With its eight-year deal with FIFA, Zee now has a toehold in the Indian sports market, which is dominated largely by JioStar and cricket. Zee’s deal encompasses 39 global FIFA events, including the 2030 World Cup, at a valuation of under $60 million, which is what Viacom18 paid for the rights to the 2022 World Cup.
Zee has launched four sports channels – Unite8 Sports 1, Unite8 Sports 1 HD, Unite8 Sports 2 and Unite8 Sports 2 HD — which will broadcast the tournament live along with Zee5, its digital platform.
Zee’s biggest challenge at the moment is to promote the property and rope in advertisers in just a matter of days. Bavesh Janavlekar, chief business officer, Unite8 Sports, acknowledges the time crunch but is upbeat about the World Cup’s advertising and viewership prospects. “This is after all, as FIFA says, the greatest show on earth and there is strong traction for the property. The response from advertisers has been positive and several brands, which are part of the national and international football ecosystem, have been waiting for a broadcast deal to finalise their advertising for the World Cup,” he says.
Vineet Minocha, head of sales at Burman Sports, says premium global properties like the FIFA World Cup offer advertisers access to a highly engaged, affluent and younger audience segment, which makes them strategically valuable despite a smaller overall scale.
Tackling challenges
The 2022 edition in Qatar reportedly reached over 110 million digital viewers and 83.8 TV viewers in the country, placing India among the top 10 global markets for FIFA World Cup viewership. However, this year, since the World Cup is being hosted jointly by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, many of the matches are scheduled late in the night or in the early hours of the morning in India, which, some analysts say, could prove to be a dampener.
Santosh N, managing partner, D and P Advisory, says the Qatar tournament got a big viewership boost, thanks to the many casual viewers who walked in. There’s a question mark on that this time around. Also, with the IPL and the men’s T20 ICC World Cup soaking up a lot of the advertising spends in the first half of the year, advertisers might have limited budgets for the football World Cup, he says.
It is also important to note that the digital viewership for the 2022 World Cup reached historic levels because JioCinema streamed the tournament for free. In comparison, Zee5 is offering an all-access-plus-sports plan for three months at ₹799 (₹266/month) that covers the entire World Cup period from June 11 to July 19 and a Rs 1,699 annual pack (streaming on up to four devices simultaneously).
On linear TV, Zee is keeping the channel prices low — between Rs 7 and 11 — to drive reach. Janavlekar adds that the four TV channels have gone live on over 500 cable and distribution platforms.
“For football fans, price is not a major barrier for a premium tournament like the World Cup. Also, this is likely to be the last World Cup for stars such as Messi and Ronaldo, something fans won’t want to miss. Considering that 2.9% of the global football fans are in India, we expect to see good viewership,” Janavlekar says, noting that 60-70% of the matches are at time slots that would suit Indian football fans.
Ankit Suri, DGM, legal & strategy, ITW ARC (ITW Universe), says Zee and partnering brands must treat the property as an omnipresent digital event. “The secret to commercial success is simple: Catch the Indian football fan the moment they open their eyes. The winning playbook lies in ‘breakfast monetisation’, where brands aggressively sponsor premium morning catch-up content, such as official highlight packages, and bite-sized social clips that one can consume during the morning commute.” Zee could consider interactive digital layers like gamification to keep fan communities connected, he adds.
For some long-term advertisers such as Budweiser, the outlook for the tournament is positive, regardless of the match timings. Vineet Sharma, vice-president, marketing and trade marketing, AB InBev India, says, “This year marks a special milestone as we celebrate 40 years of partnership with FIFA. TV and OTT remain important channels. However, our plans are not solely reliant on live integrations.” The brand has launched a global platform ‘Let It Pour’ to celebrate the passion and collective spirit of the World Cup.
Industry insiders say brands in categories such as auto, beverages, technology, FMCG and fintech have started queuing up for ad inventory for the tournament.