Did the ISL live up to the hype and the hoopla?

We take stock of the viewership numbers and crucial learnings from the first season of ISL

e4m by Collin Furtado
Published: Dec 22, 2014 9:29 AM  | 5 min read
Did the ISL live up to the hype and the hoopla?

The first edition of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) came to a close on Saturday as the team Atletico De Kolkata lifted the trophy with a 1-0 win against Kerala Blasters. The final played at D.Y. Patil stadium in Mumbai which was expected to have brought in a good number of people and overall the tournament has been said to be a success according to some media reports. We take a deeper look into the tournament and how it performed on screen as well as on field. Has India truly moved on to sports other than cricket and is football to be the next most popular sport in India? One thing is for certain there was plenty of buzz around the new football league which was deemed to take the game forward in the country.

Numbers do the talking

The Hero ISL was telecast live on eight channels across the STAR network in five different languages. According to a Star Sports statement, the efforts to engage with the masses in all corners of the country clearly paid off as 410 million viewers had tuned in to watch the league at the end of its first 9 weeks, making it the second most-watched sport in the country behind only cricket. “Moreover, the league cut across demographic boundaries and captured the imagination of a diverse fanbase. It has struck a chord with the entire family, with women and children accounting for 57 percent of the 410 million viewers who tuned in watch the Hero ISL,” the statement said.

Over 1.5 million fans turned out to watch the Hero ISL live. “While, as expected, the Hero ISL proved to be extremely popular in the football-crazy pockets of India, venues in cities like Chennai where football doesn’t traditionally have a big following have also been heaving with fans. Stadia have generally been packed close to capacity with attendance averaging 25,970 fans per match. This has made the Hero ISL the most attended league in Asia and among the top global leagues in its short history. It has surpassed Italy’s Serie A to become the fourth most-attended football league in the world, in terms of average attendance, and now only trails Germany’s Bundesliga, the Barclays Premier League and the La Liga,” Star Sports said.

The Hero ISL has also set new benchmarks online. In addition to the 410 million viewers who tuned in to watch the matches on their televisions, over 32 million fans logged in to catch the action online on www.starsports.com.   The website recorded a staggering 1.6 million visits on the closing night alone and in October usurped espncricinfo.com to become the number 1 sports destination on the digital platform in India with 4.424 million visits. The popularity of the Hero ISL has also been evident across social media platforms. The Hero ISL has dominated trends online with fans extremely vocal in their enthusiasm.  The Hero ISL has created 10 billion impressions on social media with over 275,000 unique authors featuring it in 1.8 million conversations.

What are the learnings from the inaugural season?

ISL has shown that India has grown beyond being a one-sport nation. There are of course a lot of learnings from the first edition for the league’s organizers, one of it being the tightly packed schedule of the league into three months which has players playing back to back games. This has been voiced out by players and coaches alike such as Luis Garcia and Zico who have been travelling and playing games continuously. This not only increase fatigue factor of players but also increases the risk of injury. From a television point of view, viewership might increase if a schedule is followed similar to that of European leagues where matches are played mostly on weekends, with the exception of the Champions League games. It could also be built up as a weekend destination for viewers.

Another point is the quality of the football in the league is also under question. This is one of the most important matters as it directly influences the viewership of the game. According to some reports the level of play is still far below that of top-tier European leagues and according to a media report, the organizers of the league have acknowledged the fact that the quality must improve for people to keep watching it.

Infrastructure needs to be upgraded in order for it to attract more top talent to the league. Many of the stadiums for ISL were cricket stadiums turned into football stadiums by covering it with artificial turf as was the case with stadiums like D.Y. Patil. There are far too less football stadiums in India that fit to the international standards. Most of the football stadiums are much smaller in comparison and not maintained well enough.

ISL definitely has a long way to go and learn from the mistakes. It will definitely take a while for TV viewership to reach to great heights as cricket, however it is a good start in its inaugural edition.

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e4m-Samsung Ads CTV roundtable to be held in Gurugram today

At the exclusive roundtable, experts will share insights on the theme ‘How to Leverage the Power of Screen’

By e4m Staff | Sep 27, 2023 7:52 AM   |   2 min read

samsung

The exchange4media Group is excited to host the exclusive e4m-Samsung Ads CTV Roundtable in Gurugram today, September 27. In today's competitive marketplace, it is important for advertisers and marketers to understand how to maximize TV budgets and prepare for a larger addressable CTV universe. Marketers now have to consider how incremental reach can help capture viewers across OTT and CTV campaigns and level up their game to stand out from the rest.

At the roundtable, industry heads, digital marketing experts and top leaders from the advertising and marketing world will come together to share insights on the theme ‘How to Leverage the Power of Screen’. The experts will explore the evolving TV landscape, discuss the rise of ad-supported services, and explore how brands are leaning into the power of the screen to create deeper engagement with audiences.

The seasoned professionals will discuss the challenges that agencies and media owners are facing in their business, industry, and market at large. The roundtable will also include discussions on several key topics like what advertisers and marketers expect from CTV in the coming years, how to leverage the power of the screen to curate and tailor their strategies to resonate with the changing trends, measuring business impact in CTV, the challenges in investing more in CTV and more.

Our speakers include Anupam Tripathi, Media Head, Lenskart; Anusha Srinivasan, Digital Media Activations Manager, Reckitt Health, Reckitt India; Archana Aggarwal, VP – Media, Airtel; Bhawna Sikka, Category Head; Oral Health Care, Haleon; Kunal Dhrangadharia, Global Brand Lead, Royal Enfield; Monika Mishra, Director – Marketing, Mobikwik; Sahil Rawal, Vice President - Brand Product Platforms Marketing, Max Life Insurance; Samir Sethi, VP and Head of Brand Marketing, Policybazaar.com; Siya Wadhawan, Senior Brand Manager, boAt Lifestyle and Syed Sibtain Imam, Media Head, Honasa Consumer Ltd (Mamaearth). The discussion will be moderated by Prabhvir Sahmey, Senior Director, Samsung Ads while Abbhishek Chadha, Executive Vice President, North & East, Interactive Avenues will be the co-moderator.

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NDTV gets permission from MIB to launch 3 HD channels

The three high definition channels that received the nod are NDTV 24x7 HD, NDTV India HD and NDTV Profit HD

By e4m Staff | Sep 27, 2023 7:40 AM   |   1 min read

ndtv

New Delhi Television Ltd. (NDTV) has been granted permission from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to launch three high-definition (HD) channels.

According to the company's disclosure under Regulation 30 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, it said, "This is to inform you that in reference to the application filed by the Company before the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB), the Company has received a letter dated September 25, 2023 from MIB conveying its intention to grant permission to the Company to uplink and downlink three (3) news and current affairs channels in High Definition namely ‘NDTV 24x7 HD’, ‘NDTV India HD’ and ‘NDTV Profit HD.'

NDTV added that it will inform the stock exchanges of the launch of the said HD channels.

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ICC World Cup 2023: Disney Star onboards IndusInd & Emirates as sponsors on TV

According to sources, around 50-60 advertisers have signed up for the upcoming cricket tournament on TV

By Sonam Saini | Sep 26, 2023 1:22 PM   |   1 min read

Star

Disney Star, the official broadcaster of ICC Cricket World Cup for both TV and digital, has bagged two more sponsorships from IndusInd and Emirates for television.

Highly placed sources have confirmed the news to e4m. According to the sources, over 50 advertisers have signed up for the upcoming marquee tournament and the broadcaster is still in talks with other advertisers.

PhonePe, Mahindra Auto, Coke, MasterCard and Hindustan Unilever are the other big brands that have come on board as sponsors for the tournament.

As earlier reported by exchange4media, the broadcaster is seeking Rs 118-120 crore for co-presenting sponsorships and Rs 80-90 crore for the associate sponsorship. For co-presenting opportunities on Disney+ Hotstar, the broadcaster has set a price tag of Rs 150 crore. Brands eager to get high visibility as "Powered by" sponsors will need to invest Rs 75 crore, while those opting for associate sponsorship will have to allocate Rs 40 crore.

The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup kicks off on October 5 with a repeat of the 2019 final as England faces New Zealand in Ahmedabad. Across 10 world-class venues, 48 matches will be played in 46 days culminating in the Men’s Cricket World Cup Final on November 19.

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Zee Media to re-register for BARC data

In September 2022, the news broadcaster pulled out of the TV audience measurement system, citing landing page issues

By e4m Staff | Sep 26, 2023 8:39 AM   |   1 min read

Zee

News broadcaster Zee Media Corporation Limited (ZMCL) has decided to register back for BARC data, starting in the week of October 12, according to sources. 

Emphasizing the significance of this collaboration, Abhay Ojha, CEO of Zee Media Corporation Limited, said, "We, at ZMCL, have always valued the integrity and transparency of data. Our decision to rejoin forces with BARC reflects our firm belief in BARC's commitment towards robust data mechanisms and our anticipation of a productive partnership ahead. We remain committed to delivering trustworthy news and content to our viewers and advertisers."

e4m has reached out for an official confirmation but BARC CEO Nakul Chopra wasn’t available to comment on the development at the time of filing this story.

Earlier in September 2022, the news broadcaster pulled out of the TV audience measurement system, citing the landing page issue as a reason for taking such a drastic step.

ZMCL had then said that it had been consistently requesting BARC India to take corrective measures with regard to the landing page issue. The news broadcaster had said that the landing page data should not be included in the final viewership and the duration for counting viewership be increased to 2 minutes.  

ZMCL was the second TV news network after NDTV to pull out channels from BARC.

The media company owns and operates 14 TV news channels apart from 5 digital channels and 17 digital brands.

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Star Plus onboards 14 advertisers for Star Parivaar Awards 2023

Brands such as Dabur, ITC, Emami, Apple, Amazon, Berger Paints and Xiaomi have aligned themselves with the upcoming event

By e4m Staff | Sep 25, 2023 5:12 PM   |   1 min read

star plus

Star Parivaar Awards 2023 has onboarded advertisers like Dabur, ITC, Emami, Apple, Amazon, Berger Paints and Xiaomi.

The awards have attracted 14 advertisers spanning a wide array of categories, including FMCG, Banking, E-commerce, Technology, Mobile Handsets, Insurance, Paints, and Pharma.

“This presents an unparalleled opportunity for brands to connect with their target audience on linear TV and beyond. The event offers a diverse range of in-content integration opportunities, emphasizing its massive associative value," said an industry observer.

The award show is set to be telecast on 1st October, starting 7 PM, on Star Plus and Disney+ Hotstar.

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MIB makes registration mandatory for MSOs to provide own programming service

Applicants have been advised to refer to guidelines issued by MIB on November 30, 2022

By e4m Staff | Sep 25, 2023 2:53 PM   |   1 min read

MIB
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has made it mandatory for Multi-System Operators (MSO), who intend to provide their own programming service, either directly to their own subscribers or through one or more Local Cable Operators, to take registration of platform services.

Applicants have been advised to refer to guidelines for platform services offered by Multi System Operators issued by MIB on November 30, 2022. They are required to apply for registration of their PS channel(s)

Following documents are required to be uploaded at the time of submission of online application:

a. Certificate of Channel Carrying Capacity (Statewise) (Sell'-Certification).
b. Details of PS Channels operated at State Level
c. Details of PS Channels operated at District Level.
d. Filled in MHA Security Clearance Pro-forma.
e. Challan copy of payment made on Bharat Kosh Portal for registration of PS Channels.

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BCCI media rights: Viacom18 gets dynamic injunction from Delhi HC

Viacom18 Media had approached the court seeking ad-interim dynamic injunction to protect its media rights against rogue and pirate websites as well as John Does

By e4m Staff | Sep 23, 2023 4:50 PM   |   2 min read

Viacom18

Viacom18 has secured a broad dynamic injunction from the Delhi High Court for the Indian cricket team’s bilateral matches.

Recently, Viacom18 bagged the BCCI linear and digital rights. As a result, for the next five years i.e., from September 2023 till March 2028, all bilateral games involving the Indian cricket team that will be played in India along with domestic cricket, shall now be broadcasted/streamed by Viacom18 on its television and OTT properties.

Viacom18 Media Private Limited had approached the Delhi High Court seeking an ad-interim dynamic injunction to protect its Media Rights in relation to the BCCI Events against various rogue and pirate websites as well as John Does/Ashok Kumars/Unknown Defendants.

The court while expressing its concerns regarding the unending menace of piracy noted that the courts have become inundated with suits pertaining to such issues and suggested the importance of a robust anti-piracy policy to curb the issues. The court observed that a prima facie case for interim injunction was made out and further held that the grant of an injunction would be necessary to avoid irreparable loss/injury from being caused to Viacom18.

The court further ordered that Viacom18 shall not be bound to initiate any fresh proceedings in relation to any new alphanumeric/redirect/mirror websites that are expected to mushroom during the course of the BCCI events. Access to such websites shall be blocked by the Internet Service Providers (IPSs) upon being informed about the same by Viacom18 on an affidavit. This, dynamic injunction provides Viacom18 to swiftly act against pirates and rogue websites infringing and making available the BCCI matches without due permissions.

Anil Lale (General Counsel, Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd.) said: “We at Viacom18 are proud to be the exclusive digital and television broadcaster for Indian cricket. Viacom18 has always been at the forefront in the fight against piracy. I am sure this is a welcome step for all the cricket fans as also for bona fide broadcasters like us who spend huge sums to get these rights. While we are proud to say that we have won several battles against these pirate websites, we understand that the war against piracy is a continuing one and we are committed towards winning it.”

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