Cashing in on sports

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At Neo Sports, while cricket is the main draw of the parent channel, Neo Sports Plus has aired a host of live soccer matches from the Bundesliga—the German league, and Sierra A—the Italian league. It also telecast the Rugby World Cup. As Ranjith Rajasekharan, VP, marketing communications, Neo Sports Broadcast, puts it: “The ratings for the Euro Champions League are pretty good. Soccer has a niche market but passionate following and advertisers are beginning to understand that.”

Tennis has been a long-time favourite as well. According to Rajasekharan, what is really challenging soccer viewership now is tennis. “With Sania Mirza rising in the rankings of world tennis, a lot many eyeballs are now on the sport. The grand slams apart, whenever Sania plays, viewership goes up.”

Ask the channels, if there has been any change of strategy while covering sport other than cricket, and all of them say they are now more open to acquiring ‘new properties’. For instance, Ten Sports has acquired the rights to telecast for the first time ever in India live matches from the Scottish, Dutch and French football leagues. That apart, the channel will telecast Tour de France, the world’s biggest cycling event, the under 17, and under 20 International Federation of Assocation Football (FIFA) World Cups and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF’s) best track and field events.

As a consumer, you are spoilt for choice because sports channels are showing a variety you could have only dreamt of, some years ago. Says Venkateish of ESPN: “Our biggest USP would be the diversity of sport we have on the channel. Along with a superb line-up of cricket, we have the best of football action from Europe, WWE, tennis, hockey, golf, athletics, cycling and motor sports.”

As for the response from advertisers, ESPN Software India says with other sports gaining popularity with television spectators, and with the increase in eyeballs, the going has been good. “Our biggest advertisers over the years have been Coke, Pepsi, Nokia, P&G, Bajaj and Hero Honda,” points out Venkateish.

And Pepsi’s Gatorade, the sport drink, has been actively involved in providing product support through its association with the WTA-ITC Sunfeast Open tennis tournament held in Kolkata for two years in a row now. Similarly, last year Gatorade was associated with the ATP Tennis Tournament in Mumbai, as also with the Indian Men’s Hockey team—for the World Cup.