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India has remained a single-sport country. It needs to think beyond cricket and create a sports ecosystem that works for everyone in the value chain — federations, broadcasters and fans — experts said during a panel discussion at Ficci Frames 2013.
In a country like India, all stakeholders in sports should come together for the cause, they said. The need is felt as the sports broadcasters have been dependent on cricket, which is increasingly becoming financially unviable due to spiralling costs of acquiring rights.
In the panel discussion on Sports: Economic viability and the crisis within, moderated by cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle, Venu Nair, World Sport Group South Asia CEO, noted that serious efforts should be made to grow sport rather than copy-pasting the Indian Premier League (IPL) model, which has been the case lately.
“Every other day, you see an IPL-styled league with just a new logo pasted on it. IPL became the success that it is because there was a thriving eco-system in place before it launched. Other sports won’t taste success by just emulating the IPL model,” said Nair.
He added that the role of a public broadcaster should not be undermined in popularising a sport. The credit for making cricket a huge success on television goes to Doordarshan, said Nair. “There were lots of triggers that made cricket popular. One of those triggers was Doordarshan. People started following the sport because of Doordarshan. It played a large part in driving traction for cricket,” he noted.
On other sports, Kushal Das, general secretary of All India Football Federation (AIFF), said that the quality of Indian football has to be at par with international football. “The problem with Indian football is not so much cricket as it is football itself. Today, football fans have access to the best of football leagues whether it is EPL, La Liga or Bundesliga. When you compare Indian football with these top leagues, we don't match up," said Das.
Indian football has suffered because of bad infrastructure, and lack of talented players. Unless these issues are dealt with, Indian football will continue to suffer. Das said the bad quality of production and commentary can put off viewers who are exposed to international quality football.
Another critical factor hampering the growth of non-cricket sports is the lack of clarity on scheduling. An annual calendar that lays down the schedule is important not just from a broadcaster’s point of view, but from a fan’s.
<b>Addressability & price cap:</b>
Sports broadcasters said that there should not be a price cap on sports channels. The pricing regulation hasn't changed since 2003, but the cost of cricket rights have gone north in the subsequent years. Cost is a structural issue, which can only be addressed by ramping up subscription revenue.
Nitin Kukreja, head of sports at STAR India, said the government has to relax price regulation and let market forces decide the price. “The revenue side has been a huge challenge. In fact, it has been a challenge to exploit all revenue streams. While the cost of cricket rights have gone up, the subscription revenue has not kept pace," said Kukreja. He added that regulations should have differential treatment for different sports. Star India has bagged the BCCI media rights for Rs 38.5 billion till 2018.
Neo Sports Broadcast COO Prasanna Krishnan said that addressability was a bigger issue than price cap. “You can charge Rs 1,000, but if you don't know how many subscribers you have, it won't make much of a difference. So, in my opinion, addressability is a bigger issue. In that sense, digitisation will be a game-changer,” said Krishnan.
He also felt that the mandatory sharing of feeds with public broadcaster robbed the sports broadcaster, who has committed millions of dollars, of exclusivity.
"The public broadcaster in our country is too cricket-centric. That has to change if the intention is to air events of national importance. Why doesn't the public broadcaster telecast football?," asked Krishnan.
He said the public broadcaster is choosing events that are commercially viable. Nair, however, said that broadcasters are responsible for the broadcast rights going through the roof. "I am sure the broadcasters themselves know that they won't be able to recoup their investments when they bid for cricket rights. That is something that we should address.”
Concurring with Krishnan's view, IPL CEO Sundar Raman said globally, sports broadcasting is driven by subscription income, unlike India, which is dependent on ad-revenue, which keeps fluctuating depending on the season.
"When you are dependent on ad revenue to recover your investment, you are at the mercy of media agencies. Across the globe, sports is driven by subscription. The amount of money that broadcasters get in India as subscription revenue is pittance," said Raman.
He added that the addressability of audience is the single biggest challenge for the sports industry. Apart from addressability, the key to growing sports is to market it well, micro-targeting audience by going regional and exploiting other revenue streams, said Raman.
On marketing front, Raman said the Hockey India League (HIL) did a good job, which other sports bodies can emulate.
Commentary is also an important aspect of growing a sport that will help viewers to understand sport better. Broadcasters, he said, should approach different markets by launching regional feeds that will build an instant connect.
"The problem is, we tend to treat India as one big mass. There is a big opportunity in regional markets. We should have regional feeds with commentary in regional language," Raman said.
He further stated that rights holder should start exploiting other revenue streams like digital media, which will increase the reach of the event. "Consumption of sports on digital medium is increasing. We should tap into this segment, but broadcasters are focusing on internet fearing loss of viewers."
