India is not yet ready for app-based sports viewing: Harish Thawani, Neo Sports founder

News of Amazon Prime snapping up the streaming rights to New Zealand Cricket for the Indian territory indicates that traditional sports broadcasters like Star and Sony, easy fixtures in the living room TV, won't have an easy time negotiating for the rights of marquee events.

The deal with New Zealand Cricket gives Amazon Prime Video exclusive streaming rights to all international cricket matches to be played until the 2025-26 season. The deal includes two tours by the Indian cricket team.

So, is the Indian market ready for a switch to an app-based viewing experience considering a significant section of the population is still hooked to watching on television sets powered by cable?

Harish Thawani, founder, Neo Sports, believes viewers are yet to warm up to this new medium of watching sports.

"In India, La Liga's experiment with Facebook hasn’t worked out well and recently, Bundesliga’s last-resort deal with FanCode appears to have eroded their fan base too. So, I would say India is not yet ready for app-based sports viewing except for snacking when in commute transit," he told Moneycontrol.

He feels sports is mostly consumed live and thus, ideally suited for linear TV channels instead of over-the-top (OTT) platforms. The Indian Premier League (IPL), recently streamed on Disney+ Hotstar, also did not set viewership numbers alight.

"Minority interest sports that can't find TV deals tend to use OTT to reach their niche audience. Its unusual for mass followed sports to use OTT as it diminishes their fan reach. NZC I hear didn't have a choice as broadcasters were not willing to fork out the money that Amazon did," he said.

Apart from cricket, sports broadcasters have faced a difficult time in making money from international sports properties like Formula 1, UEFA Champions League and the English Premier League (EPL).

Thawani said the EPL may still find takers among broadcasters but F1, having a more limited viewship,  may not in the near future.