MUMBAI: After its recent launch of Star Sports 1 Bangla, broadcaster Star India has disclosed plans to expand its portfolio of regional language channels to include India’s first dedicated sports channel in Marathi.
And the timeline is in place as well, Star India MD Sanjay Gupta revealed to SportzPower recently during an exclusive and expansive interaction.
If all goes according to script, this would be the fifth regional language offering in the Star Sports channel line-up, which includes Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.
As Gupta told SportzPower: “More languages will be taken seriously in the future too, so a separate Marathi channel on the lines of Bangla or Tamil cannot be ruled out.”
Gupta added: “Kabaddi is massive in Maharashtra, so we are all the more convinced about Marathi. The idea is that if two sports in a state have a massive following, we must focus on the regional and language aspect to reach out to them.
“We are looking at feedback from our Marathi strategy in the IPL to make it bigger for the World Cup. Licenses are in place to launch a full-fledged channel by then as well.”
Gupta is also gonfident that advertisers would support a Marathi channel offering.
He pointed out: “As an advertiser, my experience in telecom tells me how crucial it is to interact in Marathi in Maharashtra because it was a struggle. No other medium delivers as well. It is a great test market for any brands, having the potential which not many have recognized. There is a compelling advertising logic for players in the state, due to good per capita income, different languages, greater market penetration, you can try different things.”
Besides Marathi, Star is also considering channel offerings in Punjabi or Gujarathi.
Gupta said: “Additionally, the future will see us adapt a multi-sport, multi-language strategy because the timing of leagues such as the ISL, PKL and Indian cricket matches will clash at some point. Our aim of going big with introducing Marathi and Malayalam this year will depend on how people receive it. Though we are going against traditional wisdom due to the perceived favouritism to Hindi in Maharashtra, which isn’t true entirely.
“Punjabi or Gujarati are also interesting languages to explore. Do we need to segment HSN in different languages is the question we need to ask ourselves and a decision on it will be taken after the World Cup.”
Star Sports has a rich calendar of sports in 2019 starting with the VIVO IPL 2019, moving into the most anticipated event of the year ICC Cricket World Cup, VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season 7 and the Hero ISL.
With the launch of Star Sports Marathi, the sportscaster will have 12 SD channels and five HD channels.
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