Mumbai: Bringing back the popular sport of Volleyball for its fans across the country after a two-year break, Rupay Prime Volleyball League (PVL) returns in its new avatar on 5 February.

The tournament features seven franchises from seven different cities ― Calicut Heroes, Kochi Blue Spikers, Ahmedabad Defenders, Hyderabad Black Hawks, Chennai Blitz, Bengaluru Torpedoes, and Kolkata Thunderbolts, and will kick off from the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad sans any LIVE audiences. 

With a few days to go before the maiden match, IndianTelevision caught up with sports marketing firm Baseline Ventures’ managing director and co-founder Tuhin Mishra to understand the scope for the game on TV in India, and how the brand plans to tap into the league’s viewership. “This is the very first time that the Rupay Prime Volleyball league is happening and also the first time such a professionally organised league for Volleyball is going to take place in India, so yes the excitement levels are high,” said Mishra

Sony Pictures Network India is the official broadcaster. In another first, the telecast will be available not only in Hindi and English feeds, but also Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam across the Sony Sports network of Ten1, Ten2, Ten3, and Ten4 channels and the OTT platform, Sony Liv.

Elaborating on the 2022 season, Mishra said, the league has been modelled along the lines of the international NBA or middle eastern Soccer, where all the seven teams are also the owners of the league. “So it's a very interesting model that’s not been tried in India before, and which actually gives a skin in the game for all the team owners. So the team owners along with Baselines- we all decide how things need to be done and need to operate,” he added.

Democratising the sport

All the players in the league have played the game professionally at the highest level, and the league promises to offer high-quality volleyball action to TV audiences, which is otherwise available only during Olympics or Asian Games. “We saw this as an opportunity for a sport which has such a huge global and Indian relevance. It’s also a very economical sport. You just need a small wire and a net and you can start playing. It doesn't need a big surface, like say, football. Additionally, it's a non-contact sport which also looks great on Television,” added Mishra.

Volleyball is believed to be the second biggest played team sport in the world after football and is played by 213 countries across the globe. “Volleyball has huge credence all over the country at the grassroots level- if you go to villages, towns, cities and in schools and colleges- people everywhere play the sport,” said Mishra. “During the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics, in spite of India not being in contention for the sport, the Volleyball matches which were broadcast on Sony got the highest viewership numbers, indicating that when a good quality game of Volleyball is shown, people really enjoy it.”

Even as the sports marketing firm considers 18+ males to be the league’s target audience and its primary TG, it is also slowly beginning to draw family viewers to the game. “We saw this during the previous league three seasons back- when the finals were on, we had sold out the stadium,” he added. This time around because of Covid, the tournament will not LIVE audiences.

SPONSORSHIPS

The league has signed up eight sponsors so far, with Card payment network RuPay coming on board as the Title Sponsor and Fantasy games leaders A23 having signed on as “Powered By” Sponsors in a multi-year deal. Healthy food platform EatFit, Amul and Nippon Paint have come on board as associate sponsors, while Cosco has associated itself with the League as its Official Partner.

Some of India’s noted sportspersons including PV Sindhu, Smriti Mandanna, Pankaj Advani have also come forward to support the League. The league has also tied up with Sharechat & Moj as official content partners to reach out to regional audiences.

Talking about the viewership pattern from the 2019 season, Mishra said, the sport is garnering viewers from Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, as well as North East. “What we’ve been doing is trying to make stars out of these players. That is the basic objective. To promote and make at least four or five of them household names, which will serve as an incentive for more players,” shared Mishra. “We have also made this a very owner-driven league, where the team owners are also a part of its success or failure.”

The players are auctioned off in a transparent process, so that anyone who wants to register can do so. Thus, the PVL now has over 450 registrations- almost four times compared to 2019 when only 105 registrations were allowed. “We need to democratise the sport,” added Mishra.

The PVL has been shifted from Kochi to Hyderabad amid rising Covid cases in Kerala and the league is operating out of a very strict bubble, which the players have entered into 26 January onwards. The company is following international practices and SOPs with respect to bio-bubble in order to prevent any further disruptions in the game.

“We are not looking at just one year, we need consistency for the teams and the team owners,” said Mishra. “It's a great opportunity for Indian sports because if what we're trying to do succeeds – that is monetise it to the best possible level wherein the teams also make money, then it could become a model for other leagues or other sports to replicate. And we would be happy to do that and share our knowledge.”

The Rupay Prime Volleyball League powered by A23 is exclusively marketed by Baseline Ventures. The teams will compete in a single round-robin format league that will feature a total of 24 matches, with the top four teams qualifying for the Semi-Finals. The grand finale is slated to be held on 27 February, culminating in three weeks of high voltage action.