ITV

Tag: VIVO IPL 2017

  • Serial entrepreneur Srikant Sastri to mentor digital news venture Nyoooz.com

    NEW DELHI: In an age when most established news organisations, including the new-kid-on-the-block Republic TV, have digital news portals to augment reach, one of the first few to get into this space, news media veteran Alok Verma and his Nyoooz.com have roped in serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Singapore-based big data company Crayon Data Srikant Sastri as a mentor.

    Sastri, who has also joined the board of Newzstreet Media Private Limited, parent of Nyoooz.com, will help the company sharpen its focus on micro-revenue opportunities and a methodology to deliver value to its clients.

    Apart from Sastri, Raja Shukla has joined Nyoooz.com as the national sales head. Raja, an accomplished media sales professional, will drive the digital sales and content-led sales both at the national and city levels. His earlier stints had been in organisations like Gram Vani, Zee Media, The Indian Express group and The Times of India group.

    Commenting on the new leadership team, Nyoooz.com founder and editor-in-chief Verma said, “Srikant Sastri will help Nyoooz.com to focus on quantitative and qualitative improvisations in the way local news content is generated and served using technological innovations and will mentor not only the team, but also me, while Raja’s presence will add more zing to our sales as we look to consolidate our core base and also explore spreading wings.”

    One of the early entrants into the digital space, Nyoooz.com serves contextual and relevant local news for and from tier II and tier III cities in India with a primary focus on Northern India. Presently, the company serves and covers news of and from about 70 cities and has an audience reach of 3.5 million in text news and 6 million in video news, including latest blockbuster the IPL 2017 cricket matches.

    Verma, a journalist of over 30-year standing, has held senior news management positions, including that of the editor, in media groups such as TV Today Network, Zee Media and Star India. The entrepreneurship bug bit him when he sensed the importance of the digital space.

    Nyoooz.com curates all important news stories of target cities from trustworthy and competent publishers from across the web. It uses its TrueView algorithm’s to scan and fetch news published about 70 individual cities across India. Subscribers can customize their unique news feed after registering to gather news from the cities they love.

  • Hotstar becomes first ‘Made in India’ platform to reach 100-m downloads in two yrs

    MUMBAI: Hotstar is the first ‘Made in India platform’ to cross 100 million downloads on Google Play Store, and it has raced to this milestone in two years.

    Over the last two years, Hotstar has been consistently blazing the trail on setting new benchmarks for a consumer Internet company. From being the fastest growing platform in the world to introducing technological innovations in streaming, Hotstar has been the pioneer in opening up the premium video category in India.

    This week, Hotstar shattered yet another ceiling. It became the first local service to cross 100 million downloads on the Google Play Store. On the Play Store downloads chart, the online video platform has raced far ahead of many other consumer Internet companies in India, including e-commerce services like Amazon India and Flipkart, taxi ride services like Ola, payment apps like Paytm, and even news services like Times of India, NDTV and Dailyhunt. Almost all of Hotstar’s downloads have come from India. The service reached this milestone within just 2 years of its launch in 2015.

    Across the Play Store, App Store and other Android app stores cumulatively, Hotstar has crossed more than 200 million downloads since launch.

    The service also announced recently that it has emerged as the primary screen for VIVO IPL 2017 in India’s top cities, those with more than a million in population. In a newspaper announcement last week, Hotstar revealed massive growth in viewership over the previous year, including a five times increase in watch time and a 12 times increase in concurrent viewership on the platform.

  • ‘Cricketainment’ via Vodafone Super Fan Ki Superwish

    MUMBAI: Every IPL season bring a fresh breeze of enthusiasm, excitement and passion amongst cricket lovers. Celebrating a decade of its association with the most watched cricket carnival in the world, Vodafone India promises to make Vivo IPL 2017 as Big as it gets!

    The only national brand to be consistently associated with IPL since inception, Vodafone’s high decibel campaigns have been a key highlight of each IPL season. This year, even as Vodafone and IPL commemorate a decade successful partnership, Vodafone customers and IPL viewers can look forward to a never before array of adrenaline boosting initiatives making each day super special.

    The ever popular Vodafone SuperFan, a first of its kind gratification platform that gave Vodafone customers a once in a lifetime opportunity to get the match winning ball signed by the winning captain on live television, takes on a larger avatar in IPL 2017. Vodafone Super Fan Ki Superwish opens doors for lucky SuperFans to win some dream come true experiences that are being introduced for the first time ever in the history of cricket!

    To participate in Vodafone’s IPL initiatives and win these amazing offerings, Vodafone customers can simply SMS SUPERFAN to 199 and look forward to making their super wish come true. Alternately one can go to My Vodafone App and look forward to making their super wish come true. On offer are – a dinner with their favourite cricketer, joining IPL stars at net practice, participating in Extra Innings show on Sony, taking a selfie with the Vivo IPL trophy, amongst others

    Enthused by the super success of ‘Hakke Bakke” in IPL 2016, Vodafone brings another foot thumping SuperCheer this time around, which also marks the return of the adorable Zumis. The Zumi Cheer films will enhance the spirit of IPL with the little characters displaying their signature steps.

    Another first time in India, engagement initiative at IPL 2017 is an opportunity for aspiring Vodafone SuperFans to experience the unique feel of cheering for their favourite team from the Front Row of the stadium, even if he/she is not actually in the stadium, but is watching the match from a Vodafone store, anywhere in the country. Vodafone has conceptualized this initiative thanks to the immense possibilities of their Data Strong Network.

    Vodafone India EVP – marketing Siddharth Banerjee said, “Vodafone Super Fan Ki Super Wish and the chance to cheer from the Front Row will offer exclusive experience. Customers and cricket lovers can also look forward to enjoying this IPL season with the Zumi Super Cheers celebrating special cricket moments”.

  • Don’t miss a single Hot IPL moment

    MUMBAI: Hotstar, India’s leading video-on-demand platform has launched its Vivo IPL 2017 commercial, a clarion call to get ready for the most avidly watched cricket tournament of the year. Hotstar, which is the exclusive digital streaming partner for Vivo IPL, has kicked off its campaign with a 60 second film, to be followed by shorter films as the campaign progresses. The campaign has been conceptualised by independent agency Creativeland Asia.

    The film, set to a track composed by Sneha Khanwalkar and performed by rapper Naezy, opens with people from different walks of life in a typical Indian city, getting their game face on. What’s different, however, is that as opposed to the years where IPL meant life grinding to a halt, we see fans going about their lives, while effortlessly catching all the unpredictable and hot IPL cricket action.

    Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan shared, “With Hotstar, the old narrative of cities turning into ghost towns during IPL is passé. The audience’s lives have gotten busier and thanks to IPL on mobile with Hotstar, there is no longer any need to make a trade-off between your passion for cricket and going on with daily life. The action on the field can heat up at any time and Hotstar is your ally for not missing a single hot moment, no matter where you are. Na life rukegi, na game rukega.”

    Creativeland Asia founder and creative chairman Sajan Raj Kurup said, “This has been an unbelievably action packed project from the word go. The insight was that Hotstar allows you to go about your life while still catching all the IPL action live. So, no matter what you’re doing – working, studying or travelling, with Hotstar you’re constantly in a state of readiness to catch every bit of every hot match. The fielding stance is a great metaphor for readiness. We used this metaphor to show people around the city being ready for every ball of the IPL. From the script idea to the composition of the music/lyrics and shooting from road to road with a smallish feature-film crew, this is perhaps the most anecdotal project we have done in recent times.”

    Cricket fandom is a ubiquitous phenomenon and with its exclusive Vivo IPL digital partnership, now in its fourth year, Hotstar projects that it will be the first screen for cricket fans this Vivo IPL with more viewers on mobile than on TV, across one million plus population towns in India.

  • Vivo IPL 2017: Eleven Sports gets digital rights for Singapore

    MUMBAI: Pioneering global broadcaster Eleven Sports recently announced that it will broadcast the entirety of the Vivo Indian Premier League 2017 live on elevensports.sg in Singapore, adding even more scintillating sports action to the network’s growing portfolio of rights.

    From 5 April, sports fans in Singapore will be able to enjoy live coverage of the tournament which will be the tenth edition of the professional Twenty20 cricket league founded by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. In the short span of 10 years, the IPL has become one of the highlights of the cricket calendar, ranking as the most-attended cricket league, and the sixth most-attended sports league in the world.

    This year’s competition will see some of the biggest names in world cricket featuring for 8 teams – Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Daredevils, Mumbai Indians, Rising Pune Supergiant, Kings XI Punjab, Gujarat Lions, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Sunrisers Hyderabad. The teams will face off in a series of round-robin and knockout matches in a bid to prove their supremacy.

    “Acquiring rights to the Vivo IPL 2017 with it’s thrilling, high-octane action ensures that we keep delivering the best and most exhilarating sports properties for the fans”, says Eleven Sports managing director Danny Menken. “We are committed to our core strategy to reach all fans with the biggest and best sports content at an affordable price with anytime, anywhere viewing options. Bringing the Vivo IPL to Eleven Sports backs up this commitment and strengthens even further our growing portfolio of world-class sports rights.”

    The first match of the tournament sees Sunrisers Hyderabad paired off against Royal Challengers Bangalore. As per custom, this opening match and the final match of the tournament will be hosted in Hyderabad – the home of the reigning champions.

    For unlimited access to all IPL matches, cricket fans in Singapore can purchase the IPL Pass at the discounted price of S$34 from now until 9 April, without being tied down to any contract.

    Other top international sporting events available on Eleven Sports in Singapore includes the English Premier League, NBA, RBS 6 Nations Rugby Championship, FA Cup and Badminton Asia Championships. All this premium sports content can be accessed anytime, anywhere on www.elevensports.sg and via the Eleven Sports app, which can be downloaded from Google Play and the Apple App Store. The network’s channels are also available in Singapore on SingTel TV, StarHub Go, Toggle, M1, ViewQwest, and Samsung TV, which offers sporting fans anytime, anywhere accessibility to premium live and exclusive sporting action.

  • Hotstar targets Rs 150 crore plus revenue from IPL 2017 streaming

    MUMBAI: Is video on demand streaming service Hotstar cooking up a good revenue platter this IPL 10 season? Well, if some media reports are to be believed, then, it is. Anywhere between Rs 150-200 crore is what it is likely to serve onto the Star India top line. The figure for IPL was a much lower estimated Rs 65 crore.

    The Novi Digital-owned service yesterday announced the on-boarding of Chinese mobile maker Vivo and auto major Maruti Suzuki as presenting sponsors for Vivo IPL 2017. The sticker price has not been specified. All that the release states is that the sponsorships are “believed to be sizeable investments from companies of a scale that has not been seen in the Indian digital market to date and indicate their belief in Hotstar’s promise of delivering the largest global sporting event on digital this summer.”

    Media reports have speculated that the figure each is anteing up is Rs 20 crore.

    According to Hotstar, advertisers and media agencies are signing fatter cheques because of the fact there has been a meaningful shift from television to digital — especially, as far as cricket viewing is concerned. The release states that “the most recent India vs England ODI series saw Hotstar’s reach challenging that of television consistently. The reach hit 120 per cent of television in cities with more than a million in population and 147 per cent reach in the largest six cities in India (M15+, NCCS AB). At the same time, the platform has seen new records established for digital with the short format cricket matches regularly exceeding 20 million in viewership.”

    Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan is quite confident that the pioneering app is going to be the primary screen for this IPL season considering the 130 million viewers who are streaming video nationally.

    “Marketers are recognizing that these are audiences that are TV light or not present on television at all,” he points out. “We are reinventing the experience of cricket on a mobile and India is changing the way it watches its favourite sport.” Mohan told the media that the OTT player crossed had 200 million downloads by end February 2017. This is against the 50 million downloads, Star India CEO Uday Shankar had announced during the FICCI Frames inaugural keynote in March 2016.

    The streaming service’s contract with the BCCI is slated to end this year as it had paid Rs 302.2 crore to acquire the global internet and mobile rights three years ago.

    Vivo India CMO Vivek Zhang says he took the decision to partner with Hotstar as it appeals to the youth and enjoys tremendous brand recall. “Its desire to constantly invest on innovative technology which is in line with Vivo’s marketing objectives made it a preferred choice for Vivo We are truly excited about the delightful cricket experience that the platform is driving and were indeed keen to be a part of this drive,” he stated

    Maruti Suzuki marketing head Sanjeev Handa acknowledged that an increasing number of the auto firm’s target customer is engaging with the company’s products on digital. According to him, almost 50 per cent of users are researching cars online and hence a diffusion of the purchase cycle is taking place here. “Hence, our approach is integrating offline and online, (it is a ground sponsor of this year’s IPL),” points out Handa.

    “We wanted to embody the spirit of Play Glamourous for Vitara Brezza across the markets, and found a perfect fit by reaching out to the audiences via their closest screens, i.e. mobiles. An average user is spending over 150 mins each day on mobile. Our tie-up as co-presenting sponsor on Hotstar will give us the mileage and the engagement with the most glamourous sport in the nation!”

  • Willow TV acquires exclusive US media rights for IPL ’17

    MUMBAI: Willow TV, the primary broadcaster for cricket in North America, has acquired the exclusive media rights in the United States for the VIVO IPL 2017 Twenty20 tournament.

    The IPL (Indian Premier League) is the world’s leading professional cricket tournament, with record-breaking fan attendance and multimedia consumption. Willow previously broadcast the IPL in 2014, at the time setting cricket viewership records in the United States.

    “Willow is delighted to bring exclusive live coverage of the VIVO IPL 2017 to our viewers across television and digital platforms,” said Willow CEO Vijay Srinivasan. “Viewer interest for cricket in the US stands at unparalleled levels, as over 1.4 million households watched the ICC World Twenty20 on Willow in 2016. We look to continue to set new all-time high ratings this year. The IPL is the crown jewel of professional Twenty20 tournaments, and cricket fans in the US are in for a treat when the tournament kicks off on 5 April.”

    The 10th season of the VIVO IPL 2017 starts on 5 April with the defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad against last year’s runner up Royal Challengers Bangalore. The tournament features 60 matches, played over 47 days in multiple venues across India. Willow will provide live coverage of all 60 matches, culminating with the final on 21 May.

    Willow, which is part of Times Internet (India’s largest diversified digital group), is one of the fastest growing sports networks in the U.S, and the only channel that is dedicated solely to cricket. The channel, along with its “TV Everywhere” service, is distributed by the largest satellite, cable, IPTV and OTT platforms in a variety of subscription packages.

  • BCCI releases RFP for service related to VIVO IPL 2017

    MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has released the Request for Proposal (RFP) for Indian Premier League for the right to be appointed as a media agency in relation to the IPL. 

    The proposal documents in sealed envelopes shall be delivered in person by an authorised representative of the interested party by 3pm on 2 March 2017 to The Cricket Centre, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai 400 020. 

    This document — the “RFP” — constitutes a request for proposal from persons who consider that they have the desire, competence and expertise to be appointed to take on the right and obligation to be appointed as a media agency in relation to the IPL in accordance with and as contemplated by this RFP and the Services Agreement. The successful Interested party shall be obliged to provide the Services in respect of the 2017 and 2018 Seasons and, if the BCCI exercises its right to renew the Services Agreement, in respect of the 2019 Season. The attention of interested parties is drawn to Section 7 which sets out the deadline for the submission of Proposals.

    BCCI is seeking proposals from reputed third parties to acquire the right to be appointed as BCCI’s exclusive media agency in relation to the League in the manner described in and contemplated by this RFP and the Services Agreement. No proposal from any party who intends to re-sell the right to provide the Services will be accepted.

    Requisite Experience
     
    Each proposal must be from  an  interested  party  which  can  demonstrate  the  following,  supplying  evidence thereof as part of its proposal:
     
    (a) extensive and relevant experience in providing services which are the same as or similar to the Services;

    (b) significant experience of dealing with vendors of TV, print and OOH advertising throughout India and of purchasing such advertising on behalf of “blue chip” companies;

    (c) Global and India wide presence;

    (d) a strong financial background (in relation to which the attention of Interested

    (e) sufficient human and other resources to provide the Services as contemplated in this  RFP  and  as  is  reflected  in  the  Services  Agreement  including  without limitation a sufficient number of suitably qualified employees who will be involved in providing the Services and one person who will act as the prime account  manager  and  the  point  person  between  BCCI  and  the  successful

    (f) Sufficient contacts, expertise and resources in order to provide the Services; and

    (g) References satisfactory to BCCI from entities for which the Interested party has supplied services which are the same as or similar to the Services.

    Proposals will be evaluated on their overall merits to include, without limitation, the proposed Fee, the Media Plan, the standard of delivery of the services.

    BCCI reserves the right, to be exercised in its sole discretion, to waive each and any of the conditions and requirements in relation to any Interested party.

    Guarantees

    Depending upon the financial strength and/or depth of other resources available to the successful interested party, BCCI reserves the right to insist upon a parent company guarantee in the manner contemplated by the Services Agreement. The failure to provide such a parent company guarantee (if requested) shall constitute a material breach of the Services Agreement and may lead to its termination.

    Eligibility requirement

    For the purpose of this RFP, any entity in the world (which expression includes,  as  regards  corporate  entities,  each  Interested  Party  and/or  its  parent  or subsidiary companies), which satisfy the following requirements as at the date of this RFP (or such other specific date as is specified in this RFP in relation to any individual criteria) is eligible to participate in this process.

    Financial strength

    The most recent audited annual turnover of each Interested party must have exceeded Rs. 30 crore and, for these purposes, only the annual turnover for the financial year of the Interested party is relevant and turnover from any company in the same Group as the Interested party may not be consolidated with or  otherwise added to the Interested party’s turnover for the purposes of satisfying this threshold.

    Proposal rejection

    Any proposal submitted by a person which fails to satisfy the eligibility requirements set out in this RFP may be accepted or rejected by BCCI in its absolute discretion. BCCI shall not pre-judge or advise an interested party whether it is qualified or not. The interested party must submit its proposal in accordance with the process specified in this RFP and enable BCCI to then evaluate its proposal. 

    BCCI reserves the right not to accept or to reject any proposal.

    Providing services

    Details of the Services are set out in Schedule 1 to the Services Agreement. The Services are to be delivered and invoiced to BCCI in the manner which is contemplated in this RFP and as is set out in the Services Agreement. The Services to be provided for the 2018 Season and, if the Services Agreement is renewed by BCCI, for the 2019 Season will remain as they were for the 2017 Season unless BCCI, it its sole discretion, decides to change them to any material extent in which case the BCCI and the successful Interested party will discuss and agree any necessary change to the fee.

    BCCI will countersign  the  Services  Agreement  within five days  of  announcing  the successful interested party.

    Requests from interested parties for clarification and/or further information relating to this RFP must be addressed to BCCI and marked for the attention of Hemang Amin and received by  BCCI by  6.00  pm  IST on  or  before 22 February 2017  by  way  of electronic mail (e-mail) sent in .doc or .docx format to rfp@bcci.tv. Any clarification issued  by  BCCI  will  automatically  become  part  of  this  RFP.

    BCCI intends to ask each relevant Interested party (being Interested parties whose documents in Envelopes A, B and C conform with the requirements of this RFP) to make a presentation to the BCCI on the day on which the proposals are submitted, being 2 March 2017.