MUMBAI: The initial numbers are in and Star India looks to be reaping the dividends of the Hindi and regional language focus as far as its coverage strategy for the Indian Premier League is concerned.
Referencing the latest BARC Preview Report, India’s lead sportscaster announced a record 219 million people tuned in to matches during the first weekend of the IPL on television. This marks a 31% increase over IPL 2018 in terms of games played.
The opening match between MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings and Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore on 23 March in Chennai got the maximum traction over the weekend with 133 million viewers.
Hindi-speaking and southern regions showed a growth of 30 and 20% respectively in terms of reach. When it comes to impressions, an increase of 29% was seen over 2018.
With eight languages used across the games, also including English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali, it’s the most languages for an Indian sports tournament so far.
These numbers are already aligning with Star India’s plans of making the sport accessible and reasonable in cost to view with a focus to reach out to people speaking in different languages across regions.
The numbers also validate what Star India managing director Sanjay Gupta had told SportzPower in a recent, exclusive interview ahead of world cricket’s biggest annual T20 tournament: “When we looked at the IPL (in 2018), we found that it was initially restricted to just two languages – Hindi and English. What we saw when we went deeper, interacted with fans and looked at data consumption facts, is that their connect is much deeper to the game due to them having a strong affinity for the language spoken in their region. For example, 91% of people watch only Tamil content in Tamil Nadu. As a result, to our surprise, affinity towards the IPL was low in such kind of markets, prior to us winning the media rights for the competition.
“Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Bangla were introduced last year and a majority of our growth came from these last time.
“We will also be launching ‘Super Sunday’ in our programming plans for the IPL 2019 in Marathi and Malayalam keeping in mind that two games will be held on that day and we wish to capture the holiday mood of normal cricket fans.
“A separate feed for Star Gold will also be introduced which will focus more on kids and family viewing. The feel will be lighter and the game will be seen from a 12-year-old’s lens for example.
“We have created more capacity for languages no doubt because it is not just about live action and it is easy to put up only a commentary box. However, our focus is largely also on the programming and non-live aspect of the event such as pre-shows, match wrap-ups and other feature segments. This is why investments are growing in infrastructure which will happen right up till the World Cup as well.”
Gautam Thakar, chief executive officer, Star Sports told Livemint the reach increased on the back of multiple factors. “Last year, we faced some issues with reach in the Hindi speaking markets and realised that the market needed customisation of content. We kept the kids and family audiences in mind and came up with initiatives like the Funday feed on Star Gold, which catered to this target group’s taste. Apart from this, I believe our marketing also found traction.”
Thakar said the response has been very good despite the opening match being a low-scoring one, and the migration to the new Telecom Regulatory Authority of India-mandated tariff order regime. Star India’s distribution team has been working closely with distributor platforms to make sure Star’s sports channels are included in base packs wherever possible.
The bump up ratings figures have also been helped by the decisions of leading DTH operators to make the tournament accessible to a larger audience through the various subscription offers built around the IPL.
Tata Sky (in which Star India is a 20% stakeholder) is providing its regional channels free of cost for the entire duration of the IPL, which include the likes of Star Sports 1 Hindi, Star Sports 1 Tamil, Star Sports 1 Telugu, Star Sports 1 Kannada and Star Sports 1 Bangla.
The numbers delivered by Star’s video streaming platform Hotstar have also brought cheer to the strategy team, with the weekend seeing 135 million viewers tune in for the first three games, which is more than twice that of what the 2018 edition generated.
