Tag: Starsports.com

Starsports.com creates digital history

MUMBAI: Starsports.com’s video streaming of Pepsi IPL 2014 has broken many records, as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) took on Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in the first qualifier match, while Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings played in the eliminator match. The platform witnessed the highest ever traffic for a sporting event outside the Super Bowl in the US.

The platform has hit a new high for a single day attracting 2.8 million consumers who followed the video service online.

Earlier this year, NBC Olympics had claimed the record for the most-watched authenticated stream for any internet event when it had generated more than 2.1 million unique video users on 21 February, the day of the men’s semifinals game between USA and Canada. Prior to this year’s tournament, the biggest day on IPL was in April 2013 when the mighty Chris Gayle scored 175 for Royal Challengers Bangalore, a match that attracted around 1.5 million sports fans. The biggest record for a single day worldwide is still believed to be the 2014 Super Bowl on a sister service, 21st Century Fox’s foxsports.com, which attracted 5.5 million unique visitors.

Starsports.com has now garnered unprecedented traction since the beginning of the tournament, attracting more than 55 million visits in the last six weeks. The press release adds that sports fans have watched 450 million minutes of video on the destination. Reflecting the underlying trend in video consumption in India, the destination crossed 1 million mobile video views in a single day for the first time.

Commenting on the achievement, New media Star India executive vice president and head Ajit Mohan said, “It was less than a year ago that we launched starsports.com. Our ambition was to redefine the sports experience for the Indian fan. For this service to take on and beat global records is no mean achievement. We have succeeded in creating a compelling new destination for sports, and that is a mobile screen.”

Star India COO Sanjay Gupta added, “The Indian consumer is ready for a big shift in video consumption. Starsports.com has shown the power of what can be done if we are thoughtful about creating a world class experience for the Indian consumer. Sports is just the beginning, expect more from us.”

May 29, 2014
Star Sports and Twitter partner to launch ‘Tweeplay’

MUMBAI: Starports.com and Twitter have tied up with TenTenTen Digital Products to launch a new interactive experience on Twitter called ‘Tweeplay’.

This innovation promise entertainment for sports fans across India as they can now be certain of watching replays of major sports events by just sending a tweet. This unique experience on Twitter will be available during the IPL playoff matches right up to the final on 1 June.

Fans can avail of instant replays by just following four simple steps…

Step 1: Twitter users tweet “@StarSportsIndia #StarSportsTweeplay Help”

Step 2: They will receive a reply with an appropriate set of commands that they can use to demand for specific highlight videos of the match

Step 3: They can then tweet with the specific command and receive a real-time reply from @StarSportsIndia with the highlight video e.g. @StarSportsIndia #StarSportsTweeplay Dhoni 6

Step 4: Watch the video right within their TWEET AND Twitter timeline

On the development Star India head of digital business Ajit Mohan said, “Star Sports has always strived to innovate on digital and we areexcited to partner with Twitter to debut this one-of-a-kind offering which empowers fans to pick and watch sports moments of their choice. This is an experiment and could potentially be a path breaking accompaniment to the starsports.com experience. We have had more than 50 million visits on IPL to date and introducing this innovation at the playoffs is a great way to sign off on the tournament.”

Twitter India head of sports Aneesh Madani said, “As a platform for live, public conversations, Twitter and sports have always been a great fit. Our goal is to reach and delight all sports fans in India by bringing them closer to their game of choice and re-live the best moments of the match.

We applaud starsports.com and TenTenTen for this breakthrough initiative of near real-time interactivity on the platform.”

Tweeplay is created and being managed by TenTenTen Digital Products. TenTenTen MD and CEO Ramesh Srivats said, “Tweeplay is a unique way to offer snack-sized content on-demand on Twitter. We are very excited about launching it with starsports.com during the Pepsi IPL playoffs and hope that a never-seen-in-the-world-before service like Tweeplay will help drive online buzz & content consumption.”

May 28, 2014
Starsports.com gains big by streaming IPL 2014

MUMBAI: The nation is caught in the Pepsi IPL 2014 fever. The series that is being streamed on starsports.com, in its first week, has managed to garner an unprecedented traction of more than a million visitors every day. During the period, starsports.com has attracted around 47 lakh unique visitors across web and mobile delivering just more than a crore visits.

During the first seven matches played in the current season, 150 million minutes of video were consumed by users with an average of more than 32 minutes per match. Consumption on mobile now stands at 42 per cent of the overall traffic. The majority of the viewer base is in the age group of 18-24 years in the top eight metro cities which contribute to overall 60 per cent of the traffic. Gender specifically, female traffic saw a significant surge contributing 27 per cent of the overall audience.

Speaking on the occasion, Star India EVP and head, new media Ajit Mohan said, “IPL 2014 is perhaps a turning point for sports consumption. For the first time, online consumption of sports is becoming about video, video, and video. And, our investment in creating a world class backbone for video delivery is showing up as a significant improvement in the experience for sports fans, especially on a mobile screen.”

Since its inception in December 2012, starsports.com has invested heavily to build a video infrastructure customized for India, where the experience is characterized by a proliferation of mobile devices and where a large number of consumers still have access to low bandwidth. In addition, for IPL, the company has leveraged its television infrastructure to deliver mid-rolls (advertisements in the middle of the overs) in addition to the already prevalent pre-rolls (advertisements which roll before the start of the video).

Video streaming of Pepsi IPL 2014 on the sports website has attracted many sponsors-HUL as the presenting sponsor and amazon.in, Toyota, ITC Personal Care and Reckitt Benckiser as associate sponsors.

Star India president sales Amit Chopra added, “The most innovative advertisers in India are recognising the power of the mobile screen. Many of them have been hesitant in the past about investing in video ads online, given the sketchy delivery of both content and ads. We have been able to offer a powerful proposition to these advertisers by delivering a great video experience and a highly engaged sports fan.”

Powered by live and video rights, the rich digital platform covers many world sports like major cricket tournaments, BPL, La Liga and Serie A in football, F1, hockey, tennis and badminton.

April 23, 2014
ICC World T20 2014: Most watched international T20 tournament

MUMBAI: The recently concluded ICC World T20 2014 has emerged as the most watched international T20 tournament ever on television as well as the digital platform in India. A record 13.31 crore people across the country watched the mega sporting event, according to data provided by TAM.

There has been a 23.4 per cent higher viewership than the 2012 edition and more than 57 per cent compared to the 2010 edition. As per standard industry conversions, around 39 crore Indians watched the ICC World T20, this year.

The 2014 edition has generated a record 1222951 TVTs. This is almost 45 per cent higher than the 844400 TVTs generated during the ICC World T20 2012 edition. The six India matches in ICC World T20 have generated 672861 TVTs which again is a record for any ICC World T20. India matches during the 2012 edition had generated 396801 TVTs. The TAM data is based on ICC World T20’s broadcast on SD channels Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 3 across the country, with the target group of CS 4+.

Meanwhile on the digital platform starsports.com, the video streaming of ICC World T20 has garnered unprecedented traction on the digital domain. The ICC World T20 final between India and Sri Lanka on starsports.com attracted a record 19.3 lakh unique individuals watching video on the destination, delivering an unprecedented 37.6 lakh visits. Also video streaming of the same event on starsports.com generated 2.24 crore visits.

Overall, starsports.com attracted more than 80.9 lakh users during the fortnight long tournament delivering more than 2.24 crore visits. The consumer interactivity on starsports.com is growing at a dramatic pace. During the last 4 matches played by India, a total of 101 million live minutes of video was consumed by users with an average of more than 30 minutes per live view.

Star India head of sports business Nitin Kukreja said, “Our aim is to consistently re-shape and enrich consumer experience. During this edition, we introduced innovations like the LED stumps; there was increased focus on analytics and graphics to augment consumer engagement. The invitation to the consumer was done via a high decibel ‘Duniya Badlegi campaign’ which generated global level engagement. We are enthused with the positive feedback on the unprecedented production and broadcast effort. This will motivate us further to set even higher benchmarks in the future.”

April 22, 2014
Starsports.com targets 10 mn unique visitors during ICC T-20 World Cup

MUMBAI: To say cricket is a religion in India could be an understatement. Cricket fanatics who are unable to watch live action on television find help in mobile phones and sports websites to get near live updates. These cricket devotees now have a whole new comprehensive experience on offer in Starsports.com.

Ever since its launch in June 2013, starsports.com has drawn nearly 28 million unique visitors for all its sports properties and the average time spent is 45 minutes per match. Starsports.com claims these numbers – comparable to television – are the highest ever on a digital platform.

“During the recently concluded Asia Cup, we witnessed 4.5 million unique visitors, and with over 10 million video views, the numbers are really humbling,” says Star India digital head Ajit Mohan. “The average time spent on video content was 32 minutes. Thus, Asia Cup was an affirmation that if someone is willing to create a great video experience there is a great appetite for it out there.”

Heading into the ICC T-20 World Cup, Starsports.com is going through a fairly major revamp. “It all began in June 2013 with Starsports.com and our major pull was the proposition of watching live matches on the go or on desktops for a subscription price with a great video player having timelines and data integrations with the option of tracking data without leaving the live video,” adds Mohan.

Now the portal is expanding the proposition with the insight that when sports fans are not in front of their TV sets there is a huge interest in following the matches. And of course the interest is higher when India is playing.

“So far, most companies for sports on the web will give the option of text commentary, or give ball by ball commentary. Over the last six months with the onset of Starsports.com with live video available on subscription and text commentary, we have changed the way sports is perceived on the web,” explains Mohan.

Starsports.com believes that there is a whole new space in between which can be shaped by it and create an experience that is way better than text commentary.

The three major changes that will be experienced on the revamped site, as Mohan puts it, will be Zip Clips, Graphical Representations and streaming of live action with a 5-minute delay.

Zip Clips: Starsports.com is creating a new match centre, where sports fans will be able to enjoy the live match through a series of clips. Almost ball by ball we will have ‘Zip Clips’ to catch up with the game or follow the game. So one doesn’t really have to sit and read the scores but gets to experience it with a series of short clips. And the clips will be almost in real time.

Graphical Representations: The other thing added to the mix is a lot more graphical representation during the match and provide nuggets and insights. There will be experimentation with capturing in graphics where the match stands at that point in time.

5-minute delayed live stream: And the third and most promising proposition for sports fans is streaming of the live action with a five-minute delay. This should encourage increased video consumption also in homes that do not have more than one TV screen.

Cricket fans pressed for time and also those having low bandwidth can watch ‘zip clips’ to catch up with the near live action or when in leisure, cricket fans can watch the match with a five minute delay. For those wanting to watch live streaming, there’s a small charge to be paid.

Starsports.com carried out loads of tests for nearly four months on how to make the best use of the zip clips feature and created the work flow from both the content and the technology point of views. Taking into consideration the fact that there are bandwidth constraints across the nation, Starsports.com strives to provide the best in video content at great quality.

“Essentially, we are shaping a new service for fundamentally addressing the need for following a match. When the sports fan is not in front of the television, and therefore, to create a full video experience that is beyond what they are used to in terms of text commentary but also addresses the issue of time and convenience,” expounds Mohan. “It’s still a world where people are concerned about data charges and bandwidth and we are saying let us help you solve the concern by reducing the duration of the clips.”

The prices for the tournaments and matches are quite reasonable given that they will get to watch it in high definition. ICC T20 World Cup 2014 Pass: Rs 100; The FA Cup 2013: Rs 100; Premier League Season Pass: Rs 500; Formula 1 – 2014 Season Pass: Rs 500; La Liga Season Pass: Rs 500; Football Season Pass: Rs 800; All Sports Day Pass (floating): Rs 20; Match Week Pass (floating): Rs 30 (which starts from Friday).

The zip clips will be supported by ads but they would only feature on the clips of particularly longer duration, and it has a great value proposition for advertisers. “I believe advertisers increasingly value ads when the fans are really engaged in a full video experience. So our aim is to let them target engaged sports fans, so there is no point in cluttering the clips with ads. But there will be ads against these clips and for the delayed five minute stream, only the live stream will be ad free,” expounds Mohan.

Thus with these three offerings Starsports.com is trying to keep sports fans pleased with the proposal of watching shorter clips to play catch-up with the live action or to watch the five minute delayed stream at leisure or if you are really keen to watch M S Dhoni smack the ball out of the park live just shell out a few extra bucks.

“We have always had a tournament pass, season passes on soccer and our objective has always been to keep the prices reasonable and we believe in delivering quality content at that price,” beams Mohan.

Speaking on Starsports.com’s association with Vodafone, Mohan adds, “They are a very valued partner for us, I think as a telco looking to shape data and video consumption, they are acutely aware of the power of sports, so we are powering Vodafone Sports with our curated content and all of what we are doing here will help us shape that service as well.”

Social media acts as a catalyst for driving viewers from all over the web to the content on offer. These clips will be made available for easy sharing, “But I guess primarily people want to watch the matches and the shorter clips and for us to deliver a great video experience, we don’t want to clutter our social media with the buzz word like most providers do,” explains Mohan.

Looking at the kind of brands that the portal has on board and already in talks with some of the leading brands for the ongoing T-20 World Cup, industry sources estimate that starsports.com generated ad revenue of around Rs 7-8 crore during the recently concluded Asia Cup and would generate around Rs 15-16 crore from the ongoing ICC T-20 World Cup.

“We have received a great response from the advertisers and a lot of brands are looking for a great video experience on the web. It’s no longer about banner ads and they are keen to grab the attention of engaged sports fans,” says Mohan.

Starsports.com is gung-ho about touching the 10 million unique visitors mark during the ICC T-20 World Cup tourney. “Our target has always been to hit the 50 million unique visitors mark between the major tournaments namely the recently concluded Asia Cup, the ongoing T-20 World Cup and the upcoming big-ticket tourney the Indian Premiere League,” says Mohan.

There are three major things that one looks at when delivering the best experience through a sports service – one is having great storytellers, great infrastructure and the video player.

Expanding on these three aspects, Mohan says: “We have a dedicated sports team working on the digital front, focusing on how to communicate stories on the web. We have learnt a lot over the past year to deliver the best in sports experience on the web and finally our video player is something that we are proud of after investing so much on building one of the best players in the market currently that can support great graphic content as well.”

Starports.com is clearly living up to its claim of being the YouTube of sports in India and is focused on building a strong backbone for video content delivery and continuing to invest in improving the experience even further.

“For us, the response we receive from the ICC T-20 WC and the IPL will be a good trial of (whether) we are able to both communicate and bring in a sports fan,” says Mohan.

“Sports fans have been used to something else and it’s not easy to bring a change in habits as most people have been following a text scorecard over the years and our challenge is to tell them that there is a better way to consume sports,” concludes Mohan.

March 19, 2014
starsports.com witnesses huge traffic during IPL 7 auction

MUMBAI: The digital arm of Star Sports – starsports.com – seems to be living up to its claim of being known as the YouTube of sports in India. The portal witnessed a huge traffic when it streamed the two day auction of the Pepsi Indian Premiere League (IPL) 2014 with five-minute delay.

The reach of the auction managed to outmatch Sony Six’s 2013 Pepsi IPL player auction numbers, claims the website as it attracted close to 680,000 visits over the two days.

Last year, the IPL auction on Sony Six witnessed traffic of 404,000 viewers with average time spent being 25 minutes in the male SEC ABC 15+ demographic.

In comparison, starsports.com reached 387,000 viewers with average time spent on the web being 31 minutes on each day.

Star India EVP and head new media Ajit Mohan said: “We had decided to produce a high quality show around the auctions, with commentary and analysis from Harsha Bhogle and Sourav Ganguly. This is a vindication of our approach. The Indian consumer is evolving fast and more and more consumers want to catch action while on the move. We are convinced that this year, the mobile screen will be where the action will be for IPL.”

The highest growth in traffic was seen in the first session of the auction on 12 February when marquee players like Yuvraj Singh and Kevin Pietersen were going under the hammer. The traffic peaked at 3 pm on 12 February. And almost 60 per cent of the traffic was from sports fans between the age of 18-24 years, and almost all of the traffic was in the coveted male demographics.

starsports.com is India’s first multi-sports digital service with availability across the web and mobile. Powered by live and video rights, it covers the best of world sports including major cricket tournaments, BPL, La Liga and Serie A in football, F1, hockey and tennis. This year, for the first time, all IPL matches will be available on the portal after it won the online streaming rights from Indiatimes.com this time around.

February 19, 2014
Vodafone Sports: Changing the sports viewing landscape

MUMBAI: What do you get when one of the leading telecom players in the country joins forces with one of the biggest television network? The result is uninterrupted, curated and the best delivery of sports content on the go.

The partnership between Star India and Vodafone India will make available to consumers a first-of-its-kind service that brings the best on track, on court and on field action to feature phones as well as smart phones.

Star India COO Sanjay Gupta says: “Sports is something the network truly believes in, and we have put our money where our mouth is time and again.”

Vodafone Sports powered by starsports.com will offer customers premium live and curated in-depth content built around some of the most popular sports in India such as cricket, football, tennis, hockey, golf and motorsport. The portal (live.vodafone.in/sports) will feature cricket, football and hockey and will cover other major sports like F1, tennis, etc.

Star India head digital Ajit Mohan says: “Since the launch of starsports.com in June 2013, we have witnessed good traction among sports fans and have become the YouTube of sports in India.”

Launched in June 2013, starsports.com has become the go-to destination for following the best of international sports. It has in a way redefined the sports experience through a revolutionary video timeline that is a first of its kind in the world of sports, and allows the viewer to keep track of live sports as well as catch up on games with ease.

The company has also built an advanced technology infrastructure that enables HD quality streaming across multiple devices. It will now bring the power of the proposition to the most important screen in the country – the mobile, for Vodafone consumers.

“The fact that the content available on Vodafone Sports will be generated from starsports.com works well for the network as we will be able to reach the homes where TV sets and internet facility is not easily accessible,” Mohan explains.

Recent studies have shown that there are more mobile handsets in the country than TV sets in homes. With this strategic partnership with Vodafone, Star India has certainly played an ace card. It would now be able to propagate its message of supporting the growth of sports in the nation even better; reaching out to the millions of Vodafone subscribers and delivering live as well as curated content at an economical price.

“Our core business has always been services and after the success of Vodafone Music, we were looking at taking things to a whole new level,” expounds Vodafone CCO Vivek Mathur on the reason for partnering with Star India.

“India in many ways is in the forefront as far as mobile internet consumption is concerned. We are only second to Germany and we truly believe that mobile internet is the future. We were on the lookout for a partner with some terrific content to deliver and we are glad to have found that partner in Star India,” Mathur adds.

As a result of the tie-up with Star, customers using Vodafone Sports will have access to an exhaustive array of legal, unadulterated content at their fingertips, including all the latest news, trivia, scores and results, instant access to live matches, interactive video scorecards, exclusive insight and analysis, columns, photos and wallpapers across sports.

The interactive video scorecard, for example, will allow users to watch the fall of a wicket or replay individual innings highlights for a particular player right from the scorecard, so if you miss a pivotal, game-changing moment in a game, or a match-winning knock, you can replay it at the touch of a button. Apart from live games, customers will also be able to sample additional archived video content, such as the best of M.S. Dhoni’s sixes or Sachin’s straight drives, created from over 10,000 hours of cricket footage.

Gupta says: “Our aim is to change the way sports is perceived in the country. We need to change the mindset of people who feel that sports is a waste of time and resource and will not benefit in anyway. We continue to stay committed to building all sports and the best way to encourage young adults to play sports is to increase the consumption of sports.”

The service will be available exclusively to Vodafone consumers in attractive packages. The ‘Snack Pricing Plan’ will allow consumers to watch a single match for a minimal price of Rs 10 or 20; a curated video clip for Rs 3 or Rs 5 and also give them an opportunity to download wallpapers at as low a price of Rs 3.

The ‘All You Can Eat Plan’ will give the consumer a chance to sign up to enjoy watching a series and the price ranges between Rs 49, Rs 99 and Rs 150. This plan also allows the subscriber to enjoy archival videos of some of the best shots or sixes by a cricketer for Rs 30 or Rs 50 depending on the length of the clips.

And there is also an option to subscribe on a day-to-day and monthly basis at Rs 5 and Rs 150 respectively. Mathur says: “We want to encourage our customers to consume as much of sport as they wish to and thus we have tried to keep the prices very reasonable.”

This is certainly a giant step taken by the Star network in continuing to deliver on its promise of delivering the best in sports, but does it also plan to get its other properties on the digital platform in a big way?. Gupta clarifies: “We do have plans of taking a lot of our other properties on the digital platform in the near future, but currently we are focusing on sports as we as a network truly believe it has struck a chord with the youth of the nation and we will continue to deliver on our promise.”

The road ahead certainly looks very rosy for Indian sports fans and Star Sports as a network is certainly making a statement with such bold moves. Guess it’s time for other broadcasters to wake up and smell the coffee.

February 13, 2014
starsports.com to stream 2014 Pepsi IPL Player Auction

MUMBAI: starsports.com, India’s first multi-sports digital service, will stream the action from the 2014 Pepsi IPL Player Auction to be held in Bengaluru on February 12 and 13, 2014. In a first of kind initiative for the digital platform, a full broadcast quality show will be produced with expert analysis from a stellar roster that includes Sourav Ganguly, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Harsha Bhogle, Akash Chopra, Sanjay Manjrekar and Deep Das Gupta. Streaming of the auctions will start at 9:30 am on Wednesday, February 12, 2014 and will be available with a delay of 5 minutes.

Speaking on the occasion, Ajit Mohan, EVP and Head, New Media, Star India, said, “It is likely that the most incisive coverage of the auction this time will be online. This shows our commitment to make IPL the biggest online sporting event in the world. And, this is just the beginning. We have far bigger plans in store for the full IPL coverage.”

starsports.com’s revolutionary video timeline, that allows the viewer to keep track of live events with ease, will be used for the streaming of the auction. The timeline will allow even those coming in late to catch up on the most important events of the day with editorially curated markers that allow users to easily control their viewing experience. Users will also be able to follow a detailed text commentary alongside their video experience. The auction will be available to all consumers for free.

starsports.com is India’s first multi-sports digital service with availability across the web and mobile. Powered by live and video rights, it covers the best of world sports including major cricket tournaments, BPL, La Liga and Serie A in football, F1, hockey and tennis.

For further information, please contact:

Sameer Bajaj
Corporate Communications
STAR Sports India
+919811222700
bajaj.sameer@startv.com

February 11, 2014
Starsports.com: YouTube of sports in India?

Barely a year old and starsports.com could well qualify as an example of the limitless possibilities of the World Wide Web.

Ever since its launch in June 2013, starsports.com, has been drawing nearly 28 million unique visitors every day with as many as 45 minutes spent per match. These numbers – comparable to television – are the highest ever on a digital platform.

starsports.com’s meteoric rise is not for nothing as the website has always been about giving sports fans a rich, immersive video experience a la YouTube and becoming a one-stop shop for them.

Star India digital head Ajit Mohan puts it well when he says: “The philosophy of the design and the service itself was to make video the hero; we believe we have become the YouTube of sports.”

Drawing attention to how sports coverage has evolved from print to radio to television and now the digital medium, Mohan says: “The idea was to create a new immersive experience around sports on digital for fans. The best way to attract the viewers was to add a lot of video elements that allowed getting data and analytics into the experience in a very meaningful manner. So we wanted it to be fully relevant to the digital medium, rather than what consumers were being served.”

Starsports.com has a 20-strong content development team and leverages the network’s production and broadcast team. Explains Mohan: “The idea is to keep delivering content on-the-go and report as events take place. The team creates video stories as well as columns and articles, but the point is to create a lot of video during the course of a live match as people would love to listen to someone’s point of view on the state of the match, thus driving home our point of an immersive experience.”

Speaking of design, starsports.com isn’t cluttered with irrelevant content like other sports sites. “We have kept the design experience for the consumer in mind where it becomes easy for viewers to discover a live match. Having said that, we have had a lot of learning over the past 12 months and we want to further improve on the experience for consumers,” says Mohan. “We work with a lot of world-class platforms and partners to help out with execution on the video as well as platform development.”

Apart from content and design, the revenue model too has evolved with time. At the time of the beta launch in December 2012, the streaming was free and had a little delay but post the launch, the live streaming experience was taken behind the pay-wall. “Just to give an idea about the conversion rate, it’s been in the range of three to five per cent – depending on whether on the web or the mobile app or any other operator service. Looking at the current subscriber base, if we exclude the telecom world, we probably have one of the largest subscription base of content subscriptions in the digital world,” says Mohan. “We are currently in a dilemma trying to figure out what services to charge for and what to keep free access for. So if we are asking people to pay, then there has to be something really exceptional and a high value proposition.”

Mohan believes the site’s success owes to two big leaps: firstly, high quality streaming of an even higher standard than YouTube or a comparable platform and secondly, advertising which allows a deeper engagement with sports fans on the back of very high quality video and content created exclusively for starsports.com.

“We have provided a much customised backbone to serve a very good video experience in live viewing. The response for the streaming quality has been very good and users find it very reliable and of high quality. So if the user has access to even a 1 mbps net connection, the video is of HD quality. That is something that is unprecedented and no other sports company has managed thus far,” Mohan exults. “We already had Adidas and Red Bull being associated with Starsports.com and within the next four to six weeks, we are sure to get more brands on-board with the announcement of the IPL streaming rights. Also, we will be having a lot of action for fans with the Asia Cup, the ICC T-20 World Cup in March and moving onto the IPL in April and May. So with a fully packed calendar for the next three and a half months, advertisers are keen to come on board.”

On the subject of IPL streaming rights, Mohan believes that despite the five-minute delay in streaming, IPL is sure to generate a lot of viewership on the digital platform.

“There is a habit of watching the event on the mobile and other portable devices, so the idea is to leverage our platform and provide a much better consumer experience and advertising solution and deploy it for IPL where there is already a habit and increase the numbers even more as against last year,” says he.

Again, IPL isn’t the only such property available on starsports.com; the site also streams as many as six to seven matches of the Barclays Premiere League (BPL) at one time. “We also show Sierra and La Liga matches along with F1 and the Australian Open. During the grand slam, we witnessed a spike of 200,000 users in a day coming on the back of the Open. Cricket will continue to be our cornerstone but we will also generate focus and engagement in other sports,” says Mohan.

Any discussion on the success story of starsports.com would be incomplete without a reference to ‘The Sachin Memory Project’, one of the website’s biggest and most innovative online campaigns around cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar.

“The idea was to be distinctive at the same time connect the master blaster with his fans. So starsports.com believed that the best way to create that connect would be to make a timeline of all the major events of Tendulkar’s career and best innings with the support of archival videos,” recalls Mohan, pointing out that the engagement reached such levels that people tried to think back and see where they were when Tendulkar broke a certain record. “The reason for calling it ‘The Memory Project’ came across well and we achieved what we had set out for!” he exclaims. Starsports.com had nearly four million visitors during the India-West Indies series, largely on the back of this innovation.

Mohan is happy with the way things have shaped up. “We have already made strides on unchartered territory and it would be really difficult for anyone to find a digital service on sports that has created a great video player and gives HD quality output,” says he. Currently, the site has video content across cricket, football, tennis, hockey and F1 but is looking at what consumers want and intends to bring back discontented sports fans who aren’t satisfied with the digital content provided by others. “We will add new sports and improve the consumer experience, and try and reach out to people with lesser bandwidth as well and provide equal quality of content,” says Mohan of the company’s future plans.

Plans are afoot to provide short clips which allow consumers to pick up the best moments in the match which they either missed or would love to relive. Providing ample visibility for advertisers is also on the cards. “We do believe that going forward, a lot of the brands will be looking to build traction on the digital platform and we want to provide such a platform where advertisers feel their products and brands will get proper visibility and the right value,” he signs off.

February 7, 2014
Starsports.coms Sachin Redux

He didn’t just play cricket, he wrote history. And, legions of fans watched Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar as he broke record after record, bringing India glory after glory…

Fittingly, the website selling 6,000-odd tickets to the master blaster’s 200th and final test match starting today at the Wankhede Stadium, garnered a staggering 20 million hits. Whereas the stadium saw a snaking queue outside, with some people even managing to catch a few winks before they got to the ticket counters.

Indeed, all the excitement around Sachin’s retirement is but a testimony to the love and adulation he has earned after 24 long and hard years in the game. But for the many cricket buffs out there who can’t seem to get enough of the master blaster, the Starsports.com team has come up with a special feature called #SachinMemoryProject on social media platforms.

The project gives Sachin aficionados an opportunity to recollect all the great moments in his life. It tracks chronologically not only what happened in the cricketing legend’s life over the past 24 years but world events that unfolded even as his career was taking shape.

The #SachinMemoryProject brings back almost all Sachin moments in a slide show format, with each anecdote also on the timeline of the Star Sports official facebook page as well as twitter handle. It is rich in content and clubbed with text and videos of eminent people holding forth on the cricketer as well as Sachin talking about his life and times.

“With the project, we wanted to give fans something special. Almost everybody in the media industry is running a special series on the cricketer but we wanted to create a memorabilia of sorts. Something that is easy to consume and something with which everyone can relate,” says Star India head of digital business Ajit Mohan.

The #SachinMemoryProject ‘begins from the beginning’, with the first slide of Sachin as a 14-year-old, along with Vinod Kambli, putting up 664 runs for Shardashram, the highest scoring partnership in school cricket. In less than two years, he would go on to make his test debut for India.

The latter slides reveal lesser known facts about the stalwart. For instance, the ‘main khelega’ slide highlights that moment in 1989 when Sachin had just started his international innings and his contemporaries were yet to get an idea about his patience levels. “With Pakistan pressing for victory, Sachin is hit on the nose by a rising Waqar delivery. As doctors try to stop the blood gushing from his nose and get him off the field, his batting partner Sidhu hears a squeaky voice say ‘main khelega’. Sachin continued batting in a blood soaked shirt, scoring 50 and saving the match for India,” reads the slide.

Another slide brings to the fore Sachin’s competitive streak even as a 16-year-old. “During the Pakistan tour, Sachin lost a game of table tennis to Sanjay Manjrekar. Sachin challenged Manjrekar to another game, beat him. Beat him again before calling it quits. Even as a 16-year-old, he didn’t like losing,” it says.

According to Mohan, a separate team of 15 people was designated to work on the project three months ago. “All the members of this team are passionate Sachin fans and are aware of the many nitty-gritties of his life. While working on the project, we also discovered many unknown facts about him. Those were the moments of serendipity,” he says cheerfully.

Interestingly, the Sachin moments are juxtaposed with important events happening across the globe around the same time. For example, things like who took charge as India’s PM or which actor became a phenomenon while the cricketer was busy adding another century to his portfolio, etc.

A slide titled ‘The American President(s)’ reads: “George Bush Sr. is elected President of the United States. Sachin’s career ran alongside that of four US Presidents, and seven terms, including two terms of George Bush Jr.”

Mohan says the idea was to chart the 24-glorious years in the best possible way. “He has stayed in action for a very long time. By mentioning the other consequential events during the period in the project, we have just tried to bring to the fore the fact that the world changed in the long period that he has played and maintained his stature as one of the best cricketers in the world,” he says.

Not surprisingly, #SachinMemoryProject, which was uploaded on Tuesday, has already grabbed a lot of eyeballs. “We are witnessing almost 25 to 30 thousand views in a day and each viewer is spending at least 30 minutes on it,” says Mohan, adding, “After watching the slide show, most viewers become very emotional and nostalgic while commenting. Viewers are writing about their personal memories associated with particular matches.”

Mohan points out that the team working on the project didn’t get new quotes from industry for the videos included in the slide show preferring instead to utilize their time packing the project with information. “Over the years, we have built a bank of such videos that have matter on Sachin. We just utilised our resources well and aggregated all those to create this unmatchable show,” he rounds off.

October 14, 2013