Not an easy question to answer given that marketers – unless backed by their Boards or owners – are forever looking at RoIs and data. But it’s good to know viewership numbers rising. Here goes Dr Bhaskar Das in the August 29 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…
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Q. Globally viewership of women’s sport has grown 131%. I’m sure the number is similar for India as well given the low base. Do you see our marketers biting?
A. Your question contains the answer though in the form of a question about women’s sports viewership. There has definitely been a rising interest but there is no use comparing it with our obsession with cricket which controls perhaps more than 80% of the eyeball share and of course monetisation share as well. That women’s IPL has been sponsored already shows that there is rising interest but it’s not yet across the board for all categories of sports.
The major segment of Indian population has been culturally suppressed and economically oppressed and in spite of that we might women have been showing continuous courage and resilience to come up. If you look at other sports categories from various states like Haryana, North East, the rising inspiration level to play on the national and global stage has been rising.
Sponsorship and no sponsorship, there has been obsession of sponsorship about cricket. I’m sure there are many sponsors who would be interested in getting exposed to a de-cluttered environment that where their brand would be more visible compared to being overshadowed in a cluttered environment. This should give encouragement to women and ultimately will result in women empowerment, not as platitudes but as actual performance and actual improvement.
In the Indian context, women’s empowerment is quite often reduced to some platitudes only but the time has come for giving them a real push and I’m sure that once that happens, the viewership would also increase and there will be more interest in terms of monetisation. It is a positive sign and I hope that it happens in this country so that the untapped potential of a major part of Indian population is fully realised.