Sports outside of cricket are gaining more traction amid Indian audience with multiple non-cricket sports properties seeing seeing growth, said a top official at Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI).
Average impressions for the live matches of Euro 2020 (European Football Championship) was more than three times that of EURO 2016, Rajesh Kaul, Chief Revenue Officer – Distribution & International Business and Head – Sports Business, SPNI, told Moneycontrol.
"Similarly, reach for tennis grand slams like the US Open and Roland Garros (French Open) has grown over 5x and over 3x, respectively. Properties like Prime Volleyball League have also experienced strong growth of 54 percent in terms of average impressions. The Tokyo Olympics 2020 live matches had achieved 450 million gross impressions, the highest for any Olympics telecast on Indian Pay TV channels and 23 percent higher than the Rio Olympics," he said.
Citing viewership data from Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), a TV audience measurement body, Kaul said that the full tournament of UEFA Champions League (football competition) saw its average impressions growing by 1.6x from 2016/17 season to 2021/22 season.
He also pointed out that tennis has a sizeable following in India, with close to 100 million viewers who watched the sport on TV during 2022. The sports network has got on board former star tennis player Sania Mirza to promote the game. "She has signed on with us in her new role as the Tennis Ambassador for Sony Sports Network. This association with the Arjuna Award, Padma Shri, Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award and Padma Bhushan recipient is a step taken to enhance the viewing experience of tennis fans in India," Kaul said.
On viewership, he said that Australian Open consistently has been among the top watched grand slams in India and was watched by close to 20 million viewers in 2023. He said that local language commentary in tennis games has helped in viewership growth. "Hindi, Tamil and Telugu commentary contributed close to 35 percent of the viewership of Australian Open, Roland Garros and US Open in 2022."
The network's sports portfolio includes Asian Games, three grand slams with Australian Open, French Open and the US Open.
"We have also invested in some home-grown leagues like Prime Volleyball League, Ultimate Kho Kho League, among others. Then there is WWE's (World Wrestling Entertainment) flagship properties, football tournaments including UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League," Kaul added.
SPNI and Zee Entertainment had announced merger in 2021. According to the scheme of the arrangement, Sony will indirectly hold 50.86 percent of the combined company. The founder of Zee will own around four percent and the rest will be with the other shareholders of ZEEL. Sony Group will also pay a non-compete fee of Rs 1,100 crore to the Essel Group promoters.