MUMBAI: Star India, which won IPL’s global media rights in September, will leverage the fact that it holds both the television and digital rights to world cricket’s biggest annual property by doing away with the five-minute delay that existed earlier between the television and the live streaming feeds.
Additionally, Star India is looking to engage with a total of 700 million viewers in the upcoming season by making the IPL spectacle available on seven different live feeds on its TV channels and Hotstar, six language feeds and a Super Fan Feed on Star Sports Select in English.
“IPL will bring to the fore the power of sports and the power of technology in 2018. This is the biggest content property on TV and other screens. It has been built well over the last decade and has grown dramatically. We believe IPL can be re-imagined completely to grow even faster and more dramatically over the next five years as Star takes charge of it. The scale of investment and ambition is being put behind making IPL work in different languages for different consumers,” said Sanjay Gupta, managing director, Star India.
“By leveraging the power of television and Hotstar, IPL will be enjoyed by an unprecedented number of fans across geographies. What we did to our GEC (general entertainment channels) network, we are doing the same to IPL by localising content in six different languages and creating content destinations,” Gupta told Hindu Business Line.
Ajit Mohan, CEO, Hotstar, Star’s OTT platform, said that with the digital consumption pie increasing, the company is building a cohesive and unified platform through Hotstar.
“We are currently in conversations with multiple telcos for partnerships for opening up the live feed to their consumers. The telecom partners may come in and pay on behalf of their subscribers,” Mohan told Mint.
In September, Star India had won the IPL bid in a blockbuster five-year deal, for Rs 163.475 billion ($2.55 billion), beating tech players such Facebook, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and incumbent broadcaster Sony Pictures Network (SPN).
