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Tag: Star Sports

  • Final Ind vs Aus ODI garners unprecedented viewership

    Final Ind vs Aus ODI garners unprecedented viewership

    MUMBAI: Beginning today everyone will be glued to their television screens to witness one of the biggest cricketing moment in history. This will be the last time that cricket fans will get to see the master blaster – Sachin Tendulkar – don the Indian colours.

     

    But, that’s not all – cricket as a sport has always been followed as a religion in this culturally diverse nation. The latest viewership numbers that the seventh and final ODI played between India and Australia witnessed proves it.

     

    The last ODI between India and Australia emerged as the highest rated single day TV event in India for the year 2013. According to data provided by Star Sports, the match garnered 55,561 TVTs (CS 15+, M, SEC ABC, All India ) which remains unmatched on Indian television across all genres this year. It also recorded highest time spent per viewer (TSV) across ODIs in 2013 with 101 minutes on both Hindi and English commentary feed on Star Sports channels.

     

    The recently concluded Star Sports India vs Australia ODI series 2013 was watched by almost 43 per cent of the C&S homes.

     

    Speaking on the occasion, Star India head of sports business Nitin Kukreja said, “We are delighted with the viewer traction for the series. There is an upswing of almost 18 per cent in average time spent per viewer per match for the India-Australia ODI series as compared to all India ODIs played in the year 2013.  We are pleased to note the stickiness that Hindi commentary has been able to generate in the HSM markets. This is a clear cut vindication of our strategy of promoting choice of language for the consumer.”

     

    Sports broadcaster Star Sports had launched a high-decibel campaign, with the core theme ‘Fight for No 1’; to promote the India Australia series featuring seven ODIs and a T20 match. The high profile series commenced on 10 October and ended on 2 November, just two days before Diwali.
    ODI 4 and 5 of the series were impacted by rain. India won the hard fought contest 3-2 thereby retaining the number one ranking in the ICC ODI Rankings.

  • Star Sports launches array of shows

    Star Sports launches array of shows

    MUMBAI: The new campaign by Star Sports wasn’t all that the channel had in its kitty when it announced the launch of six new channels. The network has now launched a slew of new shows: Star Power, Heroes, Masterclass and Hockey Hotshots, aiming at inculcating habit of schedule amongst the sports fans in the country.

     

    Commenting on the launch of new shows, Star India head of sports business Nitin Kukreja said, “The consumption of sports till date has been limited to big live events. We however, would like to engage more deeply with passionate sports fans. Therefore, we are embellishing our live content with a range of new shows and formats. This move is a critical step forward in creating a compelling experience for multi-sports fans who want to watch their favourite sports live and also want to have access to the best of non-live sports programming.”

     

    Shows at glance…
    Star Power – A definitive destination for sports fans for comprehensive updates and insights. The show helps passionate viewers to get deeper into the game. The half-hour show went on air from 6 November and is broadcast live twice a day at 8 pm and 10.30 pm on Star Sports 3.

     

    Heroes – The 13 episode series will showcase star cricketers in a never seen before format, interacting with select children from the age group 8-15 years. The innocent questions and the conversation thereby between the players and the children make the show really interesting. It brings forth traits of the players which have never been explored before. The first show of Heroes featuring Sachin Tendulkar will be aired on Children’s day (14 November) at 7:00 pm and 10:00 pm. The show will feature eminent cricketers including Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Shoaib Akhtar, Harbhajan Singh, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravindra Jadeja , Dinesh Karthik , Kumar Sangakkara, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Cheteshwar Pujara. Heroes will be aired every Saturday at 8:30 pm on Star Sports 3.

     

    Hockey Hotshots: A weekly hockey show that will bring an Indian hockey star under the spotlight in each episode.  Each show will tell the story of its star in terms of his achievement for Indian hockey, his unique skill sets and his significance for the future of Indian hockey.

     

    Hockey Hotshots will focus on ‘Match Winner’ V.R. Raghunath the mercurial drag flicker and player of the tournament in the recently concluded Asia Cup. ‘The Wall’ under the bar P. Sreejesh, vice-captain and adjudged the best goalkeeper of Asia Cup. Mandeep Singh – considered by many experts as the most promising central striker of world hockey. Manpreet Singh, Captain of the junior Indian Hockey team, an Olympian at 19.  Ramandeep Singh – ‘The Play Maker’ a selfless player who keeps the team before self.  Sardar Singh- One of the best mid fielders in the world, a true master of his craft he is considered as one of the most skilful players of modern hockey. Hockey Hotshots will be broadcast every Saturday at 9:00 pm on Star Sports 3.

     

    Masterclass –A half an hour weekly show in both English and Hindi language, Masterclass will focus on highlighting individual techniques adopted by Star Cricket players which made them legends of the game. The show will involve physical demonstrations of various aspects of the game. Icons like Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Navjot Singh Sidhu will discuss in detail intricacies of cricket for the benefit of sports fans. The 13 episode series will be showcased in English on Star Sports 1 and Hindi on Star Sports 3.

  • Greymatter collaborates with Star Sports, Smaash to produce Heroes

    Greymatter collaborates with Star Sports, Smaash to produce Heroes

    MUMBAI: Come 14 November and India will witness one of its most celebrated icons Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar play his 200th and final test match against the West Indies.

    Even as everyone – from brands to hotels to television channels – is busy planning the best possible farewell for the little master, one channel has hit upon a unique way to mark the occasion.

    The channel in question – Star Sports 3 (Hindi) – will debut a new chat show, Heroes, on the very same day, featuring 13 top cricketers from across the globe, starting with none other than Sachin.

    Heroes, which is more in Hindi and less in English, has been created by Greymatter Entertainment (GME) in collaboration with Star Sports and Smaash  located at Lower Parel, Mumbai.

    Speaking about Heroes, GME owner Rahul Sarangi says: “It is a unique chat show, where the world’s top cricketers will be seen chatting informally with kids in the age group of 7-14 years. As for Sachin, he is the biggest icon that India has ever had. He has given us more smiles than any other icon.”

    Apart from Sachin, the 13-episode series will feature Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Shikhar Dhawan and Kumara Sangakara among other cricketers.

    Explaining the thought process behind Heroes, Sarangi says: “It is simple; it is an entertainment chat show, and yet inspiring. This is also in sync with Star Sports’ new campaign ‘I believe’. The show is for kids to find the heroes within themselves.”

    Elaborating on the show being in sync with ‘I believe’, Sarangi says: “If you see cricketers today, they come from small towns, having big dreams. The reason they had bigger dreams was because they grew up watching Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid in their younger days. So, through this show, we give these kids an opportunity to come closer to their heroes and understand what they do when off the field.”

    Sarangi informs that around 60 kids are part of the show and pose candid questions to the cricketers. Apparently, six to seven cameras were used during the shoot, with three edit machines to edit the show. Since the makers needed a very informal environment, the series was shot inside Smaash.

    According to Sarangi, Heroes is about inspirational stories of cricketers, minus any gyaan. “Since it is a ‘No gossip’ show, cricketers are without guard: talking everything under the sun,” he says, pointing out that they will be showcased in a completely different avatar. The show has been moderated by Roshni Chopra.

    He substantiates: “Virat Kohli will be seen teaching kids how to dance, Sangakara will teach violin and Raina will be seen cooking. And yet, all of them will talk about their childhood and what made them the heroes that they are today. It is through the inspirational figure that the kids will get to hear inspirational stories.”

    Sarangi goes on to reveal that Sachin will be seen teaching kids how to play spin against Shane Warne. “Smaash, which has a 3D facility, will show Warne balling. During the episode, Sachin will be seen teaching the kids how to bat on such kind of spin ball delivery,” he illustrates.

    It is a unique chat show, where the worlds top cricketers will be seen chatting informally with kids in the age group of 7-14 years says Rahul Sarangi

    Rubbishing any suggestions of the show being scripted, Sarangi adds: “Considering the show is not scripted, it is the kids who come up with the questions. It is just filtered by the channel and also us, to ensure that the questions aren’t repetitive. We keep the house open for questions. We don’t feed any questions.”

    About the collaboration, he says: “It was a concept well thought by Star Sports. The channel wanted to do a chat show. They approached us with the brief, after which together we brain stormed and came up with the concept.”

    Sarangi explains that the cricketers featured on Heroes were decided together by all three parties involved. “The next step was to convince them to be part of the show, considering all of them are popular players, it was difficult to get their time,” he says.

    The cricketers spent approximately five hours on the sets for the shoot. “We shot one hour of content to come up with a 24 minute episode,” he says, adding it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for the kids. “They are not a studio audience. Here, they sit so close to the cricketer that they can touch him and also interact with him like they were sitting with him in their living room.”

    A considerable amount of time went into the making of Heroes. “A thorough research was conducted to understand what is palatable to the audience, what would be fun for the kids and yet make sense to our audiences watching the show. Even designing the look and feel of every episode took sufficient amount of time,” says Sarangi.

    How confident are the makers about the show? “These days shows are made on conviction,” replies Sarangi, adding “We had two kids’ managers to look into the needs of the kids. Since we were shooting with kids, we had to take care of the hygiene and many other issues relating to shooting.”

    It’s an in-house creative team that worked on the show. “Almost 40 people sat on production, post production, editing, research etc for the show. We don’t believe in taking freelancers for shows like this,” Sarangi rounds off.

  • When sports became front-page news

    When sports became front-page news

    MUMBAI: When ESPN Star Sports changed its identity to Star Sports at midnight on 6 November, it was part of a mission to put sports first.

    Which is exactly what came through when readers of national newspapers in some cities discovered that their morning reads did not have the usual masthead.

    It didn’t end there. The front page had only sports news. People were left wondering why. The answer came when two full page ads greeted them announcing the launch of the six new Star Sports channels. The motive of this disruption was simple- ‘sports first’.

    It was less print campaign, more (new) brand announcement for Star India.
    “It was a statement of purpose. A mission to put sports first,” as Star India executive vice president marketing & communications Gayatri Yadav puts it.

    The network was aware that delivering such a powerful brand promise required a high-impact strategy. “In a bold and innovative campaign, we asked India to imagine a world where sport comes first. For the first time in history – Star Sports has enabled sports to move to the front page of a newspaper in India,” exults Yadav.

    The print campaign covered all editions of The Times of India, Maharashtra Times and Ei Samay, Dainik Jagran (all editions), the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh edition of Nai Duniya and the Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru edition of The Hindu. It targeted six metros and the HSM markets like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and the PHCHP region (Punjab, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh). It is learnt the network spent around Rs 5-7 crore on the print ad releases.

    “The time for the campaign is perfect. With Sachin playing his last series before retirement, we knew there will be a whole buzz around this match and so, for us, it was a good time to bring it up front for maximum impact,” informs Star India’s media agency’s Mindshare principal partner, client leadership Anita Kotwani.

    Getting the sports section to the front page was a strong innovation. “We needed to bring sports to the forefront and what better way to bring the back page to the front page. The live edit of the sports page was upfront and there was no repetition of the sports section in the latter pages. We have been able to execute this innovation with the top publications having the best sports coverage. And this in itself is an achievement,” she says.

    In fact, the one-point brief to Mindshare was – ‘How can we bring sports to the forefront? “Given the fact that it’s sports, the male audience becomes our main target group and naturally, newspapers and publications became the right medium to communicate,” explains Kotwani.

    Asked about the response to the disruption, Kotwani says: “We are talking about the leading newspapers in the country, so of course we couldn’t go wrong with our plan. When the consumers opened the newspaper and saw the sports page upfront, wondering where the masthead was: our job was done. In short, we have achieved the impact that we wanted to create among consumers.”

    Says Maxus managing director south Asia Ajit Varghese: “Rebranding and repositioning the Star Sports network as the sports destination is surely very good messaging. They have four channels and one cannot miss any action across sporting events. It is something that sports lovers will clearly connect with.”

    A media observer points out that Star India still has its work cut out with viewers. Says she: “India is a one sport nation – cricket. With so many channels on offer, there could be some confusion in viewers’ minds: how is each of them different from the other? And will they have to pay additionally for each of them? How much and why? Star India will have to address these issues separately through some promos and advertising later.”

    That probably should give the marketing folks at Star India some food for thought!

  • Star Sports: The marketing hype, the gameplan

    Star Sports: The marketing hype, the gameplan

    MUMBAI: Do it in style. Do it big. That’s what big brands do. And Star India has taken the same tack during the ongoing relaunch of the erstwhile ESPN-Star Sports channels under the new brand of Star Sports. It has kept aside a marketing war chest of an estimated Rs 10 crore to start with for the comprehensive campaign called ‘Believe’ to spread awareness about the brand identity of Star Sports and its six channels.

    To make the message more believable, it has roped in India’s talented cricket captain M S Dhoni as Believe’s first ambassador. And the attempt of the campaign is to outline the beliefs that have made him one of the most iconic heroes of our time and to link the fact that Star Sports brings these very champions to TV screens.
    Our aim is to make ‘Star Sports’ one of the most iconic sports brands in the world, says Gayatri Yadav

    Then there is Navjot Sidhu. Cricket lovers and fans are more than familiar with the extremely entertaining former Test cricketer and now TV personality Navjot Singh Sidhu. The funny Sikh features in a TV commercial stating “Joh baat Hindi mein hai, kissi aur mein nahin” promoting India’s first 24×7 Hindi sports channel Star Sports 3.

    Exults Star India executive vice president marketing and communications Gayatri Yadav: “Our aim is to make ‘Star Sports’ one of the most iconic sports brands in the world. The campaign is based on a core insight that consumers are searching for hero moments in their life. They want to strive for better and realize their own potential for greatness. Our belief is that everyone can take part and share in greatness. We can all be inspired. The mission is to bring the fan closer to heroes than ever before. Our aim is to inspire the hero in you.”

    A massive print road block on 6 November in editions of national newspapers such as The Times of India, The Hindu, Dainik Jagran, Navbharat Times, Maharashtra Times, Nai Duniya saw political and general news being relegated to the inside pages while sports news took over the front page. “The thought was: let’s imagine a world where sports comes first,” says Yadav.
        
    This thought was taken forward on electronic news with Aaj Tak where Star Sports came first on news bulletin logo stings and anchors wore Star Sports branded T-shirts. The two promos featuring Dhoni and Sidhu are getting tremendous air play across all of Star India’s 33 channels.

    On the online and digital front, the home pages of MSN and Yahoo networks had a splash of only sports news; there was none of the general, political and entertainment buzz. A very strong engagement with YouTube subscribers wherein every video watched in India on that day had a pre-roll of the Believe promo. YouTube’s mobile app had a Star Sports promotional banner slapped on. Facebookers were greeted with a digital banner of Dhoni and Star Sports every time they logged out.

    Yadav says that the massive digital burst activity resulted in the new look generating close to 15 million views on day one itself.

    On the out of home front, hoardings sprang up in Mumbai and Delhi to  coincide with the ongoing Star Sports ‘Believe’ India vs West Indies cricket series. Four digital screens put up at terminal 3 of Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus Airport in Mumbai.

    Says Yadav: “We want to create a brand that breaks the rules, a brand that looks, speaks, sounds, behaves like no other in the TV space.”

    If one goes, by the buzz that’s been generated amongst sports TV fans and the janta about the new Star Sports brand, it appears that she and her team have succeeded – to a large extent.

  • Star India’s Rs 20,000 crore sports gamble

    Star India’s Rs 20,000 crore sports gamble

    MUMBAI: That Star India is betting big on sports is well-known. How big the bet it is placing is now becoming clear.

    The News Corp-owned media and entertainment leader in India today announced that it is committed to invest Rs 20,000 crore in building the sports business in India. The investment will be used to fuel the expansion of sports coverage in the country as well as in building exciting new leagues including the Indian Super League in football, the Hockey India League and the Indian Badminton League over the next few years, it stated.

    Simultaneous with this announcement, the network today unveiled a new brand for Star Sports across six TV channels – Star Sports 1,2,3,4, HD1 and HD2 and its online portal starsports.com.

    The new logo is a metallic silver star with an incandescent swoosh of colours symbolising the authority and passion of sports with the powerful slugline – “Believe.”
    Uday Shankar is investing big in building a sports ecosystem in India

     “Cricket is too big to be confined to just one channel. Today, we are redoubling our efforts to showcase the best of Indian and international cricket to the sports fan. We will cover more of it, have wider coverage, go deeper, use multiple languages and take it beyond television,” says Star India CEO Uday Shankar in a press release. “The new brand is also about showcasing our commitment to other sports. While cricket will be central to our approach, we will also be faithful to our role as a sports broadcaster and bring in the best of local and world sports to India, whether in soccer, hockey, badminton, tennis, F1 or the many other sports that fans in India are deeply passionate about.”

    He adds: “For us, this is not just about being the country’s leading sports broadcaster. We want to build a platform that will help nurture heroes out of the millions of passionate, young sports fans across India. We want sports to be the trigger for creating and nurturing outstanding new opportunities for India’s youth. And today, we are signalling that we are deeply committed to making this transformation happen, through our investments, our ideas and our efforts.”

    As of midnight 6 November, the six channels under the erstwile ESPN-Star Sports umbrella will give way to new brands. Star Sports will be called Star Sports 1, Star Sports 2 remains Star Spots 2, Star Cricket will become Star Sports 3, ESPN will be rebranded as Star Sports 4, Star Cricket HD will become Star Sports HD1 and ESPN HD will be renamed as Star Sports HD2.

    The big change really is with Star Sports 3, India’s first 24×7 Hindi sports channel with content, graphics and shows in Hindi.  It hopes that this push into Hindi will dramatically increase the reach of sports in India where it says less than 10 per cent of the populace understands English and a much smaller number are native speakers. Star Sports has seen success in Hindi commentary with Hindi now accounting for 70 per cent share of all viewership in the recently concluded CLT20 series.

     
    A high decibel promotional campaign has been drawn up featuring MS Dhoni as its first brand ambassador

    In addition to this, the Star Sports network said that it will be showcasing new non-live programming and new shows and formats which will run into more than 5,000 hours of content, including around 200 days of live cricket annually.  Amongst these is a half hour show called Star Power which will give comprehensive updates, insight and analysis and will be telecast twice a day at 8:00 pm and 10:30 pm on Star Sports 3 all seven days of the week.

    On the digital front, Star India is aggressively reaching out to young, ardent sports fans who want to access sports across screens. The digital service offers a variety of sports including cricket, soccer and F1, in HD quality streaming. The service has received exceptionally positive consumer feedback for its revolutionary timeline (a first for cricket anywhere in the world) that gives the fan complete control of how he wants to view his favourite games, whether for live or catch-up.

    A high decibel promotional campaign has been drawn up featuring MS Dhoni as its first brand ambassador. The campaign, says the network, urges India to “Believe” and it outlines the beliefs that have made M S Dhoni one of the most iconic heroes of our time. It will run on the Star network’s 33 channels and rolls out on 6 November when India tunes into watch Sachin Tendulkar play the last series of his career.
    Star has the right pedigree to pull off healthy returns for the huge investments it is putting into sports says Ashish Bhasin

    Star’s sports gamble is getting praise from senior media professionals.

    “It is a very professional and calculated move to get deeper into sports and into developing niche sports.  The channels are already established with viewers as they have been around for a long time and the rebranding and promotion will only deepen the connect with them,” says Aegis Group chairman India & CEO south east Asia Ashish Bhasin.  “Star is putting its money where its mouth is and it has the right pedigree to pull off healthy returns for the huge investments it is putting into sports.”

  • Star readies for Sachin mania; hopes to create world record

    Star readies for Sachin mania; hopes to create world record

    MUMBAI: Come 14 November and that will be the time when Cricket fans world over will be glued to their TV sets to witness “the little master” wield his bat for the Indian cricket team one last time at his home ground in Mumbai – Wankhede stadium.

    This will mark the end of Sachin Tendulkar’s 24 year long career in the great sport of Cricket. Once Tendulkar had requested the BCCI to play his last competitive game at his home ground, the decision with regard to his farewell Test – also his 200th – was a mere formality earlier this month. As a result, the Cricket Association of Bengal, which had been promised Tendulkar’s 200th before he announced his decision to retire after the Test, was awarded with Tendulkar’s penultimate Test.

    Star India has launched a unique campaign ‘Cheer for Sachin’ to pay tribute to arguably the best cricketer in the world as he gets ready to play the series against the West Indies early next month. The broadcaster is targeting to break the world record for maximum ‘Cheers’ garnered by any campaign ever across the world. Star India has invited Sachin’s fans to cheer “Sachin-Sachin” and break the world record for a hero who has always broken records for India! And the cheer will be played on the broadcast network (Star Sports) as a tribute for the hero.

    The Participants may register his/her telephone number to participate in the activity by calling the number, 505782717, which is valid on Vodafone (Rs 6.00/min), Airtel (Rs 6.00/min), Tata Indicom (Rs 6.00/min), Idea (Rs 6.99/min), Reliance (Rs 6.00/min), BSNL (Mobiles) (Rs 5.00/min) and BSNL (Landline) (Rs 2.40/min) telephone networks only.

    According to the terms and conditions given on starsports.com – The activity opened from 25 October 2013 at 00:00 hours (IST) and will end on 19 November 2013 at 00:00 hours (IST), or on such other dates and times as shall be indicated by ESPN Star Sports India. No entries from before or after the activity period will be accepted.

    The response has been very encouraging with stars from Bollywood, Cricket as well as TV recording their cheers. Stars like Priyanka Chopra, Prosenjit Chaterjee, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Wasim Akram, Rameez Raza and protagonists from the leading serials on Star Plus like Diya Aur Baati Hum and Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai have already recorded their cheers. The broadcaster has also reached out to Sudhir Kumar Chaudhary (The guy who is often seen in the stadiums in body paint cheering for Sachin) – regarded by many as the biggest Sachin fan to record a special cheer for this campaign.

    Speaking on the occasion, Star India EVP – marketing and communications Gayatri Yadav says: “For 24 years, the legend has stood for a billion…and now it’s time for a billion to stand for one.  It’s our time to cheer for the little master. We are honoured that Sachin’s farewell series will be played on our network. Our philosophy has been to take fans closer to their heroes because as the official broadcasters we play the critical role of an enabler. We are extending the invitation to all Sachin fans through this campaign to come out and thank the little master for a wonderful career in which he took Indian cricket to newer heights.”

    Yadav adds: “We are aiming for the World Record. Sachin has made innumerable records during his memorable career; it’s time that his fans make this record as a grand tribute. We believe there cannot be a bigger opportunity for Sachin fans to show support and be a part of history in making as he gets ready for one last time to play for India.”

    The campaign will run across the Star Sports network as well as Star India network of channels. There will be huge focus on the digital media as well to aggregate all fans for the campaign. The official Facebook and Twitter pages of Star Sports has been buzzing with fans commenting and posting nostalgic moments from the “little master’s past”.  The Star Sports website has also created a separate section dedicated to Sachin on his 24 year long journey in Cricket for India.

    Star India will donate its share of proceeds from the incoming call revenues to an NGO for sports development amongst youth. (As a norm the telcos in India normally share revenues with their partners in a 60:40 or 70:30 ratios. The estimated figure for the donations going towards the NGO could well be running into a few million rupees)

    Star India is pulling out all the stops to make the India West Indies series memorable. Additionally, the broadcaster will use a special FanCam enabling fans to say “I was there” as they enjoy the historic moment.

    The Fan Cam is capable of generating 360 degree extremely high resolution photo of the stadium therefore each and every fan who will be fortunate to be at the stadium on any of the Test match days will be able to zoom into his picture and keep this memory with him for posterity.

    On the programming front, a 10 part documentary series will be dedicated to Sachin – Sachin Ka Safar and The Sachin Journey in Hindi and English language respectively which will be telecast in the month of November. There will be a live show on Sachin – Sachiiiiiiin… Sachin – that will be telecast during the series. A special 24 segment series Sachin Years will also be showcased in the run-up to the historic series. A segment will be dedicated to each of Sachin’s 24 years of international cricket.

  • India-Australia: Fight to stay on top

    India-Australia: Fight to stay on top

    MUMBAI: All cricket fans now have a one stop solution in the name of ESPN Star Sports. The BCCI’s marketing committee has awarded the rights for telecasting all international matches played in India to ESPN Software India and Star Sports at Rs 2 crore per match.

    The first in line is the eagerly awaited India-Australia series to be played between 10 October and 2 November. In the docks are seven ODIs and one T20 match marking the total telecast value at Rs 16 crore; the last time India faced Australia, the guests were left sour-faced with a 4-0 defeat in a test series.
    MSD and Michael Clarke will be locking horns on the field but locking hands off the field

    India, the leader in ODI currently with 123 points, will fight Australia to retain the top position as the Aussies are second with 115 points. If Australia topples India with a comprehensive win then they will be the new kings while if India wins the series they retain their position.

    With English commentary the series will be seen on ESPN and Star Cricket HD while Hindi commentary will be on Star Cricket. At the same time live streaming will be happening on their website www.starsports.com which will carry replays and highlights as well as content not shown on TV. A vigorous marketing campaign shouting out their theme ‘Fight for No 1’ has already kick-started.

    Analyses of the matches before and after will also be on the lines of ‘Fight for No 1’. “As a broadcaster, we will ensure a world class telecast so that fans enjoy this high intensity contest,” says ESPN Software India COO Vijay Rajput.

    “It is the mother of all series. 7 ODIs and a T20 against Australia during the Diwali season surely make it a really big series for us. India-Australia contests have always generated lots of interest amongst Cricket fans in the country,” adds Rajput. “Moreover, India’s national team has not been in action for close to two months now and fans would be eager to see them in action again.”

    The bids that were made to BCCI were for just two series: India-Australia and India-West Indies but ESPN Software India and Star Sports India ended up bagging the rights for the whole 2013-14 season.
    The Champions League T20 finals are just around the corner. But viewers need not be disappointed as the mega ODI series between the top two countries will begin right after.

  • Star Network and MSN’s television offering ‘What’s On Star’ soars high

    Star Network and MSN’s television offering ‘What’s On Star’ soars high

    MUMBAI: Star Network and MSN recently collaborated to introduce a new offering for television fans online – What’s On Star. The offering gives netizens access into exclusive content, picture, videos, previews on Star Plus, Life Ok, and Star Sports through msn.com.

    Star Plus, India’s leading Hindi general entertainment channel was the first to be introduced on ‘What’s On Star’, hosted on the MSN platform, to be soon followed by Star Sports and Life OK. In a span of just three months, the offerings have witnessed a huge number of 3.9 million views while the videos have been watched over 700,000 times. Amongst the popular downloads for Star Plus were Mahabharat, Master Chef Junior and Saraswatichandra. For Life Ok, Devon Ke Dev Mahadev took the lead with five out of 10 most views.

    Talking about the association, Star Plus Sr VP marketing Nikhil Madhok said, “Our partnership with MSN has worked towards satiating the need of audiences to access Star Plus’s popular content at their own convenience, for viewers, who want to engage more deeply with the content, there is also some behind the scenes footage not seen on TV. This further strengthens their engagement with our shows and creates a virtual loop.  The large fan following of the channel is pretty evident with the enthusiasm with which people have been viewing the content.”
    “Our partnership with the Star Network brings a holistic experience for digitally connected consumers who want to watch their favourite TV programs at home, at work or on the move. Viewing of content online provides freedom and engages consumers consistently across devices and destinations on their terms. On the MSN platform, the Star Network content provides original video and high-performance solutions through a consistent strategy for connected platforms,” said Microsoft Corporation India, Head – MSN Sanjay Trehan.