numbers and has led to the numerous kabaddi fans cheering for their local heroes. Season 3 of the league promises to be only bigger and better and we look forward to this association with Rana Daggubati,” added Star India president – South K. Madhavan.

     

    The third season of the Pro Kabaddi League will kick-start on 30 January, 2016 at Vizag. This year, the league will see two playing seasons, and the squads will include 26 international players from 11 nations, including Kenya, Japan, Oman, Thailand, Indonesia and Poland. Overall, the league will feature around 138 players from eight teams.

  • Star Sports Pro Kabaddi names Rana Daggubati as brand ambassador

    Star Sports Pro Kabaddi names Rana Daggubati as brand ambassador

    MUMBAI: Star Sports’ Pro Kabaddi League has roped in actor Rana Daggubati as its brand ambassador for the third season.

     

    Daggubati will promote the Pro Kabaddi League across mediums with a special focus on the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana regions .

     

    Star India COO Sanjay Gupta said, “With season 3, we will scale up our reach and keep raising the league’s value for viewers, players and franchises through high-end production, marketing, communication and grassroots programme. The fact that kabaddi is now the country’s second most viewed sport, second only to cricket, brings us great pride. For Season 3, Rana Daggubati lends his bold, powerful image to Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League. With his pan-India popularity, we hope the association will aid our goal of fostering a multi-sport culture in the country.”

     

    “For me, Kabaddi has always been a fun sport growing up and excited that Star India has pushed the envelope in promoting the sport and making it even more popular in this new format. I’m particularly excited to meet the amazingly talented players as I am also their fan. This will be a great experience,” Daggubati added.

     

    “Star Sports Pro Kabaddi has been an emotional journey for us and it is a matter of pride that the league has been extremely well received in our regional markets with spectacular numbers and has led to the numerous kabaddi fans cheering for their local heroes. Season 3 of the league promises to be only bigger and better and we look forward to this association with Rana Daggubati,” added Star India president – South K. Madhavan.

     

    The third season of the Pro Kabaddi League will kick-start on 30 January, 2016 at Vizag. This year, the league will see two playing seasons, and the squads will include 26 international players from 11 nations, including Kenya, Japan, Oman, Thailand, Indonesia and Poland. Overall, the league will feature around 138 players from eight teams.

  • Ronnie Screwvala’s grand plans for Kabaddi

    Ronnie Screwvala’s grand plans for Kabaddi

    MUMBAI: If you’ve got to invest in sport in India, then it has to be the multibillion cricketing extravaganza the Indian Premier League (IPL) which attracted audiences like a zillion bees to a honeypot. Nothing else comes even close to it. Well at least that was the perception a couple of years back.

     

    But cricket’s hypnotic influence is waning, as other sports have begun to attract a following. And that’s mainly because game changing innovators have got into develop the business of sports. Amongst them figure Mashal Sports promoter and TV commentator Charu Sharma, Star India boss Uday Shankar and firm believers in disruption like Ronnie Screwvala. The trio picked up a game you and I have all played at some time or the other during our school days.

     

    A game that is played in each and every part of India, a game which the national team has emerged triumphant in each and every level it has participated; a game that we all know but did not talk about much. In no time, it has  emerged as the second most popular sport on television.

     

    We are talking about the game called kabaddi which has flowered as the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League, a tourney that Screwvala’s Unilazer Sports had an eye on from day one. The entrepreneur invested and acquired the Mumbai franchise and named it U Mumba. The first season saw his team play well. Well enough to reach the finals. But not well enough to take home the gold and the trophy; second place was all that it could manage.

     

    But second best was not good enough for Ronnie. Came ProKabaddi League Season II, and Ronnie’s boys took home the gold.  What helped them across the winning line?

     

     “It’s teamwork. From day one we focused on teamwork, and it has worked for us,” pat comes Screwvala’s response. “Ours was the only consistent team which reached the finals in both the seasons. In sport, talent nurturing, morale and teamwork are most important things, so once you get that right – the body language, the aura around it, and the perfection falls in place.”

     

    The success of U Mumba was not limited to the ground. It was reflected in the number of sponsors on the team jersey, in the full houses at the arena when the team played, and in the balance sheet as well in terms of revenue generation.

     

    “I think we had a very focused approach to winning, to perform and that’s what sport is all about, and I feel that’s what has worked for us,” explains Ronnie.  “So when people look at it and say this is the organization which is committed to take sports further, it is committed to its people. It is unlike any other organization when you see the body language and when you see the culture of the company; people invest in the culture of the company. We want to win.”

     

     He has been working on another level too: that of building the franchise of kabaddi. Like other team owners he realized that there were limitations with the ProKabaddi League. Being a once-a-year competition played over a few days, it could not stack up against other sports like cricket or tennis or football that are played throughout the year and have large mind spaces amongst sports lovers. Hence, sustaining its brand value would be difficult[ – forget about enhancing it – which is what most team owners want: an appreciation in the value of their investment in their teams.

     

    So he initiated a discussion with the other stakeholders and they came up with an answer, make the ProKabaddi League a twice a year proposition.

     

     “The thought we had was very clear and I think it came from everybody saying that we should have a longer season or two seasons. In cricket you can have a six weeks league and it still captures people’s minds as the sport is played throughout the year. Our point was that if you want to make a  sport a national interest sport and build it up into an even bigger property, you can’t play it just six days a year. We were pushing everyone and proposing to everyone that we should have two seasons a year and that was our goal. It took all of a year but fortunately now we will we will have season three in January 2016,”  says Screwvala.

     

    The ingredients are all there to make kabaddi a national phenomenon like cricket. The sport has its popularity across India but it was considered to be a non-glamorous sport played on the streets or on dusty grounds by the not so-well-off Indians; not something the rich or the upper middle-class could enjoy. Earlier coverage of the sport on television, especially Doordarshan, had also made it look unappealing.

     

    Hence, kabaddi needed many an innovation to make it look exquisite on television. And there came the great collaboration between Mashal Sports, Star India and the Kabaddi federations. Making the game compact was an important first step, explains Screwvala,  

     

    Says he: “I think what Star and Mashal have done to the sport is incredible. What Mashal did is put the sport on a platform that would make everyone look good. And that’s where the line, time, mat came into picture. If the game was played on mitti (soil) in an open field the compactness would have been missing. The sport would be even more engaging when the spectators were close enough to feel like they were a part of the action.”

     

     Star India too brought its production and creative skill sets to the table and made the sport look larger than life. Ronnie highlights out that Star did not film the league like they would cover a local sport, rather they went the Full Monty, with all the bells and whistles to make it look like a global spectaclur sport.

     

    “Indians like action. The action genre is very big here and the gladiator feel that Star’s coverage has brought is incredible” says Ronnie praising Star India. 

     

    Having tasted success and taking home the booty with his team U Mumba as the champ, Ronnie is brewing further plans relating to ProKabaddi.  

     

    “The sport needs to become aspirational. And we can do that through an animation series, TV series, movies and games. At least two of them will be unveiled in the coming one year,” says the billionaire media baron turned investor. “We have a plan drawn out for the next 18 months and we will do everything possible to make kabaddi an aspirational and regular sport in India. We are investing in a national hunt for new talent, so that we have future stars ready. This is a program to develop kabaddi at the grassroots level. It is an initiative to discover 100-200 Kabaddi talents across pan India. The interaction in rural area has been quite magical so far.”

     

    He is pretty happy with the returns he has got. “Last year we had revenues of Rs 12 crore,” he reveals with a wide smile on his face. “In 2016 we are targeting Rs 40-50 crore.  Mashal kept the acquisition price low and reasonable and thanks to that break even has already happened.”

     

    In terms of sources of revenue, despite the ticket prices being high, sponsorships and alliances lead the tally, followed by gate collections and TV revenue.

     

    “We did decently well in first season but now we are looking for a FourX jump,” he clarifies.” We cannot undersell Kabaddi rather we should not undersell Kabaddi. It is the number 2 sport in the country in terms of viewership…above football so it cannot be the number 4 sport in terms of advertising. It is watched by urban as much it is watched by rural so why do we under sell it?”

     

    He believes a lot more can be achieved if advertisers and agencies correct their perceptions about kabaddi.  Says he with a lot of passion in his voice:  “My only problem is certain advertisers who are in complete la la land.. the complete dinosaurs in my opinion. They still ask questions like:  are urban people watching it? Lets do a research and see who is watching it. And my answer to them is that we will find urban is as much into it kabaddi as rural is. So these perceptions are amateurish.”  

     

    Indeed this is a man who has made it a business to build enterprises and then finding customers who buy into them. And making a fat packet in the process for himself. Not once but several times over. The last one was when he got a very stringent media and entertainment major, the mouse house, Disney to buy out his interests in UTV. Kabaddi is definitely going to be a lot easier.