Tag: Tennis

Star India bags International Premier Tennis League rights

MUMBAI: After the successful stint with Pro Kabaddi League, Star India is all set to promote tennis in the country.

It is the broadcast partner for the Mahesh Bhupathi founded International Premier Tennis League (IPTL), which is a brand new team tennis format played across several countries in Asia with its first-ever edition to be held later this year.

Sources confirmed to indiantelevision.com that Star India has bagged the rights for the new tennis league. “Who else could broadcast such a league?” says the source.

All the matches will be produced in HD quality with IPTL graphics and commentary. The IPTL is a team tennis competition with $1 million in prize money featuring the best ATP and WTA players across selected cities in Asia from 28 November to 13 December 2014. The India franchise tennis team will compete with three teams from Philippines, Singapore and the UAE.

UFA Sports is the exclusive marketer of the worldwide media rights of the IPTL.

The official announcements are expected to be made in a few days.

September 19, 2014
New tensports.com sees spike in viewership

MUMBAI: Launched in June last year, Star India’s digital sports offering – starsports.com – has since created a lot of traction among sports enthusiasts in the country. And the same can be said for Ten Sports’ website – tensports.com – that was re-launched not too long ago on 27 March and has since witnessed a spike in viewership.

“A lot of research, thought and hard work has gone into the re-launch of tensports.com; we are aware of the opportunities in the digital space and want to really cash in on it,” reveals Ten Sports CEO Rajesh Sethi. “We are very focussed on getting the best coverage and updates to sports fans through tensports.com and going forward, we will only get deeper into the space.”

To its credit, the revisited site is a definite improvement over its predecessor with various well-placed sections that are easy to navigate. Apart from separate tabs for sports like cricket, football, tennis, golf and WWE, a section has been demarcated for blogs, videos and the TV guide.

“Not many know this fact, but the TV guide is something which receives the most visits during the day. It serves as the destination for all sports fans to keep track of various events or matches that are scheduled for the day,” says Sethi.

It was after more than five months of beta testing that the overhauled site went live on 27 March. As of now, content generated is both in-house and from blogs but going forward; the plan is to have more in-house content.

“The digital, content and marketing teams all got together to really push for the re-launch and I am really pleased with the results,” says Sethi. “We also want to create a lot of social traction and thus, have aligned our social media on the portal as well, and are confident that we will only grow from strength to strength.”

Since going live, tensports.com has witnessed an increase in viewership. To delve into numbers, the portal gets about 1.6 million visitors per month, of which, 0.7 million are unique visitors. Breaking this down further, 0.42 million come from mobile and 0.28 million come from desktops. The new site has been designed to be very responsive and can easily adapt to various screens including desktops, mobiles, tablets etc.

“This move has encouraged consumption on multiple screens and it reflects in our viewership as well. After the re-launch, the bounce rate on mobiles has reduced by 11 per cent and that of desktops by 27 per cent,” says Sethi, adding, “Social media is a very important tool for us, and we will leverage the platform to drive our fans to the website.” For the record, tensports.com has over 2.5 million likes on Facebook and 73,100 followers on Twitter.

Plans are afoot to hold Google Hangout sessions with sports fans to keep up the engagement levels. Significantly, the Ten Sports’ sports calendar is a healthy mix of various sports, with big-ticket events like the Hockey World Cup, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games; it could be slated to be streamed live on the website along with being telecast on the channel.

“We are yet to try out live beaming of an event, but I am confident of our ability to bring high quality video content to the fans with such important events coming up,” says Sethi. Asked about the business model, he does not reveal much except that the site plans on adopting a mix of ad and subscription revenues.

With competition among sports broadcasters hotting up, viewers can only expect bigger and better sports entertainment lined up for them.

April 12, 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: 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
Star Sports on a route to ‘glocalise’ Hockey

MUMBAI: It wasn’t very long ago when the News Corp-owned media and entertainment leader, Star Network, committed to invest Rs 20,000 crore in building up the sports business in India. So while the investment was intended to fuel the expansion of sports coverage in the country, there were plans of building exciting new leagues including the Indian Super League (ISL) in football, the Hockey India League (HIL) and the Indian Badminton League (IBL) as well over the next few years.

Star India head of sports business Nitin Kukreja says: “Well, we at Star believe to put money where our mouth is.”

In a strategic announcement today, Star has pledged to push the envelope for the promotion of Hockey – India’s national sport – with an unprecedented investment of over Rs 1,500 crore over the next eight years. This is a never seen before commitment to Hockey, which would see Hockey India, International Hockey Federation (FIH) and Star India embark upon a journey to promote the game.

“The idea is to look at sports other than Cricket and try and bring a change in the sporting landscape. For the transformation in any sport to really come about it requires time, investment, innovations, ideas and the coming together of the ecosystem,” adds Kukreja.

The sports broadcaster is set to create a new global benchmark in Hockey broadcasting with the telecast of the second edition of HIL. Showcasing ‘The New Face of Hockey’, Star Sports’ has invested over Rs 100 crore in the promotion (Rs 50 crore) and production (Rs 50 crore) of the second edition of HIL which starts on 25 January, 8 pm onwards.

Such a big investment hasn’t been made earlier by a broadcaster in any local league, the exception being the Indian Premiere League (IPL). However, Star Sports intends to showcase Hockey like it has never been experienced before whether in India or globally.

Kukreja says: “In terms of making the right noise around the second edition of HIL, we are already getting a good response from advertisers. We already have Micromax, Dr. Ortho and Denver Deos as our sponsors and we are in final stages of discussions with other advertisers. We will certainly be having lot of spot buyers once the tournament kicks-off.”

Star Sports’ wants the HIL broadcast to be an immersive, engaging and pleasurable viewing experience for the Indian hockey fan. The idea is to take the consumer closer to the game and make them understand the game better. Star Sports has hired International Management Group (IMG) to produce the second edition of HIL. Israel-based specialised sports agency Prometheus has been entrusted with the responsibility of developing cutting edge graphics suitable for Hockey broadcast. The broadcaster will use as many as 20 cameras for the very first time in the history of the sport for each and every match during the league – covering every piece of action on the Astroturf.

“It gives us immense pleasure to be the home for the 2018 Hockey World Cup telecast. We will surely push the envelope in match coverage as well as get into in-depth pre and post match analysis to engage the consumer better,” expounds Kukreja.

Additionally, the viewing experience will get batter because Star Sports is treating HIL at par with international cricket. The league will be showcased not only in English on Star Sports 1 and Star Sports HD1, but will also be showcased in Hindi on Star Sports 3. Starsports.com will stream all matches live of the tournament for Hockey loving fans across the world.

Star Sports has erected a world class set for pre and post shows of the league. The studio team in English will be led by former BBC presenter Michael Absalom; while in Hindi, Star Sports has roped Vidya Malvade (of Chak De India fame) as the lead anchor.

The channel’s experts and sports commentary team comprises some of the most eminent names of Hockey. English studio team: Michael Absalom (anchor), Viren Rasquinha and A.B Subbaiah (experts); English commentary team: Ashley Morrison, Adrian D’souza and Amar Aiyama (lead); Sandeep Somesh, Ashish Ballal and Solomon Casoojee (experts); Hindi studio team: Vidya Malvade (anchor), Harender Singh, Tahir Zaman (experts) and Hindi commentary team: Sunil Taneja, Ravikant Singh and Mohit Gang (lead); Salman Akbar and Sameer Dad (experts).

“We are investing time and money in the hockey commentators to make them TV compatible,” says Kukreja, and further adds, “The Indian Hockey loving fan has always missed out on the kind of telecast quality that is generally experienced only in Cricket; well all that is about to change with this path breaking production standards that we have adopted for the very first time ever in the game of Hockey.”

Just looking at this edition of HIL, this will be the first time that 30 out of the 34 matches will be played at 8 pm which is the prime time viewing. The six teams that will be featuring in the tournament are: Dabur Mumbai Magicians, Jaypee Punjab Warriors, Ranchi Rhinos, Delhi Waveriders, Kalinga Lancers and Uttar Pradesh Wizards.

Kukreja further adds that nearly 70 per cent of the viewership comes from the Hindi Speaking Markets (HSMs) and the time spent (which generally shows the strength of the content) on the Hindi channel (Star Sports 3) is about 40 per cent higher, thus clearly indicating a higher stickiness quotient among these markets.

Star Sports along with IMG and Prometheus has already rolled out team specific music videos with peppy tunes and eye popping visuals capturing the essence of the cities the teams belong to. It is not just grabbing the attention of viewers, but is also creating the right noise with the tournament just a couple of days away.

“We believe that we have done our bit in the promotion of the sport and it’s now time that the entire ecosystem comes together and make the sport even bigger and reach a wider fan base. I really don’t see a reason why can’t India regain its glory in the sport that brought in loads of medals and recognition on the global platform,” Kukreja concludes.

Star India is certainly betting big on promoting the sports culture in the country. Now it’s only a matter of a couple of days to see how the viewers respond to this big gamble played out by the broadcaster. Play on!

January 23, 2014
Times Mobile brings home the Pepsi IPL play

MUMBAI: Times Mobile Limited has partnered, with Techfront, for their App – FollowOn which will provide a unique home experience to instadia fans at the Kotla for the playoffs on 21 and 22 May.

In a first of its kind, a large format sports venue will enable instadia fans, a fresh experience on the mobile and one that can change the quotient for a fan forever.

The viewers inside the stadium will be able to download the free app – Followon. The app will serve live cricket action to one‘s mobile phone as it happens on the pitch. The viewer will get live scores, commentary, news, features, stats, special scores, graphs, magic moments with push notifications and video content while being present at the venue.

All fans will be able to access free wi-fi connectivity at the venue and download the App from iTunes, Google Play, Market place to have this elevated fan experience at the venue.

FollowOn is from the stable of Techfront- a specialised provider of digital display systems, interactive solutions, instadia lighting for popular sports such as Cricket, F1, Football, Rugby, Tennis, Hockey etc.

May 22, 2013
Headbanger’s Ball

Usually my Sunday afternoon siestas are broken by Barking Boxer. He lives in the building behind ours and his weekly treat is playing cricket with his human friends on the street. He cheers loudly and unreservedly. Last Sunday, he went ballistic. The size of the ball in the narrowness of the playing area confused him and drove him ecstatic at the same time – that’s right, the kids next door had switched to footer.

As had the whole country. Not just Kerala and Goa and West Bengal. Finally, cricket fever is abating. Forgive this terrible indiscretion, but I never could understand what millions saw in twenty two men in long pants chasing a tiny ball around a wide open field, every thirty excruciating seconds, and could keep at it for hours, even days, together.

By now, the evidence that football fever has overtaken cricket is all over the place – the viewership figures of 5.2 million speak for themselves. In a couple of weeks, Intellect will tell us how much out of home television viewing occurred as well, and I would not be surprised if that added a good 50 per cent to the overall.

Last Sunday gave us the unusual and perhaps unlikely occurrence of two awesome live telecast finals almost back to back. Not middle of the road pop music cricket, but the intense mastery of stroke making jazz music tennis at primetime, and the ultimate headbanger’s ball later that night. From the classy Federer sporting a pristine white jacket bearing his family insignia, to the crassness of a skirmish that a hero will regret all his life, the evening kept audiences glued to their sets.

In sheer numbers, the total home viewing audience on July 9th in the top six cities went up by 33 per cent over the average Sunday (the average Sunday itself including a live telecast ODI cricket match between home team India and the West Indies at prime time on May 28). One and a half million more viewers were added, with the audience post 11 pm alone shooting up from 2.1 million to 4.1 million viewers. Average viewing minutes post 11 pm nearly doubled from 56 to 92 minutes.

By now, the evidence that football fever has overtaken cricket is all over the place – the viewership figures of 5.2 million speak for themselves
_____****_____

The maximum increase percentage wise was observed among male children aged 4 to 14 years – at 43 per cent. Boxer’s friends sure had a well filled day that day. While the maximum increase in volumes was observed among the 35 plus. 3.75 lakh more men tuned in to watch television on Awesome Twosome Sunday, up from 9 lakh men over 35 in these six cities on an average Sunday in summer. Plus a whole lot more in pubs, clubs and friend’s places.

And hold your breath – 3.34 lakh more women over 35 too! (One of them being me.)

All in all it was a sports lover’s treat, of course, but not just limited to the sports lover. And that’s what makes this story all that more interesting. It holds out promise for all the other deserving but so far unsupported sport in this country. Add plenty of eye candy to the promotion of the sport, speed things up a bit, pour in millions of dollars, globalize the players keeping up with the worldly new definition of ‘home’, and who knows – twenty years down the line, Barking Boxer – or his progeny – could well be keeping time to hu-tu-tu.

(With grateful thanks to aMap for the data and Deepa Menon of Intellect – LMG for the analysis).

(The author is Lintas India Director of Media Services)

(The views expressed here are those of the author and Indiantelevision.com need not necessarily subscribe to the same)

July 12, 2006