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Tag: Yannick Colaco

  • Nishant Nayak becomes FanCode’s chief product officer

    Nishant Nayak becomes FanCode’s chief product officer

    MUMBAI: Digital sports fan destination FanCode from the house of Dream Sports, has appointed Nishant Nayak as its chief product officer (CPO). He will lead the product strategy to realise FanCode’s vision of becoming the largest sports fan platform in the country.

    Prior to joining FanCode, he was based in Berlin, Germany as Zenjob head of product. He brings with him over 20 years of global experience in product & technology. His expertise lies in leading end-to-end product functions for eCommerce marketplaces like eBay, Flipkart, Zalando, and Zenjob, with a focus on aligning products with the brand vision & strategy including market expansion. 

    FanCode co-founder Yannick Colaco said, “We’re pleased to welcome Nishant into our FanCode family. He joins us as a core member of our leadership team and will help us accelerate towards our ambition of becoming a 10 crore+ strong community of sports fans.”

    Nayak said, “As an avid sports fan myself, FanCode’s mission to build India’s biggest digital sports fan destination is a truly exciting challenge. I look forward to working with the highly talented FanCode team in building a personalised and engaging experience for sports fans everywhere.”

  • “FanCode is focused on delivering value to our users”: Yannick Colaco

    “FanCode is focused on delivering value to our users”: Yannick Colaco

    Mumbai: India’s premier digital sports destination FanCode is initiating a slew of new offerings on its platform. FanCode deals in three major areas like live content, sports statistics, analysis and commerce. 

    Under the umbrella of Dream Sports, FanCode was launched to change the dynamics of sports consumption in India. The platform offers live streaming, sports data, analytics, statistics, a merchandising store, tour passes, expert analysis, opinions and the latest sports news.

    The company is led by co-founders Yannick Colaco and Prasana Krishnan. Both worked together at sports broadcaster Nimbus Sports until 2013. Colaco went on to join the National Basketball Association (NBA) while Krishnan joined Sony Pictures Networks India.

    Colaco was part of the international leadership team of the NBA and managing director of its India business. He spent the next six years driving the grassroots development of the basketball sport in India, setting up a full-fledged NBA Academy and building partnerships across licensing, content and marketing initiatives. He was also instrumental in bringing the first-ever NBA Games to India. 

    A consummate sports enthusiast, Colaco has been in the sports and media industry for two decades. In his view, avid sports fans in the country were underserviced when it came to accessibility to sports content. The consumption of sports content was fragmented across multiple platforms.

    He joined forces with Krishnan in 2019 to launch their entrepreneurial venture with a commitment to give sports fans a highly personalised and unified experience of sports content.

    Colaco told Indiantelevision.com that FanCode’s goal is to “redefine the way sports fans follow their favourite sports by creating a more integrated and immersive experience as well as by giving them greater access to a wide variety of sports content.”

    In an in-depth conversation with journalist Ashwin Pinto, FanCode co-founder Yannick Colaco spoke about the company’s progress, challenges, trends in the sports business, acquisitions, expansion plans and more. 

    Edited Excerpts: 

    On the progress, FanCode has achieved

    FanCode focuses on redefining the way sports fans follow their favourite sports by creating a more integrated and immersive experience. It gives them access to a wide variety of sports content. Our greatest ally in delivering on this is the ability to unlock the potential of digital for sports fans.

    Since 2019, the company has significantly upgraded the viewer’s experience by integrating key services which are fundamental to their ability to follow their favourite sports. The services supply include live scores & commentary, live stream & video on demand, match insights & analytics, and official fan merchandise. All of this while supplying fans access to live streams of over 350 events and over 50,000 hours of live content. We are thrilled at the way sports fans have embraced our product and we now have over fifty million users on FanCode. 

    On the challenges faced by FanCode and its determination to be a standalone product

    FanCode is focused on delivering value to its users. Every offering that this company provides has been predicated. Given the response received so far, its viewers see value in having an integrated experience, rather than having to access multiple products to follow the same match or event.

    Fortunately, having an amazing team of FanCoders, including some of the best talents in the country, who have met the challenges head-on and continue to deliver amazing results, FanCode is blessed to meet all its product and technological challenges and give a seamless experience.

    Indian sports fans have limited access to great sports content. An integrated solution before the launch of FanCode did not exist overseas. Some companies do provide streaming of sports content but are limited to offering news and analysis. Earlier, the experience for the viewers was broken.

    On FanCode’s business model as an SVOD platform and cracking micro-transactions

    Paying for content on digital platforms is still very new in India. Realising the need for paid users at a very early stage FanCode worked on a priority basis in expanding the ecosystem. As per the feedback received, the company found out that the largest constraints were not willing to pay even for the entry tickets. To address these, it took a page out of the hugely successful sachet pricing strategy of FMCGs in India and gave fans the ability to buy matches and events, instead of buying only monthly and annual packages. The company has also invested significantly in building technology around an in-house subscription service which created an exceptionally smooth and seamless purchase experience.

    Results have been great with a rapidly growing number of transacting users. What’s also remarkably interesting is that many match and tour subscribers come back to buy multiple times and even upgrade to annual packages.

    On offering sports fans a personalised experience

    For Fancode success is about users’ seamless experience. For example, if you’re a fan of Virat Kohli, you should be able to watch him bat, watch replays of his best shots, access his stats in the current match and his career, chat with other Kohli fans, and buy his jersey; all inside the same experience with minimal friction. 

    Personalisation of experience is an extremely important part and thus the focus is exactly on where to invest significant resources over the next year. Sports fans wear their allegiance on their sleeves and are happy to talk about who they support. It is the company’s job to take this data and build technology solutions to provide a customised experience for higher engagement.

    On setting new trends in sports consumption

    The migration of fans from traditional modes of sports consumption like linear TV, newspapers, etc., to digital channels, has been phenomenal and this continues at a rapid pace. With this migration, the expectation of what a fan should have access to has also grown. Fans want to access scores, live matches, highlights, and stats. They want everything packaged in bite sizes and they want it at once.

    On its foray into streaming sports content

    There is absolutely no doubt that there is a significant growth in fandom for sports in general across India. As FanCode continues to expand the range of events and sports that are featured, a lot of growth in other sports is also observed, which were previously underserved.

    There is some particularly good traction in partnership with Major League Baseball and the J League (football) as well as the remarkable thing is that every user who consumes these on this platform is authenticated and not just a blip on a rating scale. For FanCode, it becomes easy to improvise by having an amazing opportunity to build a direct relationship with consumers and get real-time feedback.

    On the acquisition strategy behind FanDuniya

    The acquisition of FanDuniya helped in strengthening sports statistics and analytics offering under FC stats. It helps to build one of the largest stat hubs. FanCode will continue to explore these opportunities to help create more value for the users.

    On launching its merchandising store FanCode Shop

    Sports merchandise has been a significantly underserved market in India. As sports fandom has grown the demand for fan gear has increased. There are other many elements to consider including ranges of fan gear, styling, name and number gear, fit, pricing, etc. and honestly, the market has been ignorant of most of these.

    FanCode spent a significant amount of time with the teams and leagues it partnered with, which caters to fans across the country and now has over 30 sports brands with more than 800 products. Making fan gear, and variations of it, accessible and affordable has been an important part of growing the ecosystem.

    It has partnered with several sports leagues and teams for their licensed merchandise and worked with official partners of many of the other leagues and teams which enabled it to be a comprehensive destination for fan merchandising including 10 IPL teams, NBA, Manchester City FC, Liverpool FC, FC Barcelona, Bengaluru FC, MotoGP and WWE. We also improvise our technology to innovate and deliver rapid turnaround times in both the creation and distribution of fan gear, ensuring that fans will have the latest, most topical designs of their favourite sports brands and teams.

  • Yannick Colaco to step down after six years as managing director of NBA india

    Yannick Colaco to step down after six years as managing director of NBA india

    MUMBAI: Yannick Colaco will step down as Vice President and Managing Director of NBA India, it was announced today by NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Mark Tatum.

    Colaco has been in his current role since February 2013.  NBA Vice President of Global Business Operations Diane Gotua will relocate from New York to the NBA’s Mumbai office to lead the business in India on an interim basis and oversee the search for a new Managing Director of the NBA in India.

    “The NBA’s popularity and business in India have seen significant growth under Yannick’s leadership over the past six years,” said Tatum.  “We thank Yannick for his contributions during his tenure as Managing Director and are grateful to have Diane assist with the transition.” 

    “I am extremely thankful to have played a part in the growth of the NBA in India,” Colaco said.  “From broadening the distribution of our games to our plan to bring the live game experience to fans, the NBA’s business in India has never been better. It has been incredible living and breathing the NBA everyday over the past six years, and I look forward to applying my NBA experience as I move onto my next professional challenge.”

    Colaco helped spearhead the growth for the NBA in India, expanding the distribution of NBA games to more than 350 live NBA games each season on SONY TEN 1, SONY TEN 3 and SONY ESPN, including 78 games with Hindi commentary and the introduction of live games that air primetime in India.   Colaco led the NBA’s retail presence in India, with NBA merchandise now available at more than 750 retail stores nationwide and through NBAStore.in.  Colaco was also responsible for partnering with Dream11 to launch the official NBA daily fantasy game, which is projected to have more than 1.5 million registered active users by the end of the season.

    During Colaco’s tenure, he was influential in the formation of the NBA’s partnership with the Reliance Foundation in 2013, which has reached more than 10 million youth from 10,000 schools and trained more than 10,000 physical education instructors nationwide through the Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA program. 

    Additionally, Colaco oversaw the launch of The NBA Academy India, an elite basketball training center in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) for top male and female prospects from throughout India and first of its kind in the country, and the NBA Basketball Schools, a network of tuition-based basketball development programs open to male and female players ages 6-18.

    Most recently, Colaco was instrumental for the plan to bring the live NBA experience to fans in India with the NBA India Games 2019, two preseason games scheduled to take place in Mumbai this October featuring the Indiana Pacers and the Sacramento Kings.  The NBA India Games 2019 will mark the first games the NBA has played in India and the first games staged in the country by a North American sports league.

  • NBA to hold 2 pre-season games in India next year

    NBA to hold 2 pre-season games in India next year

    MUMBAI: USA’s National Basketball Association (NBA) announced that two pre-season games will be played in India in October 2019 which makes it the first North American sports league to make its foray into the country.

    The two pre-season games will be played by Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings on 4 and 5 October 2019 at the NSCI Dome in Worli, Mumbai.

    NBA India MD Yannick Colaco said, “Last season of NBA was watched by 120 million viewers. More than 350 live NBA games are available each season on Sony Pictures Network’s sports cluster, including 78 games with Hindi commentary. NBA merchandise in India is widely available like never before, there are 700 retail stores across the country. Our long standing partnership with Reliance Foundation continues to positively impact millions of boys and girls. We launched our first global NBA school in Mumbai in April 2017 and we now have 27 active NBA basketball schools in nine cities across India.”

    Sony is the official broadcaster of NBA in India till 2020 as the extended deal between both is of 5 years that got renewed in 2015.

    NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said, “Being the financial, media and entertainment capital of India we have decided to keep it in Mumbai. In order to fans consuming the product they need to start young and need to play the game of basketball.”

    “I think fans pay for great consumer experience, we see that in cricket. The growth in viewership has been exponentially well. Seven years ago we have 5 million viewers and last season we had 120 million viewers. For us, the time is right because we have invested in grassroot development and facilitating infrastructure,” Colaco added.

    The NBA India Games 2019 will be produced by BookMyShow and AEG and supported by a roster of marketing and merchandising partners.

    NBA commissioner Adam Silver said, “Our inaugural NBA India games will help further tap the enormous basketball potential in a country with a thriving sports culture and a growing, young and engaged population. We thank the Kings and Pacers organisations for participating in this historic event.”

    The youth development initiatives in India, including the Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA program that has reached more than 10 million youth from 10,000 schools and trained more than 10,000 physical education instructors nationwide since its launch in 2013.

    The ongoing 2018-19 season also includes five consecutive Sunday games from 10 March to 7 April that will air in primetime in India, marking the second straight year that five games will be televised in primetime.

  • NBA AND MCDONALD’S ANNOUNCE MARKETING PARTNERSHIP IN INDIA

    NBA AND MCDONALD’S ANNOUNCE MARKETING PARTNERSHIP IN INDIA

    MUMBAI: The National Basketball Association (NBA) and McDonald’s today announced a partnership to introduce NBA-themed promotions and interactive NBA Experience Zones in select McDonald’s locations in 39 cities across India.

    From Nov. 14 till Dec. 12, McDonald’s will give away an NBA-branded basketball with every family meal purchase at any McDonald’s restaurant in the West and South region while stocks last.  McDonald’s will also introduce NBA Zones in more than 30 outlets, providing fans the chance to experience the atmosphere of being at an NBA game through a range of interactive experiences.

    “We at McDonald’s believe that playing sport is crucial to the overall development of children,” said Seema Arora Nambiar, Sr. Vice President of Strategy, Innovation and Capability, McDonald’s India.  “Globally McDonald’s is associated with various sports and this Children’s day we are partnering with the NBA to encourage children to step out and play to have fun and create happy childhood memories.”

    “We are excited to partner with a global iconic brand like McDonald’s,” said Yannick Colaco, NBA India Managing Director.  “This campaign with McDonald’s is a perfect way for us to deliver new and engaging NBA experiences to our fans.”

    McDonald’s in India aims to convey the message of encouraging kids to be more active and participate in sports.  The family meal was created with McDonald’s core values of sharing in mind, and consists of a Burger, Naan, Rice Bowl, French Fries, Potato Wedges, two servings of Coke, as well as a Dessert.

  • Social media most significant for snackable content: NBA India MD

    Social media most significant for snackable content: NBA India MD

    MUMBAI: Cricket being the most watched and followed sport in the country, the National Basketball Association (NBA) has started the journey to make basketball the number two sport in India. With several sports gaining popularity, the NBA is aware that the goal is not going to be a cakewalk as the investment required is huge.

    The NBA has had steady growth over the past couple of years in India. The partnership with Sony Pictures Network India has been a good boost to the game and also helped in reaching to different regions in the country. It has also set up training centres in schools and recently started its fantasy league for fans. 

    According to the data provided by NBA India, the southern market contributed to 60 per cent of the viewership for the association in the country followed by the western region with 17 per cent market share in the previous season of 2016-17 (CS 2+). The northern and eastern regions contributed to 10 per cent and 13 per cent viewership, respectively.

    NBA India’s managing director Yannick Colaco, in an interaction with Indiantelevision.com, said that the core target remains youth and young adults and that the association believes that introducing boys and girls to the game of basketball at a young age will help in instilling in them positive values of the game.  

    Here are the excerpts:

    What, from your analysis, is the level of popularity of basketball in India?

    Basketball is one of the fastest growing sports in India. There has been incredible growth on popularity with respect to participation and consumption across multiple platforms. The game itself is simple to play and infrastructure light; all you need is a flat surface, a hoop and a ball.

    We have been extremely focused on growing the game from bottom-up and are thrilled at the response we have seen across the country in both participation of the programmes and adoption of the sport.

    How do you measure the success of basketball in India?

    We measure success in participation, especially among young boys and girls, and consumption. Basketball has to be grown the right way, from the bottom up, and its why we’ve invested significantly in grassroots. Our large scale in-school programmes such as the Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA has reached more than six million youth and trained over 5,000 coaches. We anticipate that programmes like this and many others will continue to fuel the growth of the game in the years to come. We also continue to provide greater access of the NBA to our fan base, inspiring more kids to play and increasing opportunities for our fans to engage with us.

    With our partners Sony Six, we bring 14 live games a week to fans in India and we’ve consistently clocked high double-digit percentage viewership growth year on year

    Is there more viewership on digital? 

    We are committed to providing greater access of the NBA to reach the largest number of audiences and keeping that in mind, we ensure our partner platforms work in synergy; they’re complementary rather than cannibalistic.

    Last season, we reached a record number of 125 million fans for NBA programming across India. While television is our largest distribution for live games, social media is by far the most significant distribution platform for us for what we call ‘snackable’ content such as dunks of the day, bloopers, NBA fashion, quick tips and so on. Just on Facebook, NBA India has reached more than 900 million impressions this season, engaging over 600,000 unique fans weekly and amassed more than 155.6 million video views over the course of the 2016-17 season. We also have this subscription network called League Pass, which is now more accessible to our fans than before.

    How much time does an average viewer spend on the NBA digitally?

    We are very successful in engaging our audience on digitally owned platforms. Be it through social media pages, the NBA destination, our mobile app or Sony LIV. The average time each user spends on the mobile app per week is 1 hour 12 minutes.

    How will the Fantasy Basketball league function?

    The NBA Fantasy game allows its users to create their own virtual team choosing their players and perform the role of a manager and accumulate points based on their selected players’ statistics in real life. The free-to-play game will offer a variety of prizes as rewards, including NBAStore.in gift cards, NBA merchandise and the opportunity to win a trip to the US to attend the 2018 NBA Finals.

    The NBA, globally, has tremendously successful fantasy partnerships across multiple players. We are thrilled to be partnering with Dream11, India’s largest fantasy gaming company, to launch a free-to-play daily fantasy basketball game.

    We have over seven million fans across social media in India and a high percentage of them are actively connected with us. With the NBA’s highly aspirational appeal, and an abundance of marketing assets locally (TV, digital, social, events and athlete tours), we expect a large number of NBA fans to contribute to the online fantasy game.

    Which are the top two teams based on their fan following?

    Success, in sports worldwide, drives a lot of fan affinity and the NBA in India is no exception. The Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics and the San Antonio Spurs received tremendous support and fandom last season.

    Are you planning commentary in languages other than English?

    We ran a pilot project last season in introducing Hindi in-game commentary for the 2016-17 Conference Finals and NBA Finals and the response was tremendous. This season, we are offering close to 100 NBA games with Hindi commentary on Sony Ten 3 and Sony Ten 3 HD.

    With the growing popularity of the NBA across the country, this move aims to engage a wider set of fans and enthusiasts with Hindi as their primary language.

    We are also extremely fortunate to have youth influencers fans such as actor and VJ Rannvijay Singh and popular culture stand-up comedian Gursimran Khamba who contribute as guest commentators on a regular basis.

    Do you see merchandising as a big play here?

    Certainly, we have witnessed a consistent growth in demand and purchases for NBA apparel and licensed product. NBA products are available in over 700 outlets across the country. We are committed to growing the culture of basketball along with the game and merchandising plays a huge role in bringing about that change.

    The NBA has several active global licensing partners in India such as Nike, Under Armour, 2K, EA, Tissot and Spalding. Our local licensing partners include Jabong, Jack & Jones, Iskcon Apparel and Dream11. 

    Also Read :

    Mairu Gupta and the art of building the NBA in India

    NBA and Dream11 to bring fantasy basketball to India 

    Sony Six: NBA preparing for Hindi commentary in three months

  • NBA partners Jabong to operate official online store

    NBA partners Jabong to operate official online store

    MUMBAI: The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Jabong, India’s fashion and lifestyle e-commerce platform – today announced a multiyear partnership extension that will provide fans access to authentic NBA merchandise in more than 730 cities across India. 

    The NBAStore.in is powered by Jabong which will offer authentic merchandise, including player jerseys, fanwear apparel, performance and casual footwear, backpacks, caps, and a host of other accessories.

    As part of the partnership extension, Jabong will also serve as a partner for the recently launched NBA daily fantasy game on NBA.com, Dream11.com and the Dream11 app, providing players with the opportunity to win NBAStore.in gift cards. Jabong will continue to be a key partner of select NBA events in India. 

    NBA India MD Yannick Colaco said, “Since the launch of our online store four years ago, sales have grown fivefold, so we are thrilled to extend our partnership with Jabong to continue providing our fans in India with the latest NBA gear.” 

    “We have always strived to partner with leading international sports brands, and with the launch of NBAStore.in in 2014, we addressed the growing demand for NBA merchandise in India,” said Jabong CEO Ananth Narayanan.“We have witnessed significant growth in NBA merchandise sales over the last four years, and we look forward to continuing our association with the NBA to provide a destination for fans in India to celebrate their passion for basketball.”

    The NBA now has 12 international e-commerce sites.

    Also Read:

    Mairu Gupta and the art of building the NBA in India

  • NBA: Sony TEN3, HD and Sony SIX, HD to air games with respective Hindi, English commentaries

    NBA: Sony TEN3, HD and Sony SIX, HD to air games with respective Hindi, English commentaries

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) and the NBA today announced that beginning the 2017-18 NBA season, NBA games will be telecast live with Hindi commentary every weekend on Sony TEN 3 and Sony TEN 3 HD. A package of close to 100 NBA games including the regular season and playoffs.The games will continue to be simulcast with English commentary on Sony SIX and Sony SIX HD.

    The move aims to engage a wider set of fans and enthusiasts with Hindi as their primary language. The Hindi commentary will be presented by an expert panel of commentators which will include celebrity NBA fans. The commentators have undergone rigorous training to fine-tune their abilities in presenting the games, which included personalised training by long-time Indiana Pacers’ play-by-play announcer Chris Denari.

    The league has also associated with popular basketball influencers such as Bollywood actor and VJ Rannvijay Singha, popular culture stand-up comedian Gursimran Khamba to be guest-commentators on a regular basis.

    SPN president sports and distribution business Rajesh Kaul said, “We are committed in channeling our efforts towards expanding NBA’s fan base in the country and strengthening our reach. We have seen a consistent increase in viewership over the years for NBA and to keep up this momentum we are continuing our initiative of the Hindi language commentary. A special panel of expert commentators has been engaged to deliver expert analysis in Hindi for each play.”

    NBA India MD Yannick Colaco said, “Along with our partners, Sony Pictures Networks, we are excited to offer Hindi in-game commentary through the 2017-18 season. As a part of our commitment to popularize the game of basketball in India, we will continue to offer more localised programming to engage with a wider audience.

    The network will also continue to broadcast daily and weekly NBA highlight shows and integrate daily content from NBA TV, including team previews and recap shows. The daily 30-minute highlight programs will be broadcast in primetime every day of the season. The weekly highlight show – ‘NBA WEEKLY’, hosted by a local anchor, will recap all the happenings around the game during the past week. The NBA and sports cluster of SPN will also continue the customised, local live NBA wraparound show ‘NBA AROUND THE HOOP’ every weekend throughout the season to bring viewers closer to the game. The program will be hosted by a panel of basketball experts that will provide analysis and insight on all the latest game news.

    The action on Sony SIX & Sony SIX HD will start on 18 October and exclusive Hindi in-game commentary on Sony TEN 3 & Sony TEN 3 HD, along with the Live wraparound show Around the Hoop, every weekend, starting 21 and 22 October 2017.

  • Sony Six: NBA preparing for Hindi commentary in three months

    MUMBAI: NBA and Sony Six, the former’s broadcast partner in India, will soon introduce Hindi language commentary to the games.

    Speaking at the CASBAA OTT summit in Mumbai, NBA India executive Yannick Colaco said that, since audio was very important for sports content, they were actively looking at going regional. “We are already having the audio for 600 games in Chinese,” he stressed, adding that, in three months, NBA planned to have its games commentary in Hindi as well.

    It was earlier reported by www.indiantelevision.com that the Sony sports network grew majestically in 2016. From Sony Six, Six HD, Sony ESPN and Sony ESPN HD to a bouquet of nine sports channels (Ten Network) prove Sony is looking to be serious player.

    About the most viewed sporting event on SPN in 2016, Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) sports and distribution president Rajesh Kaul had said, “2016 was a strong year for the sports cluster of SPN and we enjoyed an excellent response to a plethora of our properties in cricket, football, fight sports and basketball / NBA. Both our marquee sports events IPL 2016 and UEFA Euro 2016 got an unprecedented level of viewership. In addition to this, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and NBA in our breakfast viewing category have also seen a substantial growth in viewership this year. Over 100 million viewers sampled UFC this year and more than 140 million viewers sampled NBA season 2015-16.”

    NBA has a wide following among Indian fans last season NBA 2015-16 being watched by more than 140 million viewers and we are expecting a strong season showing for the 2016-17 season.

    Popularity of NBA events is gaining ground in India. One of India’s leading video streaming OTT player Hotstar is making its coverage of sports in 3D Virtual Reality(VR) is known. A Silicon Valley based company called VOKE has helped stream the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four, the CBS Morning Show and live streams of concerts, NBA, NFL and college football games, courtesy its live TrueVR technology.

    Netflix had earlier picked up for streaming the  documentary of Satnam Singh Bhamra, first India-born basketball player to be drafted into the National Basketball Association (NBA). Netflix acquired streaming rights to telecast the documentary, which also features NBA commissioner Adam Silver, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive and NBA’s senior director of international basketball operations Troy Justice.

    Also Read:

    Sony Networks looking to change face of Indian football in ’17

    How VOKE is helping Hotstar to bring 3D VR to Kabaddi

    Netflix content offering includes Satnam Singh doc

  • CASBAA India OTT Forum: Asian players in search of a winning formula

    MUMBAI: Catering to regional choices, reasonable pricing coupled with fabulous viewing experience, good user interface (UI) and worthwhile user engagement through membership and social media connect seemed to the gist of “the Asian experience” conversation CASBAA chief executive Christopher Slaughter had with Hooq managing director Salil Kapoor, Spuul chief executive Subin Subaiah and NBA India managing director Yannick Colaco.

    Spuul and Hooq are Asian in nature and are willing to adapt according to every market they enter, including India. NBA (National Basketball Association) too is learning to be a player to contend with in a complex market like India.

    Kapoor admitted that, though Hooq has done well in Philippines and Indonesia and, in a small way, in Singapore, the India story is yet to happen after 18 months of presence in the country. “In the Philippines, for example,” Kapoor said, “We garnered good traction with the strategy of best of Hollywood and local content.”

    However, he added, in India, the audience is wide — different regional languages, dialects, content preferences, classes and masses — and a definite strategy is yet to evolve. Kapoor and others were speaking at the CASBAA India OTT Forum in Mumbai on 3 March 2017.

    NBA entered India with its own content. “Small players who seek a bigger premium have less fan growth,” Colaco observed. “If we want to control the destiny of our brand NBA, we need to be more nimble,” he added. “Our growth will depend on how we engage with the users,” the NBA executive said. Colaco elaborated how NBA, as part of user engagement, had put a reasonably-priced league pass behind a pay wall. “Content users, who bought the passes, have access to 1400 live games, archives, four different angles of game viewing and three types of commentaries,” he said.

    With various tie-ups OTT players are reaching out to maximum audience. Broadcasters, sometimes, Colaco felt, may limit content-providers’ engagement with the users. “But, through our association with Sony 6,” Colaco said, “we bring 14 live games to our audience every week.” Reiterating NBA’s aim to control the “destiny of their users”, the NBA man said they have managed to garner around seven million fans on Facebook and were exploring more efficient ways of engagement.

    Subaiah, who sees Spuul as the company’s livelihood in the sense it being a pure play OTT company with no other agenda, said that they were gathering metrics. “We have experimented and ruled out several content formats such as short form,” he added, pointing out that at times the consumer is challenged to find good content.

    Prodded by Slaughter on revenue in the broadcast versus pure play game, Kapoor said that different players may have experimented with SVoD and AVoDs, but the industry in India seems to be dominated by a couple of large players. He finds TVoDs to be an exciting challenge. He opined weekly passes or sachet pricing may work, but not AVoD.

    Colaco recommended that one needs to grow its fan base for the sake of content. Since the audience is the young generation, content makers/aggregators too need to evolve constantly. Many a broadcaster, he felt, was not always equipped to evolve constantly. Also, he observed, several content formats were inefficient for mobile platform: “We (NBA) shoot at least seven games a week only for the mobile (landscape) audience.”

    When pointed out that audio too was important for sports content, Colaco agreed, and said that they were actively looking at going regional. “We are already having the audio for 600 games in Chinese,” he stressed, adding in three months, NBA planned to have its games commentary in Hindi as well. Supporting the idea, Subaiah said that Tamil content dubbed in Hindi on Spuul was doing well.

    So who’s going to be ahead in the arms race? The Hooq executive felt that, although Bollywood was important, regional content seemed to be critical too. If one (player) is something in everything, there is an apprehension of being rendered irrelevant, Kapoor said, since the raw material (content) is becoming expensive by the day. And then, there is the new girl in town — originals. “How can we leave her alone?” he asked.

    So, there is original versus ‘freemium’ versus regional content. But, Subaiah believes that content, if not backed with worthwhile distribution and sufficient marketing, is of no use no matter how good it might be. The jury seemed to be out on a blend of original and regional coupled with high-decibel marketing.

    Who cuts the ice for this kind of cocktail? All OTT players in India seem to be testing the market and learning and evolving for the last 24 months. But, for how long? And, is it affordable too?

    Kapoor, having also done a successful stint at Dish TV selling satellite connections, however, did make an apt point on freebies being thrown at consumers. “An e-commerce giant is giving away good content almost free (Amazon), a telco (Reliance Jio) is giving data almost complimentary and a broadcaster (Star) is giving most of the content for free,” Kapoor said throwing up his hands, adding that there was a need to stop with such freebies that don’t make much business sense and “consolidate” as India has seen 17 telcom players playing the game initially, but now reduced to just four or five major and serious players.

    But, the NBA India chief was confident that the India code could be cracked. Pointing out that most MNCs believed in the power of India where 500 million people were under the age of 25, Colaco said as his parting shot, “There is an opportunity to reach out to the millenials. Let’s build on the opportunity — it’s tremendous.”