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2018 has been a breakthrough year for sports consumption as we saw increased viewership of non-cricket sports, higher engagement in Tier-II and Tier-III markets and the success of digital initiatives like second screen experiences.
It was also an eventful year with marquee international events like the FIFA World Cup, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and bilateral cricket series against South Africa, England and Australia. Indian athletes and audiences showed their passion for multi-sports throughout the year.
Our contingent lived up to the war cry of ‘Rang De Tiranga’ and brought pride to the nation at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. With no Indian representation, Indian fans cheered on for their doosri country during the FIFA World Cup. The Men in Blue also put up a tough fight against three of the strongest cricketing superpowers, South Africa, England and Australia (ongoing).
It has been our objective to promote a multi-sport viewing culture in India and with a diverse portfolio of marquee events on our network last year, we explored various avenues to achieve it even further. Through innovative programming and marketing initiatives we increased our engagement with viewers to shift the needle from cricket to non-cricket sports in 2018. The efforts paid off and we saw a growth in viewership across multiple sports categories. Cricket continues to dominate sports viewership in the country and account for close to 70 per cent of the ratings in the sports genre. Through the acquisitions of England and Wales Cricket Board and Cricket Ireland rights this year, Sony Pictures Networks India became the home of international bilateral series with rights to eight international cricket boards.
Hot on the tails of cricket viewership is football, which has seen an impressive 50 per cent growth and continues to increase. FIFA World Cup broke all viewership records as 177mn viewers tuned in to our sports channels to watch the matches. UEFA Champions League doubled in viewership and Serie A became the most sampled international league in 2018.
We also further strengthened our commitment to making international sports accessible to a larger set of audience by launching Hindi commentary for WWE RAW and SmackDown in 2018. The initiative was a success with 172mn viewers watching the Hindi feed on SONY TEN 3 channels. The growing interest in Indian athletes performing at international platforms resulted in over 100mn viewers across the country watching our coverage of the CWG and Asian Games.
We also saw an evolution in terms of the segments consuming sports content in 2018, wherein we saw more engagement from regional markets and female viewers. The success of regional language feeds for various properties like FIFA World Cup, WWE and India’s challenging tours of South Africa, England and Australia showed us that there is interest and potential in non-metro cities for sports. Nearly a half of the viewers watching the FIFA World Cup this year were women, which shows us the rising interest in the consumption of various sports amongst female audiences. Through our studio shows like Extraaa Innings, Football Extraaa, Around the Hoop and more, our viewers get a holistic viewing experience with renowned experts in their fields like Sunil Gavaskar, Graeme Swann, Michael Clarke, Louis Saha, Wes Brown, Sunil Chhetri, Geeta Phogat, Aparna Popat, Somdev Devvarman, Viren Rasquinha and others providing their expert insights. These factors have contributed largely to bringing India one step closer to transforming into a multi-sport viewing nation.
Following the increasing affordability of data prices, digital has expanded rapidly and we used ‘second screen’ interactivity to increase engagement with audiences and provide a holistic experience to them. At SPN, we offered digital interactivity for the FIFA World Cup, ongoing UEFA Champions League and India Tour of Australia which provided in-depth knowledge about the sport and an immersive experience to our viewers.
Digital is pushing various sports leagues to leverage OTT mediums with a 360-degree experience at the heart to stream content. As a result, OTT is moving into the forefront as sports leagues search for new ways to distribute existing and customised content directly to their audiences. While it is an opportunity for us to explore, the majority of Indian sports consumers cite television as their first choice. Viewers look forward to watching local talent in non-cricket sports leagues and we will kick-start 2019 with the Pro-Wrestling League and Pro-Volleyball League which is completely aligned with our focus on promoting domestic sports leagues in India.
The evolution of non-cricket sports events may play a big role in the metamorphosis of viewers’ sports consumption patterns. If the pace of this change keeps up, we can expect the sports ecosystem to evolve in an even shorter span of time. Seeing this trend, we can look forward to India making its mark at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
(The author is the Chief Revenue Officer & Head- Sports Business at Sony Pictures Networks India)
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views of exchange4media.com