ITV

Tag: T20 World Cup

  • DigiVive bags mobile streaming rights for Ind-Zim series

    DigiVive bags mobile streaming rights for Ind-Zim series

    NEW DELHI: DigiVive has bagged the mobile streaming rights for live and repeat ODI matches between India and Zimbabwe from Seven Sports.

    The master distributor of the India-Zimbabwe series is Taj sports. The five ODI match series scheduled to take place in Zimbabwe between 24 July and 3 August will be streamed on DigiVive’s mobile TV platform nexGTv. Over 14 million users of nexGTv and nexGTv HD will be able to enjoy the live matches right on their handsets.

    Also, users will be able to watch matches at their convenience by watching repeat matches under the Video-on-Demand section.

    DigiVive’s mobile TV service nexGTv is second only to YouTube in video streaming space on mobile experiencing over 30,000 downloads every day is what the mobile service claims. In the past also DigiVive had picked up rights to stream live events, especially cricket series like T20 World Cup, IPL 2013 and others, attracting huge audience on nexGTv.

    nexGTv’s continuous strive towards providing appropriate and desirable content like Indian cricket matches, live channels, short and full-length movies, premium content during festivals, etc. has made it the people’s choice for entertainment.

    nexGTv has maintained its top position on various online stores and on other app stores as it remains among top five apps in the entertainment category.

    DigiVive director G.D. Singh said, “Cricketing events on nexGTv help us to connect with masses at large because this is what they want to see and stay connected to.”

    “Cricket on mobile platform has become a popular phenomenon through nexGTv. Now people are not only watching live action on the move on nexGTv but it is becoming a second television at homes. We have been living to our commitment of offering all Indian cricket extravaganzas to our end users. This will enable them to watch entire five match series”, Singh added. 

  • LG to spend Rs 50 mn on marketing activities around T20 World Cup

    MUMBAI: LG India has earmarked a marketing spend of Rs 50 million during the international Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20 that kicks off later this month.

    LG, an ICC global partner, is, however, not planning to cut a sponsorship deal with BCCI for the IPL, according to a senior company executive.

    LG India VP marketing L.K. Gupta says, “LG India has started its cricket promotion with the 20-20 Win Win contest. This campaign aims to create a unique and strong proposition for LG Brand shops and gives consumers a unique opportunity to be a part of T20 World Cup. Five lucky winners will win tickets to Colombo to watch the T20 World Cup daily. A total of 225 consumers
    will go to Colombo to watch T2O World Cup. During the promotion on every purchase, the consumer will register themselves by messaging <Invoice no> < Space> <State> to the specified mobile no. In Tamil Nadu, there will be a ‘Slogan‘ contest. This promotion is not applicable in Kerala. “

    Talking about the ICC deal, he said that the company has a long association being the Global Partners promoting cricket among its billions of followers. “We are proud to be associated with this great sport and with ICC this year also, to help grow the popularity of cricket and the pride associated with international cricket at the highest level. Through the 20 20 win win campaign we will once again connect emotionally with our consumers by making them a part of this sport. We are spending close to 50 million on this campaign which is being activated in more than 450 LG showrooms along with radio advertising in more than 50 cities.”

    LG is also active on the digital front. It has launched a property called My Cricket My Voice. “LG Electronics is one of the Global sponsors of ICC events till 2015. Along with several offline initiatives and campaigns that are built around cricket every year, this year LG India has launched an online property called ‘LG My Cricket My Voice’.

    This long term property has been launched with a single minded objective of increasing consumer engagement. LG India’s plan is to make this property robust by launching several cricket related online activities spread over a period of time under ‘My Cricket My Voice’ wherein consumers can participate on contests, interact with select cricket personalities, express their views, passion, opinion etc on cricket, a sport that is almost a religion in India.”

    He explains that the first activity under this umbrella was launched on 30 August that involved an interactive session with Harsha Bhogle on LG Twitter platform. The campaign, he adds, generated 1321 tweets in a few hours.

    LG also has plans to bring on board a couple of other cricket personalities for a similar consumer engagement program just before the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012 under ‘LG my Cricket My Voice’. ‘LG My Cricket My Voice’ will continue to serve the cricket enthusiasts, a platform to express their love for Cricket.

    In terms of the other digital innovations that LG is doing, Gupta notes that the company co-hosted this year’s online voting for LG People’s Choice Award on LG India Facebook page. This worldwide voting that was resting on ICC Facebook page was given an impetus this year by adding LG India Facebook page through an API as another voting platform. Simultaneously a cricket quiz content was hosted on the LG India site which he says received close to 7000 entries.

    “Over and above the individual activities, LG India is constantly seeding posts and tweets on the LG digital assets on a regular basis,” avers Gupta.

  • Ganguly is brand ambassador for T20 World Cup for blind

    BANGALORE: Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI) has announced that former Indian cricket team captain and IPL player Saurav Ganguly will be the brand ambassador for the forthcoming T20 World Cup tournament for the blind to be held in December 2012.

    CABI also announced that the IPL franchise Kings Xi Punjab will be formally endorsing the event on 29 April at Bangalore.

    CABI said that as the event‘s brand ambassador, Ganguly, will now inspire the millions of visually impaired Indians in particular and the world in general. He has promised to be active in all the promotional activities after IPL5 is wrapped up.

    Earlier, former captain of the Indian cricket team and BCCI selection committee chairman Krishnamachari Srikkanth had endorsed the India- Pakistan bilateral Blind Cricket Series that was held in Chennai from 10-17 March.

  • NewsX launches ‘At Stumps’ with Farokh Engineer for T20 World Cup

    NewsX launches ‘At Stumps’ with Farokh Engineer for T20 World Cup

    MUMBAI: NewsX, the Indi Media owned HDTV-ready English news channel, has launched At Stumps, a cricket based show that will focus on airing news, views and analysis of the ICC World T20.

    The show will present former India cricketer and expert Farokh Engineer, live from England.

    NewsX marketing director Gautam Mukerjea said, “At NewsX, we bring to our viewers one of the most comprehensive coverage from the world of sports. With At Stumps, we will be taking this to another level. As the appeal for T20 cricket pans across segments, genres and demographics, At Stumps will have special interactive programming segments for the viewers which will give them an opportunity to be on live television.

    “We are also delighted to have Engineer as an expert with us from England as his experience, knowledge and expertise of the game will be a value addition for our viewers,” he added.

    The show will provide a first hand report of the tournament and will be a chat-driven show with studio guests.

    Furthermore, it will also have special features like a SMS contest wherein the viewers will be asked to send a question to the studio experts and the best question will give the viewers an opportunity to be on TV. Another new feature, ‘the strategist’, the cerebral component of the show, will analyse one particular ploy in the day’s play that was successful. This could be a change in the batting order by the captain or a field change or rotating his players.

    The show will also have informative segments like maximum sixes and boundaries, graphical scoreboard, man of the match and player of the day among others.

  • ‘Twenty20 injects new life into sports broadcast’

    The sports genre will be known for four key things in 2007. Firstly, the upheaval that happened regarding cricket. Second, a breakaway initiative by the Essel Group forced the BCCI to wake up from its deep slumber. Third, a new format emerged that rejuvenated the bat and ball game. Fourth, even if cricket goes down there is no other sport to replace it.

    As regards the first point, there was a huge build up for the World Cup in March. Everyone from broadcaster Sony to marketers, advertisers had a calypso tune on their lips. Pepsi, one of the ICC’s partners, even went Gold for the event. Two matches into the World Cup and things went into free fall. India was eliminated. Information available with Indiantelevision.com indicates that Sony lost at least Rs 800 million as a result of unsold inventory. The overall loss to the economy from the World Cup debacle is believed to have been in the region of Rs. 2.5 billion.

    However, a few months later things had come full circle. This was due to two things. India won the T20 World Cup. Additionally, Twenty20, which was initially looked upon with some scepticism, proved to be a perfect fit for today’s attention-challenged youth. As a format it has proved to be a win-win situation for all parties involved – TV channels, advertisers and viewers.

    In the ultimate analysis, India’s unexpected showing in the T20 World Cup in South Africa looks like having the kind of long term impact that India’s even more unexpected victory in the 1983 ODI World Cup did.

    The biggest reaper of the T20 windfall was of course ESPN Star Sports (ESS). The T-20 success also means that ESS will get more bang for its buck that had been anticipated when it won the ICC rights late last year with a $ 1.1 billion punt.

    That apart, there is the BCCI’s ‘officially sanctioned’ Indian Premiere League, which if it takes off in the manner that IPL chairman Lalit Modi is envisaging, could well be to cricket what the Uefa Champions League currently is to soccer.

    It is worth recalling here though that it was Subhash Chandra’s Essel Group that first bet on the Twenty20 format when in April it announced the launch of its breakaway Indian Cricket League (ICL). The stated aim of the ICL, behind which Essel put in an initial investment of $ 1 billion, was to unearth talent from India and also to raise the standards of domestic cricket.

    And despite the Indian cricket board’s best efforts to ensure that the ICL remained stillborn, the fact that the inaugural tournament was staged with moderate success highlights one point. Carping apart, ICL has clearly validated itself. Suffice to say that the ICL’s calendar of five events for 2008 speaks for itself as regards Chandra’s intent to stay the course.

    What the IPL and ICL will likely do is that just as Europe is where the world’s best soccer talent congregates, the same will happen in India vis-?-vis cricket.

    The BCCI’s response to Chandra may have in initially been borne out of its outrage at the ‘temerity’ of a private body’s to take it on, but the positive fallout was that it increased the pay packet of domestic cricketers to prevent further exodus. Additionally, when it does launch its IPL, it will go that extra mile to ensure that it’s a success for all those involved in it.

    The upcoming IPL in April is structured as a franchisee-based Twenty20 Series with top international players. The likes of Russell Crowe, Shah Rukh Khan and Vijay Mallya have bid to own a team.

    Lodestar Media CEO Shashi Sinha feels that there is room for both. Also there are clients who will get in as the risk factor is less. Numbers may not be too high but they will not shoot down as was the case with the World Cup. A loyal audience is what clients will pay for as long as the price is right. Even a sixes event will work as long as it is pushed at a national level.

    As far as the rest of the sports broadcasters are concerned, 2008 will be key for Ten Sports as a host of cricket rights it has including Pakistan and Sri Lanka come up for grabs. Whether its association with Zee affects its position with cricket boards remains to be seen. Still, WWE has ensured that the channel remains steady in terms of weekly reach.

  • Twenty20 injects new life into sports broadcast

    Though it had cricket, Neo Sports also found the going tough. Its distribution deal with Star fell through. This cost it crores of rupees in terms of ad revenue not to mention the fact that the payments that were contractually due to Neo were delayed – or never arrived. It set up its own distribution team headed by Arun Poddar. But without branding in the market monies it got would have been affected.

    On the advertising front Neo Sports CEO Shashi Kalathil says that the fact that DD bid heavily to do its own marketing for the Pakistan series proved to be a boon. It added Rs. 180 million its kitty, claims Kalathil.

    Non Encryption: There is no respite for sports broadcasters on this issue. Sports feed to DD will not to be encrypted for four to five years. This will impact all the players, more so Neo Sports since it holds the India rights.

    In terms of other sports ESS is re-jigging its Premier Hockey League (PHL) initiative. ESPN had to be careful and innovate the strategy this year since there are a lesser number of teams – this being the Olympic selection year and most top international players being busy – and so the duration of the tourney is also shorter. The media fraternity though, feels that PHL is still to attain some sort of sizeable recognition even though ESS has been doing it for the past few years.

    Mallya brings home an F1 Team: The biggest non cricket event though was news that Vijay Mallya bought the Dutch F1 team Spyker Ferrari. It was then renamed Force 1 India. This news coupled with the fact that India will hold an F1 event a few years down the road is expected to give a boost to motor racing in the country in a big way.

    The Advertising Scene

    Information available with Indiantelevision.com indicates that the sports genre earned around Rs. 7.5 billion this year. ESS made around Rs. 2.2 billion. Ten Sports and Zee Sports combined made around Rs. 700 million. Sony made Rs 3 billion.

    Sinha says that the biggest learning is that everything depends on performance. “When India does well clients get a very healthy return. But when they do not it can be disastrous which is what happened with the World Cup. Hundreds of crores were lost by clients. T20 was a success more due to India’s performance in the form of the game as opposed to the format itself.”

    “Had India fared poorly in the T20 World Cup also the mood would have been very different. Some fringe clients who occasionally invest in cricket got out after the World Cup experience. India’s failure to quality for the Super Eight is something that will haunt some clients and media planners for a long while. The premiums paid were so high that it was impossible for anybody to prepare for what was to follow.”

    And what about talks of accountability? Sinha notes that it is practically difficult apart from maybe a couple of big clients to do this. Venkateish maintains that ESS did not fall into this trap. “After all clients who get involved know that there are ups and downs. If the ratings for a tournament are great we do not ask those who have already signed on to pay more. So why should we take less?”

    Set India executive VP Rohit Gupta adds that for clients like Pepsi it balances out in the long term. “The 2003 World Cup was a bonanza. Yes the 2007 World Cup was bad but then things turned for the better. Most clients who get involved understand this. They are in for the long haul. In addition for each category there are several companies vying for a spot. So in telecom if Reliance for instance pulls out of cricket there will always be an Idea or Vodafone to step in.”

    It is pertinent to note that clients who kept the faith and got in early for the England series and especially the T20 World Cup got a terrific bang for their buck. After all the net effect of the World Cup debacle was that clients were able to negotiate better rates for the events that immediately followed.

    In conclusion, what both IPL and ICL bring to the Twenty20 table is that it is all to the good for the stakeholders – because it derisks cricket.