ITV

Tag: UEFA EURO 2016

  • After Serie A MSM bags broadcasting rights of FA Cup

    After Serie A MSM bags broadcasting rights of FA Cup

    MUMBAI: When Multi Screen Media (MSM) CEO NP Singh said that the network was looking at building an ecosystem for football in the country, he had a foolproof strategy to back it up. The network has bagged the exclusive three-year broadcasting rights for The Emirates FA Cup from the 2015-16 to the 2017-18 season and Italian Seire A.

     

    Indiantelevision.com was the first to report about the channel acquiring the telecast rights for Italian Seire A. It can be noted that both the assets were earlier with Star India’s sports channel Star Sports.

     

    Following an agreement with MP & Silva, The Emirates FA Cup and Serie A Tim rights holder for the India sub-continent, Sony Kix will exclusively showcase live coverage from the two football properties in a bid to tap into the growing popularity of the sport in the region. These acquisitions strengthen the current portfolio of live football programming which already boasts of a strong line-up of marquee properties including the UEFA Euro 2016, Qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2016, European Qualifiers for 2018 FIFA World Cup, 2018 FIFA World Cup and Copa America.

     

    With the consistent increase in viewership for football witnessed in the past decade in India, the channel is looking to capitalise on this opportunity and provide Indian viewers with a slice of the best in football across the globe. The acquisitions come as a mode to bolster the group’s football portfolio, consolidating their position as the ultimate destination for international football. The Italian jewel of premier division football – the Serie A, along with the oldest and most historic association football competition in the world – The Emirates FA Cup, will surely add a new dimension to the channel’s library of iconic sports properties.

     

    Starting 2 August, 2015, Sony Kix will broadcast the traditional curtain raiser to the English football season, the FA Community Shield which will be played between FA Cup champion Arsenal and Barclays Premier League winner Chelsea, followed by The Emirates FA Cup.

     

    The Italian Serie A Tim Football Championship, the topmost division in professional league in Italian football, kicks-off the 2015 season on the weekend of 22 August 2015. This will be the 114th season of top-tier Italian football, featuring some of the best teams and players in international football. The channel will also showcase in-depth post-match highlights accompanied by a weekly highlight bulletin providing exclusive insights into the league.

     

    This comprehensive and holistic offering of the league will be accompanied by high quality audio and visual feed of the live matches, providing viewers with an unparalleled and enhanced viewing experience.

     

    Sony Kix and Sony Six business head Prasana Krishnan said, “We are witnessing a golden era of sports viewership transition in the country, and are proud to be offering two of the world’s most renowned events in football. We have seen an overwhelming demand for football viewership in the country, and through these acquisitions, we wish to cater to that need and reiterate our commitment towards providing high quality sports content for our viewers.”

  • 2014 exemplified that the next big thing is mobile

    2014 exemplified that the next big thing is mobile

    It’s been a year of tremendous growth for the digital industry. Digital advertising spends have increased significantly. And while we’ve been talking about mobile as the next big thing for a few years, 2014 saw the thought being well and truly realised. A fair indicator of this were the numerous campaigns run by online shopping merchants, advertising their app over other platforms and even creating deals specific to mobile devices. Another great example is the launch of key services on mobile by the government of Karnataka.

    There was also growth experienced in digital content, where not only were key properties available for viewing exclusively on web and mobile, but we also saw a lot of instances of specialised content being created for web and mobile. FIFA World Cup 2014 on LIV Sports is one example of how a grand event today isn’t just a TV property.

    Talking about LIV Sports, it has been a very successful year for us at Sony with the launch of LIV Sports simultaneously on web and mobile, as an app available on both iOS and Android. Apart from FIFA, LIV Sports also acquired the mobile and internet broadcast rights for the South African RAM SLAM T20 Challenge Series for India, Vijay Amritraj backed Champions Tennis League, the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament and the Australian Open.

    A huge learning point for us this year has been the increased need to focus on mobile. Increase in mobile internet connectivity and introduction of cheaper smartphones along with a drop in internet surfing charges has led to huge increase in consumption of video content. The consumer today is looking for content on the go, thus, making mobile a key focus. As a result, we launched a number of apps including KBC Play Along, creating a second screen experience allowing viewers to answer questions with the contestants and win prizes. We also have the KBC Official App allowing fans to engage with the show any time they want. We’ve had approximately two million downloads for the KBC suite of apps and over 13 million downloads for both Sony LIV and LIV Sports.

    Keeping this in mind, in 2015 we will continue to innovate and engage our users by establishing our marquee properties in the new media space. We are excited by the opportunity, the overlap of better connectivity and smartphones, is offering entertainment content companies like us. Our aim is to be the leader in the digital video entertainment space. We will strengthen our mobile offerings to consumers and our agenda is to make 2015 the ‘Year of Mobile Entertainment’ and deliver great content through product innovations on SonyLiv.com and LivSports.in.

    (These are purely personal views of Sony Entertainment Network executive vice president and digital head Uday Sodhi and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • Sony Six gears up for ‘Total Non-Stop Action’

    Sony Six gears up for ‘Total Non-Stop Action’

    MUMBAI: Multi Screen Media’s sports channel Sony Six has recently acquired the rights of some very niche and diverse sports. And it has upped the ante with Total Non-Stop Action (TNA) the direct competitor to one of the biggest sporting brands in the world – World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

    TNA executive VP Andy Barton says: “TNA is a young brand compared to its competition and we found a similar fit with Sony Six, which is also a fairly young brand and it already has properties like UFC and IPL; the ideas that they brought to the table were just too good to resist and that is how the multi-year deal came about.”

    TNA manages every aspect of production internally to bring fans more than 500 hours of original content each year. It produces exclusive entertainment for more than five million viewers in 14 languages each week to more than 100 countries.

    MSM executive VP and business head Sony Six Prasanna Krishnan says: “There is a strong culture of fight sports in this country, but from a television perspective it is an area that has always been neglected or inadequately promoted in India. Our effort and idea is to bring together the best of fight sports – whatever be the segment – to Indian viewers. Thus, we are on the right course by partnering with big brands like UFC and TNA; we as a channel want to have a wide array of fight sports to suit everyone’s preference in the country.”

    The channel will be airing 500 hours of fresh content from TNA over a period of one year in the multi-year contract. This will include Impact Wrestling (TNA’s weekly televised show); and annual mainstays like March’s Lockdown, June’s Slammiversary and October’s Bound for Glory anchor the lineup for pay-per-views.

    Sony Six, which has dabbled with Hindi commentary in the past with properties like IPL will first be looking at trying out the product and stabilising it before experimenting with the language innovations, but it is on the cards. TNA will be available in both the SD as well as HD feeds.

     

    MSM COO N P Singh says: “Wrestling in India is huge as we have a very long wrestling tradition with Kushti and with our wrestlers performing and winning on international platforms; it has renewed interest in wrestling as a sport. TNA is an established brand and has been around for some time now, but it’s a brand that hasn’t received the kind of push that it deserves.”

    During their visit, Kurt and Gail will be a part of a variety of promotional events to seed the growth of wrestling in India. Setting a different pace to the stars visit, Six and TNA have taken an unconventional route to the tour by featuring the city of Lucknow as one of the pit stop in a promotional tour that will see them visit Mumbai, Lucknow and Delhi between 9 and 13 December.

    Krishnan adds: “The television side of the deal is just one side of it, our idea is to take the sport to the grass root levels and thus we will be touring Lucknow in the three city tour this coming week to reach out to the heartland of wrestling in India. Thus, we are just not investing in the brand as a business proposition but looking at the bigger picture.”

    The entire network will be used to promote the TNA brand very aggressively and one big initiative that it has taken is to get Kurt Angle to be a part of a popular show on Sab TV – Balveer – where the protagonist will be seen in a duel with the superstar. The network plans to capture the attention of all its GEC viewers through such initiatives and give the brand a heavy push.

    Besides TNA, the company is well known to exclusively broadcast some of the world’s largest as well as celebrated international sporting properties like The Pepsi IPL, UEFA EURO 2016, qualifiers for UEFA EURO 2016 and the European qualifiers for FIFA World Cup 2018, The NBA and The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).