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MUMBAI: India might still not be in the throes of the beautiful game, but there is no giving the fact that the popularity of the sport is slowly and steadily seeping through towns and cities of India, particularly among the youth. And the Indian sports broadcasters who have till now put all their energy and resources into one sport (read cricket) are also beginning to take notice of the changing landscape.
While cricket continues to be the dominant sport in the country, football too is witnessing a tremendous growth both in terms of popularity and investments. In order to reduce their dependency on one sport, sports broadcasters such as Star Sports, Ten Sports, Sony Six or Neo Sports are putting their weight behind football.
After cricket, soccer is the property that is being chased the most by sports broadcasters as one can see from the acquisition trends in the last few years with broadcast rights of football properties witnessing a steady rise. Whether it’s the English Premier League (EPL), Fifa World Cup or Uefa Euro, all have seen a significant jump in acquisition price. Such is the power of football that the country’s leading media company Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) has a full-fledged football channel Ten Action.
The survival of another sportscaster Neo Sports is to a large extent dependent on its most prized property, the German Bundesliga. Sony Six is positioning itself as the home of international football through properties like Fifa World Cup and Uefa Euro. Star Sports, on the other hand, is using football to drive subscription for its HD channels. Star Sports has taken its association with the game to another level by partnering IMG Reliance for a soccer league on the lines of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Although the league titled Indian Super League (ISL) is yet to take off in the right earnest, it nevertheless has the potential to take the sport to a different level, what with the backing of the who’s who from entertainment, sports and the corporate world. Over the past few years, Star’s main focus has been on pushing the EPL.
However, it now has turned its focus to pushing local football. Star India COO Sanjay Gupta said that local heroes will push soccer to the next level. He cited the example of badminton which saw a surge in popularity due to Saina Nehwal.
“Football needs a similar push which the ISL will give. However, soccer is not a small sport. Already 200–250 million people follow soccer. But they don’t have a local soccer team that performs well. Once that happens, the sport will grow much bigger than what it is today. The ISL will make great local content available for 60 days a year. Among the young male urban audiences, soccer already has a strong following. Thanks to ISL, we can expect soccer to become much bigger than what it is today,” expounded Gupta.
Star showcases the EPL, Serie A (Italy) and La Liga (Spanish). It used to have the Fifa World Cup and Uefa Euro which are now with Sony Six.
“We believe that football is a great way to build and grow sports broadcasting. We are taking the EPL deeper as part of our larger game plan. Apart from Hindi, we also see potential in Bengali and Malayalam language for football. We are evaluating this for the ISL. The challenge is to find the right level of commentators. Local feeds make content accessible to people not comfortable in English,” Gupta noted.
Talking about the ISL, Gupta said, “The aim is to take the soccer experience to the next level by getting international and the best local players coming together to create a spectacle. We are on this journey because soccer has aspirational value.”
Gupta doesn’t expect significant jump in subscription revenue through football. However, he is optimistic that the revenue will flow in once international leagues go deeper beyond the metros and the traditional markets of West Bengal, Kerala and Goa. “I don’t see a serious jump in the short term. But the international leagues that we showcase are stronger than they were three to four years back as a lot more people follow them. As we move forward, we will make more money as more people would like to consume this content both on TV and digital,” averred Gupta.
Multi Screen Media’s Sony Six is also betting big on football along with basketball and fight sports as it seeks to build its two-year-old sportainment channel. To grow beyond the IPL, the channel acquired rights to 2014 and 2018 Fifa World Cups besides the rights to 2016 Uefa Euro.
For Six business head Prasana Krishnan, football is a clear number two sport in the country. “It is the second sport in the country. That is why different broadcasters are investing in and pushing soccer in different ways. Our focus is on international football which is why we have done deals with Fifa and Uefa. We have taken a big bet on soccer.”
Ten Sports CEO Rajesh Sethi asserted that football is a key part of its strategy. “Football has strong pockets of interest in states like West Bengal, Kerala and Goa. However, the sport is growing beyond its traditional bastions, particularly in Tier I and II cities. There is a strong metro-centric audience for international football,” said Sethi.
Neo Sports VP of programming Mautik Tolia notes that for a sports channel football has to be a part of the mix. “But we are not over dependent on the sport. 25 per cent of our content comes from soccer. We have been airing the German League Bundesliga for the past eight years. We have been airing Latin American soccer for the past two years.”
The rights scene 2015 and 2016 will be busy years.
That is because a slew of football properties will be up for grabs. A sports marketing expert notes that key rights coming up are Champions League, Serie A, French League and South American football including the Copa America event. “I think that all four will see good inflation in India as Sony/Ten compete for any available football rights,” the expert pointed out.
The soccer rights process is different from cricket in that it is more informal.
“Apart from the Champions League and the EPL where there are set dates and times for bidding, the rest of the leagues are sold in a much more informal way,” added the expert. For sports marketing agencies, money is one component in a deal. The other thing that matters is the exposure/visibility of the league.
“This also helps. It improves the broadcaster’s relationship with the league and shows that you care about their long-term goals.” Gupta doesn’t see a big jump in football prices happening in the next cycle. “As I said, right now soccer does not make economic sense.
That is also why we stayed away from the World Cup due to match timings. Until the following of soccer changes dramatically, rights prices will not go up by much. I don’t see them growing in the next one to two years. In fact, I don’t see a jump happening at all in rights prices in the next cycle even for the EPL.”
Read more at: Strategic value of football gains in eyes of sportscasters | TelevisionPost.com | TelevisionPost.com
While cricket continues to be the dominant sport in the country, football too is witnessing a tremendous growth both in terms of popularity and investments. In order to reduce their dependency on one sport, sports broadcasters such as Star Sports, Ten Sports, Sony Six or Neo Sports are putting their weight behind football.
After cricket, soccer is the property that is being chased the most by sports broadcasters as one can see from the acquisition trends in the last few years with broadcast rights of football properties witnessing a steady rise. Whether it’s the English Premier League (EPL), Fifa World Cup or Uefa Euro, all have seen a significant jump in acquisition price. Such is the power of football that the country’s leading media company Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) has a full-fledged football channel Ten Action.
The survival of another sportscaster Neo Sports is to a large extent dependent on its most prized property, the German Bundesliga. Sony Six is positioning itself as the home of international football through properties like Fifa World Cup and Uefa Euro. Star Sports, on the other hand, is using football to drive subscription for its HD channels. Star Sports has taken its association with the game to another level by partnering IMG Reliance for a soccer league on the lines of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Although the league titled Indian Super League (ISL) is yet to take off in the right earnest, it nevertheless has the potential to take the sport to a different level, what with the backing of the who’s who from entertainment, sports and the corporate world. Over the past few years, Star’s main focus has been on pushing the EPL.
However, it now has turned its focus to pushing local football. Star India COO Sanjay Gupta said that local heroes will push soccer to the next level. He cited the example of badminton which saw a surge in popularity due to Saina Nehwal.
“Football needs a similar push which the ISL will give. However, soccer is not a small sport. Already 200–250 million people follow soccer. But they don’t have a local soccer team that performs well. Once that happens, the sport will grow much bigger than what it is today. The ISL will make great local content available for 60 days a year. Among the young male urban audiences, soccer already has a strong following. Thanks to ISL, we can expect soccer to become much bigger than what it is today,” expounded Gupta.
Star showcases the EPL, Serie A (Italy) and La Liga (Spanish). It used to have the Fifa World Cup and Uefa Euro which are now with Sony Six.
“We believe that football is a great way to build and grow sports broadcasting. We are taking the EPL deeper as part of our larger game plan. Apart from Hindi, we also see potential in Bengali and Malayalam language for football. We are evaluating this for the ISL. The challenge is to find the right level of commentators. Local feeds make content accessible to people not comfortable in English,” Gupta noted.
Talking about the ISL, Gupta said, “The aim is to take the soccer experience to the next level by getting international and the best local players coming together to create a spectacle. We are on this journey because soccer has aspirational value.”
Gupta doesn’t expect significant jump in subscription revenue through football. However, he is optimistic that the revenue will flow in once international leagues go deeper beyond the metros and the traditional markets of West Bengal, Kerala and Goa. “I don’t see a serious jump in the short term. But the international leagues that we showcase are stronger than they were three to four years back as a lot more people follow them. As we move forward, we will make more money as more people would like to consume this content both on TV and digital,” averred Gupta.
Multi Screen Media’s Sony Six is also betting big on football along with basketball and fight sports as it seeks to build its two-year-old sportainment channel. To grow beyond the IPL, the channel acquired rights to 2014 and 2018 Fifa World Cups besides the rights to 2016 Uefa Euro.
For Six business head Prasana Krishnan, football is a clear number two sport in the country. “It is the second sport in the country. That is why different broadcasters are investing in and pushing soccer in different ways. Our focus is on international football which is why we have done deals with Fifa and Uefa. We have taken a big bet on soccer.”
Ten Sports CEO Rajesh Sethi asserted that football is a key part of its strategy. “Football has strong pockets of interest in states like West Bengal, Kerala and Goa. However, the sport is growing beyond its traditional bastions, particularly in Tier I and II cities. There is a strong metro-centric audience for international football,” said Sethi.
Neo Sports VP of programming Mautik Tolia notes that for a sports channel football has to be a part of the mix. “But we are not over dependent on the sport. 25 per cent of our content comes from soccer. We have been airing the German League Bundesliga for the past eight years. We have been airing Latin American soccer for the past two years.”
The rights scene 2015 and 2016 will be busy years.
That is because a slew of football properties will be up for grabs. A sports marketing expert notes that key rights coming up are Champions League, Serie A, French League and South American football including the Copa America event. “I think that all four will see good inflation in India as Sony/Ten compete for any available football rights,” the expert pointed out.
The soccer rights process is different from cricket in that it is more informal.
“Apart from the Champions League and the EPL where there are set dates and times for bidding, the rest of the leagues are sold in a much more informal way,” added the expert. For sports marketing agencies, money is one component in a deal. The other thing that matters is the exposure/visibility of the league.
“This also helps. It improves the broadcaster’s relationship with the league and shows that you care about their long-term goals.” Gupta doesn’t see a big jump in football prices happening in the next cycle. “As I said, right now soccer does not make economic sense.
That is also why we stayed away from the World Cup due to match timings. Until the following of soccer changes dramatically, rights prices will not go up by much. I don’t see them growing in the next one to two years. In fact, I don’t see a jump happening at all in rights prices in the next cycle even for the EPL.”
Read more at: Strategic value of football gains in eyes of sportscasters | TelevisionPost.com | TelevisionPost.com
