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Tag: starsports.com

  • The morning and working hour timings of World Cup matches have made millions of sport lovers follow the action on dedicated websites, apps and social media

    More ads go digital as ICC World Cup action shifts to sites, apps

    By Vijaya Rathore & Ravi Teja Sharma

     

    The morning and working hour timings of matches in the ongoing cricket World Cup have made millions of sport lovers follow the action on dedicated websites, apps and social media, prompting several big and small brands to latch on to digital advertising like never before.

     

    Brands across industries, including Lufthansa, Accenture, Tissot and Hero are looking to catch the on-the-move consumer on a variety of platforms including official broadcaster Star India’s starsports.com, social media sites, cricket portals and apps such as Hotstar.

     

    “Some of our clients have looked at digital very seriously. Hero, for instance, has bet heavily on digital and it is really doing well for the brand,” said Praseed Prasad, national director for digital trading at media buying firm GroupM India. Another client of his, Pepsi Lays, has chosen to do more on the digital side and only advertise on television during select matches in the World Cup this year.

     

    A spokesperson for Star India says they have seen an exponential growth in consumption online. This World Cup, Star has got around 35-40 advertisers, including Lufthansa, Accenture, CarTrade, Tissot and Hero for its online platforms, with about 20% of those exclusively on the digital medium. “Revenues from digital will be significant this time,” the person said.

     

    Hero is the co-presenting sponsor of the World Cup 2015 digital. “The medium has seen exponential growth in terms of traffic,” a Hero MotoCorp spokesperson said. It is the lead sponsor on the property with branding/inventory in terms of video inventory, logo presence, banner ads, special sections such as replay and match insights, and has also launched a dedicated app, Hero Super Skipper, the spokesperson said. “This association is a strategic move, owing to a perceptible shift in viewership patterns in favour of digital medium.” The India-Pakistan match at the beginning of the tournament, for example, got over 25 million views on Star’s digital platforms, the highest in the world for a single game.

     

    Firms such as DishTV have created fresh campaigns around the World Cup. “Most digital campaigns are either in the form of graphics or extension of TV campaigns but we created one especially for the digital medium and that has helped us reach the young consumers, the millennials,” said Salil Kapoor, COO of DishTV.

     

    He said the interactive nature of the digital space helps consumers to make purchases by routing them to the firm’s call centres if they wish to. Also, a television ad campaign costs at least 3-4 times more than a digital campaign, Kapoor said. DishTV has shot a campaign with brand ambassador Shah Rukh Khan to promote their HD channels during this world cup.

     

    Digital adoption by brands is on the rise with large companies now allocating significant spends to this medium. “From about 2-3% of a large company’s marketing budget, digital is now in double digits,” says Ahmed Naqvi, CEO at digital and social media agency Gozoop.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2015, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.

    All Rights Reserved, Licensed to republish

     

  • Sharing premium TV content to engage with sports fans on Twitter's real-time information network

    ‘Twitter Amplify’ gets a like from starsports.com & Vodafone

    By A Correspondent

     

    Starsports.com, in association with Vodafone India, has announced its participation in the Twitter Amplify program In India. The Twitter Amplify program is developed to tap into the growing social conservations around TV programmes, especially live sports. starsports.com and Vodafone India aim to enrich the live sports experience through social media. Sports fans will be able to experience this product during the current Indian cricket team’s England tour.

     

    The Twitter Amplify program enables broadcasters to publish video to Twitter and then jointly monetize the premium content by creating sponsorship packages. Powered by Promoted Tweets, the program will “amplify” the reach of the video content distributed via the broadcasters’ and sponsors’ Twitter accounts.

     

    For advertisers, Twitter Amplify provides an opportunity to tap into the social conversations on Twitter, especially on mobile devices. It also provides a multi-screen audience engagement strategy essential to satisfying users’ needs to consume content whenever or wherever they want it.

     

    “2014 is a great year for Twitter becoming the social soundtrack for television as 95% of the public social conversation around TV is happening on Twitter today, especially for live sporting events. Broadcasters and brands know that Twitter is a natural TV companion that drives audience tune-in, engagement and affinity,” said Rishi Jaitly, India Market Director, Twitter. “We look forward to working with cutting-edge broadcasters and advertisers, like STAR Sports and Vodafone, who want to tap into a compelling second screen experience We are delighted that cricket fans can now enjoy TV highlights in real-time on Twitter.”

     

    Ajit Mohan, Head of digital business, Star India, said: “We have built starsports.com as the most compelling destination for fans in India to follow sports on a mobile screen and the best platform for advertisers to reach an attractive audience on digital. This program is a new innovation for us to understand the possibilities of being present when the conversations are happening on Twitter.”

     

    Vivek Mathur, Chief Commercial Officer, Vodafone India, said, “As a brand we are always looking at innovative ways of driving brand engagement and conversations on social media. Cricket (and sports in general) is one of our identified passion points and one with which Vodafone has a huge association. We are very excited to be the pioneers in launching a new social innovation in India centered around Twitter and cricket.”

     

  • While the compulsion to move part of annual cricketing spectacle out of India may have taken off some of the excitement, sponsors have made a comeback. Now for the viewers…

    IPL 7: Living on a prayer, and a little luck

    By Johnson Napier

     

    Blame it on the late player auctions that were held early this year or the match-fixing allegations that keeps cropping up intermittently or the fact that the General Elections may have taken the hype away from the greatest sporting spectacle coming out of India every year – the IPL. While IPL 6 was already making waves this time last year, the scenario is a little different in Twenty Fourteen with most team-owners still making last ditch attempts in getting their act together including enticing advertisers into partnering them afresh.

     

    But whatever the challenges being presented, the tournament does promise to provide its dose of entertainment this year as well. To begin with, there would be only 60 matches being played this year with the tournament being staged in two phases including one in the UAE from April 16 to May 1 and the India leg that will be staged from May 2nd onwards. In fact broadcaster Multi Screen Media (MSM) is already making its presence felt and has managed to get a decent number of brands to endorse the event this year as well – the same number as IPL 6.

     

    MSM has inked deals with nine presenting and associate sponsors for the seventh season of IPL. The presenting sponsors include Vodafone and Karbonn Mobile who are estimated to have spent approximate Rs 50 crore while the associate sponsors comprise Amazon India, Havells, Perfetti, Marico and TVS all of whom fall under the Rs 25-30 crore cost bracket.

     

    While MSM does seem to have made sufficient inroads with brands, what will eventually decide the success of the tournament is the average viewership ratings that it will throw at the end of the tournament. According to data shared last year, IPL managed to generate an average cumulative TVR of 3.1 in HSM markets and a rating of 3 in C&S 4+ all India. This was much lower than the 3.45 HSM average TVR it reported in 2012.

     

    Ashish Bhasin
    Anita Nayyar

    Sharing his opinion on whether the tournament will live up to its hype or not, Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network and Chairman Posterscope & psLive Asia Pacific, said: “I think the seventh season of the IPL will build up as the tournament progresses and be near normal towards the final stages. But it will have a slow start, compared to past years,” he affirmed.

     

    Putting forth her views, Anita Nayyar, CEO- India & South Asia, Havas Media Group said, “IPL has always been an interesting event irrespective of the reasons. Across seasons it has delivered well whether in India or South Africa. Especially the last leg towards the finals has always been an advertiser’s delight with ratings upwards of 10.”

     

    On what the current season will hold for the tournament, Ms Nayyar said, “The seventh season is generating a lot of interest inspite of the shift between UAE and India amongst advertisers who do view IPL as a mass reach medium. Moreover, while it is election time the interest in IPL still stands. This is further vindicated by an analysis of viewership of various genres during elections, which indicates that it does not have any major impact on sports (cricket) or GECs, however the Hindi news genre gains share. Given the situation, IPL holds its own and should continue to deliver viewership and hence interest and acceptability from advertisers.”

     

    Perhaps the right indicator of how viewership could be bought back to the sport could be assessed from what Vinit Karnik, National Director, Sports & Live Events, GroupM ESP had to state in the SportzPower-GroupM joint report on the Sports Sponsorship report. Karnik had stated thus: “Even though the IPL is off to a rough start this year, in the long run accountability, better corporate governance, more transparency, are all good for not just the IPL, but the BCCI too.”

     

    Another factor that will decide whether the tournament receives a positive response this year is the buzz that it will create from the online medium. This year, starsports.com has licensed the digital distribution rights for IPL 2014 from Times Internet. Starsports.com thus will be streaming video on demand on its portal and would not be played on Youtube like last year. With an aim to attract 20 million more users onto the digital platform, starsports.com will be looking at bettering the 2013 viewership numbers that were reported to be in the region of 200 million video views.

     

    Thus, with the countdown to the greatest cricket spectacle only a few hours away, one can look forward to an average outing from the team and brands at the IPL this year. One only hopes that the match-fixing allegations do not make their presence felt yet again or the organisers will have to face additional bottlenecks next year as well. And possibly no ‘bulawa’ as well.

     

  • The ICC World T20 final between India and Sri Lanka on starsports.com attracted a record 19.3 lakh unique individuals watching the video

    Starsports.com shatters online cricket viewing record

    By a correspondent

     

    The video streaming initiative of ICC World T20 2014 on starsports.com has garnered unprecedented traction on the digital domain. The ICC World T20 final between India and Sri Lanka on starsports.com attracted a record 19.3 lakh unique individuals watching video on the destination, delivering an unprecedented 37.6 lakh visits. While public figures are not available, the previous record for a single game is believed to have been achieved on IPL last year, with around 14.8 lakh visitors watching video on April 23last year, when Chris Gayle scored 175 for Royal Challengers Bangalore. The final also beat the audience for the retirement Test match of Sachin Tendulkar, 10.3 lakh visitors, which marked the previous high point for starsports.com.

     

    Overall, starsports.com attracted more than 80.9 lakh users during the fortnight long tournament delivering more than 2.24 crore visits. The consumer engagement on starsports.com is continuing to grow dramatically. A total of 101 million live minutes of video were consumed by users during the last 4 matches played by India in the tournament, with an average of more than 30 mins per live view.

     

    Ajit Mohan, EVP and Head, New Media, Star India, said, “This is proof that the fans are ready to embrace a completely new destination conceptualized around video. We are emerging as the best way to follow cricket. The success of ICC World T20 really positions us well for Pepsi IPL 2014, which is debuting on starsports.com this year, and where we have the opportunity to really deliver a whole new experience for IPL fans. Our aspiration is to break the 20 lakh mark for a single game.”

     

    starsports.com offered live matches of ICC World Twenty20 as an ad-free subscription service on its advanced sports video player. In addition,starsports.com also offered a free, 5-minute delayed service.

     

  • The initiative will give consumers access to sports content on the go – on feature phones and smartphones

    Sports on the Go from Vodafone & Star India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Vodafone India has entered into a strategic partnership with Star India for multi-sports offering called ‘Vodafone Sports’ portal on Vodafone Live.

     

    The initiative will give consumers access to sports content on the go – on feature phones and smartphones.

     

    Powered by starsports.com, Vodafone Sports will offer sports such as Cricket, Football, Tennis and Hockey and going forward it will also cover  F1 and Tennis.

     

    Said Vivek Mathur, Chief Commercial Officer, Vodafone India, “The launch of Vodafone sports is an industry first initiative to bring across best of premium live and curated sports content blended with interactive platform and content delivery.”

     

    Sanjay Gupta

    Sanjay Gupta, Chief Operating Officer, Star India, noted, “Star India’s ambition is to shape the future of entertainment on a mobile screen and sports is a first big initiative for us. Starsports.com has already set a new standard for sports fans hungry to consume sports without being tied to their television. This partnership will bring the power of our service to a whole new audience.

     

    As part of the content offering, Vodafone Sports will offer unadulterated content such as  news, trivia, scores, instant access to live matches, interactive video scorecards, exclusive insights and analysis, columns, photos and wallpapers.

     

    A special feature for cricket fans  is an interactive video scorecard that allows users to watch the fall of a wicket, replay of individual innings, highlights for a particular player.

     

    Snack pricing plans

    • Watch a match at INR 10/INR 20
    • Watch a video clip at INR 3 /INR 5
    • Adorn your home-screen with Cricket wallpapers at INR 3

     

     

    All you can eat plan

    • Sign up for an individual series at INR 49/INR 99/INR 150
    • Watch archived video clips (e.g. Sachin’s best knocks) at INR 30/INR 50

     

     

    Subscription-based plans

    • Rs. 5 per day
    • Rs. 150 per month

     

     

    Customers can avail Vodafone Sports by visiting live.vodafone.in/sports or sending a simple text message SPORTS to 111. If not for the smartphone users, this one would be a great offering for feature phone users, who wants to enjoy sports on-the-go.

     

  • Starsports.com has entered into a partnership with the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 team for the 2013 Indian Grand Prix (Oct 25-27)

    Starsports.com partners McLaren Mercedes F1 team in Indian GP

    By A Correspondent

     

    Starsports.com has entered into a partnership with the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 team for the 2013 Indian Grand Prix (Oct 25-27). As a part of this tie-up, the 200mph-plus Vodafone McLaren Mercedes cars, driven by 2009 world champion Jenson Button of Great Britain and his team-mate Sergio Perez of Mexico, will carry Starsports.com logos on their rear wings. This will be the first time that an Indian digital brand will become part of a Formula 1 team’s livery.

     

    Starsports.com will be streaming the Indian Grand Prix race live on Oct 26 and 27. In addition to the live streaming, Starsports.com will be working closely with the Vodafone McLaren team in the run-up to the Indian Grand Prix. The website will develop Formula 1 programming including exclusive interactions with the team drivers, Button and Perez, as well as senior management of the team including Martin Whitmarsh (team principal) and Sam Michael (sporting director).

     

    Speaking on the occasion, an ESPN Software official said, “We believe this partnership will help in promoting starsports.com as the definitive destination for sports on digital.”

     

     

     

  • Introduces video timeline for cricket with innovative video scorecard, and integration with social media

    Star India launches starsports.com

    By A Correspondent

     

    Star India has taken a new step in sports viewing on digital, with the launch of starsports.com to give Indian cricket fans a personalized audio-visual experience. Flagging off with the Pakistan tour of India, the website will present a video experience for cricket fans that includes high-definition video streaming, an advanced player that can be individually controlled, and the ability to catch up on the game through both a video scorecard and a video timeline that marks the key moments of the game.

     

    Uday Shankar

    Commenting on the launch, Star India CEO Uday Shankar said, “At Star, we have always focused on dramatically enhancing the overall consumer experience. Smart technology, combined with powerful content, can be disruptive and we are excited about offering Indian fans an entirely new way of experiencing their favourite game.”

     

    Starsports.com includes a video timeline for cricket that marks key moments of a match, while it happens, allowing users to go back, relive the moment and jump back into the action in real time. The commentary section has also been reinvented. It not only focuses on explaining the action ball by ball but also pulls in real-time conversations on social media while the match is on. A video scorecard brings statistics to life with video clips of key moments supported by detailed analytics and graphics. Fans can also catch up on games through replays and highlights.