)
The Star sports Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), which had a dream launch in 2014, has clocked 26 million online viewers (unique visitors), in the second season that concluded last week.
This is a huge rise from the inaugural season, which saw 700,000 unique visitors on the property. The main driver of the growth is hotstar - the network’s mobile video streaming platform.
This puts it just behind the first season of the Hero Indian Super League, which had 32 million viewers, to become the second most viewed non-cricket sports league online.
Cricket continues to rule online viewership as hotstar had 200 million viewers for the Pepsi Indian Premier League and around 340 million viewers for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.
According to data provided by the broadcaster, Star’s online platforms witnessed strong interest from metros and the large cities with 90 per cent of consumption coming from the top six metros - Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, and Kolkata.
This year, the tournament was streamed live on hotstar while last year, it was available on starsports.com.
Considering this was the first time Star India was monetising the property (last year it did not go to market with ad-sales on the tournament), this popularity online helps enforce advertiser confidence in PKL.
“Season 2 of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League set new benchmarks in monetisation for the sport of Kabaddi. On digital, we had 15 advertisers, including eight associate sponsors of the league, across categories such as durables, FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods), e-commerce, infrastructure, auto, BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), among others. SBI (State Bank of India), Flipkart, Mahindra 4W, Coca-Cola, Britannia, Himalaya Face Wash, Skore Condoms, to name a few,” says a Star India spokesperson. hotstar launched a series of unique on air content with shows such as Jabaddi showing Bollywood veteran Jaaved Jaaferi narrating and reacting to the most entertaining moments of the game on a weekly basis.
Ultimate Panga hosted by youth icon Rannvijay Singha, put Kabaddi's super heroes through a series of tasks to test their skill and strength. hotstar also associated with V J Jose to create Tickle Bomb, which were short and funny clips that build the 'Kabaddi is fun’ quotient. While Star India refused to divulge advertising revenue generated from these associations, sources reveal the network could be looking at Rs 50-55 crore in revenues. The network’s estimated spends on the tournament this year are around Rs 70 crore. Industry experts believe what has set the tournament apart has been good quality games, apart from the marketing and production finesse provided by Star India.
Vinit Karnik, national director, ESP Properties, says, “Pro-Kabaddi League 2015 is a fine example of how a nation that is largely cricket-hungry can have its fair share of adulation, growth and success in a short span of time. The top-notch game quality, 'best-in-the-world' talent pool and crisp programme packaging made the Pro Kabaddi League ‘likable’ amongst the audience. As per our ESP Properties and IIM (Indian Institute of Management) Ahmedabad report, scheduling of a league and fan experience are the most critical factors of any successful sporting league and this was capitalised well with the Kabaddi League. Star has also done a great job in packaging the League well, and with the right amount of noise and sponsors coming in, we will look forward to seeing what the third season has in store.”
Star Sports Pro Kabaddi was among the most talked about events on online and social media with a 3x increase in search queries and social conversation compared to the last season. The league has seen 550,000 conversations so far, generating 7.5 billion potential impressions globally.
The second season of the tournament has done well on television as well, recording 53 per cent growth in viewership over the first season (this is data for the first 49 matches released by TAM). This performance, coupled with the online performance has ensured that sponsors take note of the property as an advertising platform. Vipin Nair, joint managing director and co-founder of Baseline, a sports marketing company, says, “From next year, PKL will have two seasons a year, slotted in January–Februay 2016 (before T20 World Cup and IPL) and in July-August 2016 banking on facts such as more viewership (a lot of young viewers watching on digital platform) and more sponsors this season (eight associate sponsors).”
He adds, “Two seasons will allow sponsors / brands to have a greater continuity and deeper associations with the sport. Keeping in mind the growing interest among sponsors the plan is also to extend each season to 10 weeks from a five-week activity now. So all put together, 100-120 days like any other professional league globally will help more recall for the game and a sustained viewership that will help sponsors.
Besides the rising online viewership, the sponsors are excited about the fact that 50 per cent of the viewers have been women and children. “Some of the teams like U Mumba are planning youth programmes off season for 2016 so that it becomes an all-year-round activity to help sponsors / brands build their campaigns around PKL and improve active engagement with fans.
