KOLKATA: Live sports came to a halt for the better part of 2020 due to the Covid2019 pandemic. While the Indian Premier League (IPL) made up for the absence of other sporting events, the momentum is building around resumption of live sports with the onset of 2021. Viewers as well as advertisers are responding to sports on TV once again.
The overall sentiment around the sports business in the country is very upbeat, Star India head-sports Sanjog Gupta sums up. After taking on the mantle to lead India’s largest sports broadcaster in late 2020, Gupta is confident about the revival of live sports, thanks to the network’s robust line-up in 2021. Advertisers’ response to the India-England Test series has further bolstered his faith. In a freewheeling chat, Gupta spoke about the network’s upcoming line-up, estimated growth in viewership, subscription, advertising spend, investment in technology, and more.
Here are edited excerpts from the interview:
On the overall market sentiment
The sentiment is very positive. We could not have asked for a better start to the resumption of cricket in India. The opposition is also a great team, they are the finalist of the previous world T20 and one of the best test teams around. There is a pink ball Test match which obviously attracts a lot of advertisers and creates excitement among viewers. Viewership for a pink ball test match is typically 50 per cent higher than other test matches.
Then, of course, there is the launch of the world’s largest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, which will happen during the third test match. Obviously, we had the IPL which happened between September-November, the ISL started in November and is ongoing. This is perhaps the best restart to live sports in India. On account of generally the buoyancy in the market, the stock market reached a new high, we have seen analysts predict a v-shaped recovery of the economy, estimates suggest there is going to be more than 10-11 per cent growth this year as compared to last year, there is cheer on one side. On the other side, there is an exciting calendar of events lined up and advertisers are lining up to figure out what’s the best way for them to reach consumers because there is pent-up demand, and an expectation of significantly enhanced consumption.
On viewership and subscription growth of Star Sports
If we look at the adoption of Star Sports from a week before IPL to now, we have seen a ten per cent growth in our total subscriber base over these five months. We are now available in eight out of ten pay TV homes across the country. In fact, in markets like Tamil Nadu, our penetration is up to 90 per cent. We are seeing significant growth in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana region. A lot of consumers have returned to TV as live sports has resumed.
The viewership for IPL grew by more than 20 per cent, it was the biggest IPL ever touching 400 billion minutes of consumption. We have seen growth in viewership for kids and women as well. Similarly, we have seen growth in ISL viewership as well, largely powered by significant growth in West Bengal, mainly due to two new clubs – East Bengal and Mohan Bagan – entering the football league. We have also seen growth in Kerala. Both marquee properties since the resumption of live sports on Indian television have resulted in growth. There is no reason to believe this trajectory will not continue.
On revival of advertising spend
It won’t really be a recovery. IPL was a record-breaking event from an advertising point of view as well. We had more advertisers on IPL 2020 than any year before. As far as advertising is concerned, we are seeing the momentum that we built during IPL carry into India-England series. We have 18 sponsors before the ball rolled for the series, that is very significant for a series that is being played at the beginning of a year. Advertisers are lining up to cash in on this economy. A lot of advertisers who had not stopped spending but reduced their spend are now resuming spending at normal rate. A lot of advertising categories are returning to sports or will return during summer. For example, aerated spots are a summer category. We will see a renewed interest from white goods especially air conditioners, refrigerators etc.
On sports broadcast production post-Covid
From the view of production itself, work from home has become an integral part of production overflows. During the IPL, we had almost a hundred spot crew members who were working from their home through internet connectivity to log onto the central server. That never happened before. The commentators were linking up with broadcast using internet connectivity. Production model itself has changed. Technology enabled us to be able to bring people all over the world to be able to a part of the broadcast which will not change, we will continue to do that going forward. In fact, the Bangla feed for IPL 2020 was fully produced from home. We continued this production model into the ISL. This has now become part of producing content.
Second is fan engagement. Before the pandemic, the broadcast was all about the game being played in the field and the crowd that was in the stadium. During the pandemic, there was no crowd or stadium, apart from matches that were being played in the field, there was a lot of focus on figuring out how do we connect with viewers at home. There were multiple ways which were introduced in which viewers interacted with us.
The final thing is around how we build different feeds for different types of audiences, the concept of megacast where you can no longer produce one feed for everyone. It is no longer possible for cricket to be watched in one language one feed. It will always be available in English, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, and more languages. There will be a select dugout. The construct of the broadcast has changed significantly.
On cost of higher investment in technology
We have been investing in technology for a while. It has a dual proposition. It unlocks something so it brings down the cost. On the other hand, investment in technology in the short term may increase your spending more. So, you can’t look at it in terms of what happens in one year but what happens in five years. For example, what technology has done for us, the commentators no longer need to fly down from wherever they are to the studio or stadium. What we spend in building this technology, helps to recover other costs.
On innovations in upcoming tournaments
If you look at the calendar, there is obviously a lot of cricket. You will see huge innovation for the IPL and the T20 world cup. There is obviously a lot of domestic league sports, then there is premier league, Wimbledon. It’s a really robust calendar of sporting event for Star Sports overall. The way that one aspect of innovation typically works is building on the innovation that we are already familiar with. The way that I would look at it we will continue to push our regionalisation. We may bring new more feeds for young viewers. The other element to look at is new technologies that enable viewers to interact with the broadcast. And the third one is the immersion part which is more around augmented reality to also enhance the storytelling, viewing experience.
We will also look at if we can make viewing experience two way, instead of being inside out, it can also be outside in. And we will also look at a lot more immersive, involving viewing experience for viewers at home. It could be in the form of watching video with friends, it could be in the form of augmented reality and being delivered experiences which are powered by AR, it could be VR which we may revaluate somewhere down the line.
On building buzz around sports categories besides cricket
If we talk about other sports, there are two different categories. Kabaddi and football are Indian sports and very popular. For example, Kabaddi is very popular in states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka. Football is extremely popular in West Bengal, Goa, Kerala, and the north east. The marketing strategy for these two sporting events is always going to be similar to cricket. The approach to tennis premier league is slightly different. They form our premium portfolio and the idea is to continue to drive subscription for Select.
