Sporting nation in making 2

GroupM ESP-SportzPower India Sports Sponsorship Report 2015

SPORTING NATION IN THE MAKING -II Multiple Leagues Set the Pace for Growth

SPORTING NATION IN THE MAKING -II India Sports Sponsorship Report 2015

Multiple Leagues Set the Pace for Growth

02

FOREWORD

Foreword T

he Indian Sports industry is burgeoning and is at a juncture where opportunities for growth embrace all its segments. The use of Sports Sponsorship has increased greatly in recent years, and the proportion of brands spending on Sport has grown exponentially.

In the second edition of a landmark initiative, GroupM ESP (the Sports & Entertainment arm of GroupM Media) and SportzPower (India’s leading provider of sports business news) have collaborated to excavate and present the trends and developments in the Indian Sports Industry in 2014. During this period, we’ve seen a dramatic change in the landscape of Indian Sports with the emergence of five exciting new sporting leagues—Indian Super League (ISL), Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), International Premier Tennis League (IPTL), Champions Tennis League (CTL), and World Kabaddi League (WKL).

Vinit Karnik Business Head – GroupM ESP vinit.karnik@groupmesp.com

This report covers the Sponsorship segment of the Indian Sports Industry in 4 parts - On Ground Sponsorship, Team Sponsorship, Athlete Management, and On Air Spends. Each chapter also has a section on key trends on investment in order to provide a perspective.

The report also captures the digital data (social conversations & search) and the On Air reach & TRPs in different leagues in order to increase its utility to Rights Owners, Advertisers, and Agencies.

We gratefully acknowledge the valuable inputs provided by rights owners, agencies, and industry participants who have provided valuable information and support during the preparation of this report.

We hope that you will find this report useful and informative. Any feedback or suggestions to enhance future editions of this report are most welcome.

Thomas Abraham Co-Founder, SportzPower thomas@sportzpower.com

CONTENTS SPORTS INDUSTRY IN INDIA - THE BIG PICTURE

HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING

THE GROWTH OF SPORTAINMENT IN INDIA

FIFA WORLD CUP, NEW LEAGUES ADD UP THE ON AIR REVENUE

SPORTS BROADCASTING

TEAM INDIA NO LONGER ONLY ABOUT CRICKET PARIVAAR

KOHLI LEADS THE CHARGE OF THE BRASH BRIGADE

SPORTS & SOCIAL MEDIA —INDIA PADS UP FOR BIG INNINGS

CRICKET WILL BE BACK FRONT AND CENTRE; PKL THE ONE TO WATCH

04

08

13

18

20

22

27

31

34

04

SPORTS INDUSTRY IN INDIA - THE BIG PICTURE

SPORTS INDUSTRY IN INDIA - THE BIG PICTURE I

f the growth of the sports business in this country is directly linked to the launch of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008, then 2014 marks the next big paradigm shifting for Indian sport. It was a year that saw the birth of five new franchise-based leagues, with all of them deriving their master templates from India's only truly globally relevant annual sporting property-the IPL. The second edition of the GroupM ESP – SportzPower India Sports Sponsorship Report sets the marker for a year that saw unprecedented amounts of investment being pumped into sports other than Big Daddy Cricket.

The Report, which examines advertising investments in Indian Sport from four angles – On Ground, Team Sponsorship (Subset Franchise Fees), Athlete Endorsement, and On Air – has one overriding data stream resonating across it: In a year where Cricket was essentially flat, it was the advent of these new sports leagues that were the drivers for increased spends in four of the five areas under review.

And of the five new "leagues on the block", it was the Indian Super League, mounted by Football Sports Development Pvt. Ltd (FSDPL), the three-way joint venture between IMG, Reliance and Star India and Pro Kabaddi League, conceived and delivered by founder

promoters Charu Sharma, respected sports commentator, and noted industrialist, Anand Mahindra, that really circled all the right dots in terms of delivery and presentation.

In addition to the two aforementioned tournaments, the new leagues included the International Premier Tennis League, promoted by tennis doubles ace, Mahesh Bhupathi, and the Champions Tennis League, headed by former Indian great Vijay Amritraj.

Completing the new leagues' roster was World Kabaddi League (WKL). And speaking of Kabaddi, the fact that the two new leagues promote two formats of the ancient Indian sport—square style and circle style—means that going forward both potentially have room to find their respective areas of influence and fan support, without necessarily cannibalizing each other.

A word here about the teams that have constituted these new leagues. Year 2014 saw an eclectic group, ranging from corporate honchos, film stars, cricketers, and realty players, take up ownership positions in the various franchises on offer among the new leagues, as well as some troubled existing ones (read Hockey India League).

On Hockey India League (HIL), Indian hockey fans got some respite from the one-time national game's ongoing troubles when HIL announced its three new franchises for the third season, which was held from 22 January to 22 February, 2015.

The developments came after two teams—Dabur owned Mumbai Magicians and the Patel-PS Group and Uniexcel Group owned Ranchi Rhinos—pulled out their teams due to low ROI and differences with Hockey India.

HIL first announced a new Pune-based franchise owned by Anirban Sarkar, chairman and managing director of Deccan Water Treatment Private Limited.

This was followed up by the announcement that the troubled Sahara India, whose chief Subroto Roy completed a year in jail in February 2015, which already owns the Uttar Pradesh Wizards side in the league, was the new owner of the Ranchi franchise.

What gave the newly titled Ranchi Rays some much-needed uplift was the news that the Indian cricket captain, MS Dhoni, earlier announced as a co-owner of ISL's Chennaiyin FC team, would be a franchise co-owner.

As for the Mumbai team, Radha Kapoor's (daughter of Yes Bank promoter Rana Kapoor) DoIT Sports Management, which marked its foray into sports with the ownership of the Dabang Delhi franchise of the PKL, replaced Dabur's Mohit Burman as owner of the retitled Dabang Mumbai.

Burman, who is one among four equal part stakeholders in IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab, also owns the Pune Pistons franchise in the Indian Badminton League, which went AWOL in 2014 after its inaugural edition in 2013. Burman invested Rs45 million into the franchise in 2013 and declared losses of Rs15 million. He has stated he will be "giving badminton two to three years more time." For the record, Burman's investments in sports have been made in his personal capacity.

Any talk of investments means that Star India has a starring role to play in the year under review. It was a year that saw India's lead broadcast network begin drawing from the Rs 200-billion war chest that the wholly-owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox has apportioned for sport over the next five years. In the sports broadcast arena, Star India began its acquisition spree with the International Hockey Federation (FIH) rights for a period of eight years.

Together with HIL, Star Sports is today the de facto home of hockey in India.

Star India emerged as the biggest investor in the game of Hockey globally, and the stated intent of building the sport is backed by a Rs 15-billion corpus.

In regards to ISL, where it is an equity partner alongside IMG Reliance, not only were all marketing and advertising sales responsibilities under its wing, when it came to the broadcast strategy, Star further broadened the horizon by televising it on eight of its channels. The league was televised on Star Sports 2 (English), Star Sports 3 (Hindi), Star Sports HD 2 (English), Star Gold (Hindi), Star Utsav (Hindi), Asianet Movies (Malayalam), Jalsha Movies (Bengali), and Suvarna Plus (Kannada) to take it to as wide an audience as possible and in their local language.

In the case of PKL, it was televised on Star Sports 2 and Hindi movie channel Star Gold. The strategy behind televising the newbie league on Star Gold was not only to get good reach, but also to get more people to sample the league.

In cricket, Star not only has rights to all BCCI (barring IPL) and ICC properties, which it retained with a final winning bid of $1.81 billion for the 2016-23 cycle, it also has the England and Australia boards in its repertoire.

In football as well, Star has been equally aggressive in its acquisitions.

On the international front, it holds rights to all the key European leagues in Barclays Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, and Serie A.

06

SPORTS INDUSTRY IN INDIA - THE BIG PICTURE

Earlier, showcasing the vast plethora of content had been a challenge but now, with the network securing Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's approval for 10 new TV channel licenses to uplink from India as well as downlink into India, this should not be a problem going forward.

To sum up, the year saw a 10% increase in revenues, up from Rs43.725 billion in 2013 to Rs 48.096 billion in 2015.

While the large chunk of the Rs4.344 billion upside has come through revenue accruals from the new leagues on the block, it needs noting that 2014 was also a FIFA World Cup year so a good Rs1 billion was pulled in as on air revenues by Sony Multi Screen Media, host broadcaster for the quadrennial mega event.

Sports Data On Ground

Team Sponsorship

2013 (INR Mn)

2013 (INR Mn)

2013 (INR Mn)

2014 (INR Mn)

2014 (INR Mn)

7568

5508

2014 (INR Mn)

4327 4936

7948

6755

On Air Endorsements 2013 (INR Mn)

3822

2014 (INR Mn)

3278

Franchise Fees

Total 2013 (INR Mn)

2013 (INR Mn)

22500

2014 (INR Mn)

25180

43725

2014 (INR Mn)

48069

On Ground Sponsorship, Team Sponsorship & Franchise Fee has increased due to emergence of new sports league Endorsements have come down TV Spends have gone up due to multiple sports properties. FIFA was also a big factor Source – GroupM ESP

08

HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING

HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING I

t was a year that saw Cricket taking a big hit on the brand image side, and much diminished in the perception stakes, particularly as far as the BCCI's cash cow IPL was concerned, what with the controversies surrounding betting and spot-fixing remaining a constant sore point.

But that was not the primary reason that caused an 8.6% dip in ground sponsorship for cricket from Rs 5.083 billion in 2013 to Rs 4.647 billion in 2014. It had more mundane reasons. First was the fact that India played host to fewer international games than in 2013, and the second being the price correction in the payouts to BCCI from title rights holders for the said games.

While in 2013 the BCCI hosted 21 international matches, in 2014 only 8 matches were held in India. It bears noting that as per the tour calendar that the BCCI had drawn up, India was to play 14 international matches in 2014. That number went for a toss after the West Indies team abandoned their tour to India midway over a pay dispute with their cricket board. A tour that was meant to have 5 ODIs, 1 T20 and 3 Tests ended after the fourth ODI (1 game had already been washed out), leaving the Indian authorities furious. So much so that a $41.97 million damages claim was served on the beleaguered West Indies Cricket Board that remains unresolved.

On the matter of the price correction, in the first half of 2013, Airtel paid Rs33.3 million per match for 9 matches that India played before the telecom major decided to pull the plug on its lien on title rights, deeming the price it was paying as way too high.

Airtel's contention was validated when Star picked up the title rights (for only six months from October 2013 to March 31, 2014) covering 13 international matches at the base price that the BCCI had set of Rs 20 million per game. Apart from STAR India, the only other company that showed interest was mobile phone manufacturer Micromax, which withdrew during the final bids. A huge contrast from the previous cycle of bidding where there were over 10 companies that showed interest and six that eventually bid for the rights that Airtel finally won.

Interestingly, when the BCCI put the title rights for the West Indies tour up for bidding, it finally went to Micromax at Rs 20.2 million which is little more than the board's base price.

As for the IPL, title sponsor Pepsi, with its Rs. 800 million per year commitment, along with associate sponsors YES Bank and Vodafone, coupled with increased payouts from IPL rights holder MSM and Champions League T20 rights holder Star, all worked to ensure that IPL's parent BCCI remained in rude financial health, scandals or no scandals. But the negatives did adversely impact the IPL franchises in 2014, what with sponsorship revenues being down anywhere between 15 to 30 per cent from 2013, depending on the franchise.

India welcomed the Indian Super League with much fanfare with the eight-city franchise-based tournament, promoted by IMG Reliance and Star India and backed by top corporates, cricketers, and film celebrities as team owners, dominating the sports pages of newspapers. But perhaps the ISL’s greatest victory has been getting the crowds inside the stadium. It has consolidated existing power centers like Kolkata and Goa, re-vitalized a fading mark on the country’s football map in Kerala and even managed to attract an average of nearly 25,000 fans in a city like Chennai.

In total, 1.5 million people attended the 61 matches that made up the ISL tournament, with average match attendance for the tournament since its commencement October 12 at 24,357. This is the highest across Asia, and according to the organizers, the league trailed only Germany's Bundesliga, the Barclays Premier League, and Spain's La Liga in the “bums on seats” quotient.

ISL’s claim that it is the best attended league in Asia may be a tad unfair on the J-League and A-League teams who have their seasons play out over 10 months, but the fact remains that both Kolkata and Kerala had better average attendances than English champions Manchester City. “I’ve played in a number of stadiums during my career, but honestly, I can’t recall ever playing in an atmosphere like the one in Kochi,” was what David James had to say of a venue, that less than 12 months earlier, saw the Federation Cup play out to near empty stands.

The ISL has certainly proved to be the game changing blockbuster sporting property that can lay legitimate claim to being the next big thing after IPL. ISL had 10 sponsors at the Central level with almost 500 million as sponsorship amount, of which title sponsor Hero Moto Corp is paying Rs180 million per year. On the back of ISL, ground sponsorship for Football telescoped from Rs 142 million in 2013 to Rs 595 million in 2014, a jump of 319%.

Brands associating with European football clubs also contributed; notable examples being Apollo Tyres with Manchester United, Nokia for FC Barcelona, and Xolo with Liverpool.

ON GROUND 2013 (INR Mn)

2014 (INR Mn)

5083

142

420

280

1643

7568

Cricket

Football

Marathons

Golf

Tennis

Others

Total

4647

595

450

195

356

1705

7948

Cricket Sponsorship has gone down due to Lesser matches in India - 2013 India played 21 matches in India. 2014 only 8 matches were held in India In 2013, Airtel paid 33.3 mn/match for 9 matches, while the successor Star paid 20 mn/match for balance 12 matches in India In 2014, Mircomax Mobiles paid 20.2 mn/match in India

Increase in Football sponsorship due to Emergence of ISL ISL had 10 sponsors (including Hero) at the Central level with almost 500 Mn sponsorship amount Brands associating with European football clubs are also contributing - Apollo Tyres - Manchester United, Nokia – FC Barcelona, Xolo – Liverpool FC

Despite there being no Formula 1 or Indina Badminton League in 2014, other sports have contributed in the growth of the overall industry Coca Cola – IPTL was a landmark deal Emergence of other leagues – CTL, PKL & WKL also contributed Source – GroupM ESP

10

HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING

Among the other sports, while Marathons showed an incremental year-on-year increase from Rs 420 million to Rs 450 million, the news was not so good in Golf, which fell from Rs 280 million to Rs195 million. This was despite the return of the $ 300,000 Panasonic Open to Indian shores.

Tennis served up two franchise based leagues where the fans were the ultimate winners when the likes of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, along with the world’s top women’s tennis players set foot in the country’s capital for the inaugural season of the International Premier Tennis League, promoted by tennis doubles ace Mahesh Bhupathi. IPTL had Star as its broadcast partner.

The Champions Tennis League, headed by former Indian great Vijay Amritraj, also launched in November with a more domestic flavor (broadcast partner Sony MSM) to make it two tennis leagues for Indian audiences to sample.

However, the economics of both leagues remain a fuzzy area with neither IPTL's four-country franchise owner model (all the owners are Indians or of Indian origin) or the CTL, which was played across six Indian cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Bengaluru and Chandigarh - offering much clues as to the profit horizons.

Coca-Cola taking the IPTL title rights for a reported Rs 200 million was a really big deal, which made no small contribution to the Rs 356 million that was pumped into tennis during 2014.

Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) and World Kabaddi League (WKL) also contributed. With an owner roster that included names like Kishore Biyani of Future Group, Hindi film Actor Abhishek Bachchan, steel major Mukund Group's Rajesh Shah, Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra, and UTV founder Ronnie Screwvala's Unilazer Sports, PKL couldn't have got a better endorsement of its credentials.

And with each of the franchises shelling out anywhere between Rs 40-50 million annually, including a nominal franchise fee, the economic dynamics were far less daunting than the ISL, where Rs 350-400 million is the average annual franchise payout.

The two Kabaddi leagues and Hockey India League all contributed in driving On Ground sponsorship in 2014 to a healthy Rs 7.948 billion, up from Rs 1.643 billion in 2013.

12

HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING

League Vs Sponsor Visibility PEPSI IPL – Social Conversation

Coca Cola IPTL – Social Conversation

Hero HIL – Social Conversation

Coca Cola IPTL

HERO HIL

PEPSI IPL

IPL

ISL

HIL

IPTL

Share of Mentions

Share of Mentions

• Pepsi IPL is perfect example of a Title sponsor. Hashtag with the brand name creates huge momentum • Pepsi receives 41% visible mentions-even after associating with India’s favorite sport

• CocaCola IPTL had more conversations around the celebrities & the players than about the sport • IPTL conversations majorly happened during the India Leg

Star Sports PKL – Social Conversation

Star Sports PKL

PKL

• PKL has more conversation than IPTL & HIL even when Kabaddi was the least talked about sport in India • Star Sports being the broadcaster & the title sponsor; 33% people had associated Star Sports with PKL

Share of Mentions

• Hero Moto Corp gets better association with ISL than HIL • Only 7% conversation were around Hero Moto Corp with HIL

Hero ISL– Social Conversation

• Considering the 1st season, response for ISL was good • Around 200,000 conversations happened around ISL 29% associated Hero Moto Corp with ISL

Hero ISL

Share of Mentions

Source – GroupM Interaction Please Note – Data collected above is only for the dates when the tournamets were held in 2014. For e.g. – IPL data is during 16th April to 1st June

ISL

Share of Mentions

The Growth of Sportainment in India T

he year 2014 was a remarkable year for Indian Sports. It was not a year that just saw feats being achieved on the field, but the seeds of investment for alternate and niche sports were sown, thanks to various stakeholders. We saw the emergence of various leagues in different formats.

Such leagues are promising to provide a spurt to those games that are different from cricket. While these sports will have a definite impact at the grass roots levels as audiences decide to play similar games, it has already achieved another feat- entertaining the masses. Audiences are lapping up the fresh content that has a strong mix of entertainment value attached to these properties. The strongest undercurrent is the fact that as teams compete with a spirit of sportsmanship, the mass audiences are getting entertained.

These properties are a form of a phenomenon called sportainment where the lines between sports and entertainment are getting blurred and consumers with ample free time, a growing income and a deep rooted passion and interest for sports is augmenting well for this dynamic phenomenon. A strong positive response to these games is visible at the packed stadiums as well in television viewership ratings. For example, the ISL is the fourth best league in the world by average attendance as it hit 1 million in stadia fans in its first season.

While earlier sports was backed by federations, private companies and other stakeholders, today a large number of celebrities have entered the landscape due to various opportunities being presented to them.

A large number of Bollywood A –listers are investing their money in franchises of either a single league or multiple leagues. The IPL has many celebrities backing it in terms of ownership like Preity Zinta, Shilpa Shetty and ShahRukh Khan along with Juhi Chawla. John Abraham, Ranbir Kapoor and Abhishek Bachchan have decided to take an equity stake in the ISL franchises.

Abhishek Bachchan is also the owner of the winning Pro Kabaddi League team. During the matches at various stadiums across the country, these celebrities are seen cheering their respective teams as passionately as the fans. These fans and consumers are not just drawn towards the game for recreation but also look forward towards their favorite actors being present at the stadiums. The on screen following of these celebrities is being translated onto the stadium grounds for the sports, as the two themes merge.

It has to be noted that an emerging middle class, the crème da la crème of society as well as those below the poverty line seeking to satiate their hunger from sports and entertainment, has resulted in sportainment gaining a huge traction which is growing at a decent pace. Even at a time when the economy looked sluggish, these two were not paused segments but managed to trickle in decent amount of revenue. People wish to spend their money on recreation of sports which provides them the required leisure. Revenue for these league comes from not just ticket sales, but merchandising (flags and jerseys) and sponsorship deals. Smaller and medium brands who found the IPL route costly can now take to these leagues which have substantial celebrity value.

Gaurav Vazirani, Business Director GroupM ESP - Sports & Live

Bollywood celebrities are also being used as influencers who act as strong magnetic crowd pullers at stadiums. Consumers flock to the stadiums to not just see teams competing for the winning title, but also that one strong visual of famous Bollywood faces. Not surprisingly teams such as Goa F.C have roped youth icon Varun Dhawan as the face of their team. Parineeti Chopra is the face of Den network owned Delhi Dynamos in the ISL. Stars are also seen performing at the various opening and closing ceremonies of sports events’ that bring in the required audiences.

Not just big names but production houses too are betting their money on sports. Ronnie Screwvala owned Unilazer Sports owns the U Mumba team in the Pro Kabaddi League. His company has now also forayed into football now as it launched a football training and academic programme ‘U-Dream’, to help develop Indian football players who are promising enough to place India on the professional football circuit.

While cricket has delivered high on returns, alternate sports are proving to be a strong playground for investment by celebrities. Their mode of income is not just signing plum contracts and endorsement deals, but sports which is a juicy investment pie too. Honey Singh along with Sonakshi Sinha own teams in the World Kabaddi League. The ancient contact sports was thought to be long lost and invisible, but post its transformation on television as a viewer friendly sport, it has gained recognition as well as eyeballs. Sanjay Dutt and Raj Kundra started the super Fight League in 2012. These avenues are also opening up for niche sports like polo which has a tiny yet potent following in the country.Randeep Hooda owns a team called Royal Roosters in polo and plans to make it a success winning team this year. It has to be noted that non-cricket sports is set to expand the sports business ecosystem clearly.

But in order for these sports to grow into massive and successful properties further on a strong investment backing is required at the grass root levels. Mithun for example, has founded a football academy in the mecca of Indian football- West Bengal. For people to follow a sport, audiences need to be cultivated and this only happens when strong emphasis is laid down at the grassroots level.

Amitabh Bachchan is sponsoring facilities for two women shooters to prepare for next Olympics.

Games such as shooting need serious investment. Action hero Akshay Kumar is known to host the national Judo and Karate tournament since long.

In conclusion, the strong segmenting of sports and entertainment has come very close and is getting merged. Sports icons are being written about in Bollywood pages and vice versa.

Celebrities today who have the power to influence their fans are being roped in effectively for the progress of sports so that positive messages are carried forward. The entertainment value adds the necessary pull for these sports as audiences are being offered a wide platter of sportainment that is being relished by one and all. Sports today therefore is not just winning a cup or title, but ensuring audiences are entertained just the way film does- as long as it’s not scripted!

MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THE TOURNAMENT PERFORMANCE

TEAMS Delhi

Hockey India League

Mumbai

Bhubaneshwar

65% Male

BEST PERFORMING TEAM ON TV

15-24yrs All SECs

Ranchi

Punjab

Telecast Partners:

Lucknow

TEAMS MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THE TOURNAMENT PERFORMANCE BEST PERFORMING TEAMS ON TV

Mumbai

Chennai

65% Male

Hyderabad

10-44 yrs Across SECS

Kolkata Punjab Bangalore

Telecast Partners:

Jaipur

Delhi

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE

TEAMS

MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THE TOURNAMENT PERFORMANCE

BEST PERFORMING TEAMS ON TV

Delhi Dubai

INTERNATIONAL PREMIER TENNIS LEAGUE

62% Male

15-24yrs SEC BCDE

Singapore

Manila

Telecast Partners:

TEAMS BEST PERFORMING TEAM ON TV

MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THE TOURNAMENT PERFORMANCE

64% Male

Chennai

Delhi

Goa

10-24 yrs Across SECS

Guwahati

Kochi Kolkata

Telecast Partners:

Mumbai

Pune

INDIAN SUPER LEAGUE Source: Maxus ESP

TEAMS Mumbai

PRO KABADDI League MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS TO THE TOURNAMENT PERFORMANCE

62% Male

Source – Maxus ESP

4-24yrs SEC BCDE

Jaipur

Delhi Pune Kolkata Bangalore Patna Vizag

BEST PERFORMING TEAMS ON TV

Telecast Partners:

18

FIFA WORLD CUP, NEW LEAGUES ADDS UP THE ON AIR REVENUE

FIFA WORLD CUP, NEW LEAGUES ADD UP THE ON AIR REVENUE A

Football World Cup year is always a safe bet in terms of significantly spiking television ad revenues and so it proved in 2014 as well. That FIFA host broadcaster, Sony Multi Screen Media, was able to rustle decent ad revenue despite the challenges thrown up due to the unfavorable match times that any event hosted in the Americas (in this case Brazil) brings with it, says a lot.

And it took a FIFA World Cup to somewhat redeem the year for the Sony network as far as its cash cow property IPL was concerned. Weak business sentiment, coupled with the spot fixing and betting controversies were what got large media play as to the reasons for the downturn in MSM's advertising revenues from Indian sport's biggest annual television event. But it was the number of matches going down from 74 to 60 (following the termination of the Sahara Pune Warriors franchise in 2013) that had the biggest role play in ad revenues dropping. If in 2013 host broadcaster Set MAX was able to achieve an all time high as IPL ad revenues, 2014, which was also the year MSM launched its long in the pipeline dedicated sports channel SIX, saw it falling by over 20%.

Still, the overall big television picture was positive with ad revenues rising 12% from Rs22.5 billion to Rs 25.18 billion.

So what were the drivers that not only covered for the IPL deficit, but delivered a healthy growth in revenues? There were three of them. Firstly, a packed cricket calendar ensured Team India was playing some international fixture or other almost through the year; then there was the aforementioned FIFA World Cup; and lastly there was the Big Bang launch of the Indian Super League.

The Star Network, as a 35% stakeholder in the ISL, put all its considerable network muscle behind the fledgling league to ensure that it got the best possible platform possible to deliver. A seven-channel telecast (Star Sports 2, Star Sports 3, Star Gold, Star Utsav, Asianet Movies, Jalsha Movies, Suvarna Plus) ultimately delivered an all-India reach of 140 million and average TVRs of 0.4 with Assam (3.8 TVRs), Kolkata (2.8 TVRs), and Kerala (1.4 TVRs) being the best performing markets.

There were also the incremental accruals from PKL, IPTL, CTL and WKL, as well as season 2 of HIL that contributed to the overall pie, which ultimately all added up to a healthy upside in television ad revenues.

On a concluding note, the tender for the first of the two biggest television properties in this market coming up for bidding over the next three years was conducted, and it was STAR that came out the winner. The sale of media rights for ICC events for the 2016-2023 cycle saw the 21st Century Fox subsidiary retaining the rights with a final winning bid of $1.81 billion. A significant jump it was from the $1.1 billion that it forked up for the last cycle, more so considering that the Indian rupee has been devalue1`d by a good 50 per cent in the interim.

STAR's bid to cash out on the rights it has paid so much to retain will kick off with the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 that India is playing host to.

TV Spends S.No.

Component

2013 (INR Mn)

2014 (INR Mn)

1

Media Spends

22500

25180

Source – GroupM CTG

20

Sports Broadcasting

Sports Broadcasting 4

Sports viewing is more‘Lean Forward’ than ‘Lean Back’: The passion & the interest which evokes on sports can be “heard” on social media. Ball by Ball commentary, opinions & even Backlash is growing on Social media.

5

Sports & Mobile: With the mobile penetration in excess of 900 million coupled with multi-screen viewing there is a huge opportunity for advertisers to cash in. Heineken ran a contest on mobile which can only be answered by watching the live UEFA match on TV. No other sport lends itself to interactivity more than cricket

6

Split beam: India being a diverse regional market with large linguistic preference networks are offering feeds in regional languages. This will grow further with split beams leading to ad-versioning & even regional advertisers getting a slice of the pie

7

Rural: Radio is the only means for the rural audiences but with growing mobile penetration & DTH this could add on to the experience especially for updates & other opportunities

8

Sports programming: In US ESPN Sportscentre is one of the most viewed programmes and it does not relay live telecast. Whilst in India non live programming is only 1/7th of Live telecast it is growing

9

Extra coverage for the passionate viewer: Cameras on umpires helmets to players helmets. View from the slip cordon to chatting with players during live match. We shall see more & more of this

10

Revival of Print: Print in its traditional sense has seen challenges on sports coverage. Sportstar is nearly dead and many more such sports magazines. Blogging is reviving it. Can digital print revive the coverage.

Jai Lala Managing Partner, Trading and Partnerships, Central Trading Group, GroupM

2014 has undoubtedly been a great year for Sports in India, and in turn it has also opened up new avenues for the broadcasting and advertising community.

With India making a foray into League sports, and games other than cricket making a mark, one can look forward to exciting times in 2015 for the Sports Broadcasting Industry.

Here are 10 Trends to look forward to in Sports Broadcasting 1

From a single sports country to a multi-sport country: We are witnessing sports boom in India. Hockey, Badminton, Kabbadi, Tennis are seeing reach like never before. Albeit it is still smaller compared to cricket it is growing and we are seeing growing interest from advertisers & viewers alike.

2

TV+ Digital the lines are blurring: World cup had more than 25 million views on Digital.

IPL is slated to surpass that in the 2015 season. Is it just catch up TV or is it individual viewing only time will tell but currently the lines are blurring. World Cup on Starsports.com was sponsored by the biggest names in cricket advertising Hero, Vodafone, Pepsi all sponsors of the previous edition of World Cup 2011 but in 2015 have moved from TV to Digital

3

Pay per view can it be a reality: The acquisition cost of sports growing and advertising yield at a matured level subscription seems to be the only resolve. With increased digital penetration as well as viewing pay per view is not far

22

TEAM INDIA NO LONGER ONLY ABOUT CRICKET PARIVAAR

TEAM INDIA NO LONGER ONLY ABOUT CRICKET PARIVAAR T

he numbers tell a tale. While overall team sponsorship rose a healthy 14% from Rs 4.327 billion to Rs 4.936 billion, the increase came on the back of a 10.6% fall in Cricket team sponsorship from Rs 3.892 billion in 2013 to Rs 3.478 billion in 2014.

Take another even more telling statistic: While Non-Cricket Sports combined made up just 10% of the team sponsorship pie in 2013, the following year the needle has swung significantly northwards to just under 30%.

Is this a happy anomaly and will it be back to the future where Cricket regains its positioning as the be all and end all of Indian sport sooner rather later? Dominant position; yes! And it will remain so. But be all and end all; that's history!

Breaking it down, it is an interesting commentary that India actually played more matches in 2014 (calculating total number of games contested in the country and away by Captain MS Dhoni and his boys). The reason for this being that there was a major price correction witnessed for Team India lead sponsorship rights. In 2013, while Sahara was paying Rs 33.3 million per match for the rights, when STAR was awarded the same rights for the period 1st January 2014 to 31st March 2017, it won it by agreeing to pay a more realistic Rs. 20 million per match. Additionally, the sponsorship monies that IPL franchises were able to extract in 2014 went down not just due to all the negative news the T20 league was generating, but also because advertiser monies got diverted in a general election year; which also resulted in 20 of 60 games in IPL 7 that clashed with election days having to be played in the UAE. Moving away from cricket, two data points dominate the team sponsorship conversation—Football and 'Others' (Sports other than Cricket, Football, and Hockey). While Football registered a 227% increase YoY from Rs. 265 million to Rs. 603 million powered principally by the ISL, it was the emergence of other leagues—notably IPTL, CTL, PKL, and WKL—that saw a spectacular 1,064% jump from Rs. 70 million to Rs. 745 million in the 'Others' column. And taking into account that in 2013 there was the inaugural edition of the Indian Badminton League as a factor in team sponsorship, it would be fair to say that virtually all of the Rs. 745 million recorded was generated by the four aforementioned leagues.

Returning to ISL, the franchises that scored good sponsorship deals were notably Atletico de Kolkata with Aircel and Apollo Munich; NorthEast United FC with HTC and Haier; and Delhi Dynamos with Freecharge.

As for Hockey, the fact that the HIL managed a 10% increase from Rs. 100 million to Rs. 110 million, at least meant that it managed a holding operation. All things considered, a creditable achievement seeing as the league is yet to deliver either stadium fans or television audiences.

Team Sponsorship S.No.

Component

2013 (INR Mn)

2014 (INR Mn)

1

Cricket

3892

3478

2

Football

265

603

3

Hockey

420

110

4

Others

70

745

4327

4936

Total

Cricket Sponsorship has gone down due to While Indian cricket team played more matches in 2014 than 2013, the sponsorship price was reduced to 20mn/match from 33.3 mn/match IPL 2014 team sponsorship money saw a dip in 2014 because of tournament partly shifting to UAE

Increase in Football sponsorship due to ISL teams sponsorship contributed majorly for this.

Emergence of other leagues (IPTL, PKL, CTL, WKL) have also contributed in the overall team sponsorships

Franchise Fees S.No.

Component

2013 (INR Mn)

2014 (INR Mn)

1

Cricket

4983

4983

2

Football

0

1160

3

Hockey

300

300

4

Tennis

0

132

3

Badminton

225

0

4

Kabbadi

0

180

5508

6755

Total Source – GroupM ESP

Cricket & Hockey were flat as IPL & HIL had same number of franchises Football (ISL), Tennis (IPTL, CTL), Kabbadi (PKL & WKL) showed growth due new leagues.

IBL didn’t happen in 2014

24

TEAM INDIA NO LONGER ONLY ABOUT CRICKET PARIVAAR

IPL Franchises on Digital Media 70 Lac

The popularity of IPL led the Social and Search data trends independent to each other

60 Lac 50 Lac 40 Lac

Royal Challengers Bangalore had the maximum buzz on twitter; while Mumbai Indians was the most searched franchise during IPL

30 Lac 20 Lac 10 Lac

Social Buzz

0 Royal Challengers Kolkata Knight Bangalore Riders

Mumbai Indians

Chennai Super Kings

Rajasthan Royals

Kings XI Punjab

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Search

Delhi Daredevils

ISL Franchises on Digital Media 30 Lac

In spite of the 1st season of ISL, franchises buzz on twitter were 65-70% of IPL franchises

25 Lac 20 Lac 15 Lac

Chennaiyn FC had the maximum buzz on twitter; while Atletico De Kolkata was the most searched franchise during ISL

10 Lac 0.5 Lac

Social Buzz

0 Chennaiyn FC

Atletico De Kolkata

FC Goa

North East United

FC Pune City

Source – GroupM Interaction Please Note – Above data is for a time duration of only for the respective tournament

Mumbai City FC

Delhi Dynamos

Kerela Blasters FC

Search

HIL Franchises on Digital Media 6K

The Social and Search data for Hockey India League franchises were almost parallel to each other

5K 4K

Social Buzz & Search Numbers of HIL franchises are the lowest as comparison to other leagues franchises

3K 2K 1K

Social Buzz

0 Delhi Waveriders

Kalinga Lancers

Uttar Pradesh Wizards

Jaypee Punjab Warriors

Ranchi Rays

Search

Dabang Mumbai

PKL Franchises on Digital Media 20 K 18 K

Despite being the rural sport, Pro Kabbadi League franchises created enough buzz on digital media

16 K 14 K 12 K

Jaipur Pink Panthers had the maximum buzz on twitter; while U Mumba was the most searched franchise during PKL

10 K 8K 6K 4K 2K

Social Buzz

0 Jaipur Pink Panthers

U Mumba

Bengaluru Bulls

Patna Pirates

Telugu Titans

Bengal Warriors

Dabang Delhi

Search

Puneri Paltan

Source – GroupM Interaction

26

TEAM INDIA NO LONGER ONLY ABOUT CRICKET PARIVAAR

IPTL Franchises on Digital Media 10 K

8K

6K

4K

2K

0 Micromax Indian Aces

Musafir.Com UAE Royals

Social Buzz

Manila Mavericks

DBS Singapore Slammers

Search

Indian Aces and UAE Royals are the most talked about franchise in IPTL Social Buzz around IPTL franchises happened majorly during the India leg Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic were the top contributors to the buzz

Source – GroupM Interaction

KOHLI LEADS THE CHARGE OF THE BRASH BRIGADE T

he year of the generational shift in Cricket was also the one where the mother of all sports endorsement deals, involving the world's first billionaire sportsperson, was signed in this market. The brand drawback post the retirement of India's biggest sporting icon Sachin Tendulkar in end-2013, the dimming in the lustre around Captain Cool MS Dhoni and the rise of the next big thing Virat Kohli, were however the key markers in a year where Player Endorsement monies saw a 14% fall from Rs 3.822 billion to Rs 3.278 billion.

The heady days when Dhoni and Tendulkar, between them promoted more than 40 brands at one time, were bound to have a pull back and 2014 was when the after effects were strongly felt. It bears noting though, that Dhoni remains the king of the Indian sports endorsement game by a long mile and that Tendulkar still retains a lead on Kohli, but only just.

This was also the year when there was not just a price correction but also big fall in the number of endorsements for the next rung of Cricket's big brand endorsers Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, and Harbhajan Singh, all of whom, not so coincidentally, have had no part to play in India's World Cup 2015 campaign.

Speaking of the World Cup, the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina got some serious endorsement interest in 2014, which is only going to go northwards.

For Kohli, meanwhile, 2014 was the year he cemented his place as the biggest brand endorser pricewise in Indian sport. Kohli set the endorsements world abuzz when he inked a Rs100 million per annum deal with German sports goods giant Adidas. The three-year contract, the most lucrative single endorsement to be signed by an Indian sports star, saw the brash right-hand batsman endorsing the brand's apparel and shoes. The Delhi lad also struck a Rs 65 million a year deal with MRF, who previously had Tendulkar and Steve Waugh as their brand ambassadors, for sponsoring his bat. The two deals made the Indian vice-captain top both Dhoni and Tendulkar in terms of annual earnings per endorsement.

28

KOHLI LEADS THE CHARGE OF THE BRASH BRIGADE

Move off Cricket, and the top earners are all women of substance. Boxer Mary Kom, Tennis ace Sania Mirza and Badminton queen Saina Nehwal (in that order) are the Big Three of Indian non-Cricket Sports brand endorsements.

While Mary Kom pipped Mirza to the post on the money stakes, 2014 belonged to the Indian tennis star on the sporting achievements front, what with the 28-year-old grabbing her third mixed doubles Grand Slam title and wrapping up her season with the year-end finale trophy.

Mirza won the US Open with first-time partner Bruno Soares and now has three mixed doubles Grand Slam trophies in her cabinet, which already consists of Australian Open and French Open. With her consistent performance throughout the year, Sania made seven WTA finals and won three titles with Zimbabwean partner Cara Black, achieving a career-best world rank of number five.

In between, she also represented the country at the Incheon Asian Games, coming away with a Gold in the mixed doubles with Saketh Myneni, and a Bronze in women's doubles with Prarthana Thombare in India's five-medal tennis tally.

But what dwarfed everything else in 2014 was the announcement made by Hero MotoCorp, the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer and one of the largest corporate promoters of sports in India, that it had inked a four-year global endorsement deal with golfing superstar Tiger Woods at a never before heard in India Rs 500 million per annum.

"Tiger is not just a golfing champion and an icon for millions around the world, he is a phenomenon. His appeal and charisma spans across continents cutting through barriers of geography, age, language and nationalities," Hero Motocorp vice-chairman Pawan Munjal said while making the announcement, fittingly, in Orlando, US, home of India-Swede golfer Daniel Chopra, adding that the company may also sign up other top sports stars, including footballers, going forward.

Hero was at one time BIG on cricket but that all changed when Munjal an avid golf enthusiast, pulled the plug for reasons well known but not relevant here.

Cricket's loss has been the gain of three sports in particular - Hockey, Football and Golf. Today Hero is the title sponsor of HIL in hockey, ISL, I-League and Federation Cup in football and the title rights holder to the country's richest and most prestigious golf tournament - The Indian Open.

As far as the ISL is concerned, the Rs180 million committed annually for the league's title rights is the biggest in India sport after Pepsi's Rs 800 million a year lead sponsorship of the IPL.

Endorsement S.No.

Component

2013 (INR Mn)

2014 (INR Mn)

1

Cricket

3605

2557

2

Others

217

721

3822

3278

Total

Tiger Woods endorsing Hero Moto Corp is first-of-its-kind in non-cricketing sports industry– Rs 500 mn/year

Source – GroupM ESP

30

KOHLI LEADS THE CHARGE OF THE BRASH BRIGADE

Overall endorsement have gone down due to Sachin Tendulkar & M. S. Dhoni number of brand endorsements have gone down Reduction of endorsements for Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag in 2014

Some athletes whose endorsements have gone up Virat Kohli’s endorsement fee and number of brands have gone up R Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan & Cheteshwar Pujara have started getting endorsement Sania Mirza and Mary Kom’s brand and endorsement fee have also increased

Top 10 Athletes on Digital in 2014 50 Lac 45 Lac 40 Lac 35 Lac 30 Lac 25 Lac 20 Lac 15 Lac 10 Lac 5 Lac 0 Virat Kohli

MS Dhoni

Sachin Tendulkar

Yuvraj Singh

Rohit Sharma

Social Buzz

Saina Nehwal

Mary Kom

Sania Mirza

Leander Paes

Baichung Bhutia

Search

Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar are the most talked about athletes & searched on digital in 2014 Saina Nehwal, Mary Kom & Sania Mirza keeping the flame alive for non cricket sports

Source – GroupM Interaction

SPORTS & SOCIAL MEDIA – HOW INDIA HIT IT OUT OF THE PARK IN 2014 AND IS PADDING UP FOR A BIGGER INNINGS IN 2015

Karthik Nagarajan National Director - Social Media & Insights, GroupM

Five trends that defined a glorious year for sports on Indian Social Media: 1 Booming second screen content: From being the most engaged country on the FIFA

page to clocking over 6 Million tweets in the first 12 hours of the Pro-Kabaddi League telecast, the Indian sports fan has truly arrived on the social scene.

We are now well beyond critical mass for this to be taken seriously.

2 Loyalty for Franchise sports teams on social platforms: While CSK’s ‘Whistle Podu’

campaign set the tone for franchise social campaigns in India a few years back, multiple other teams have succeeded in creating their own movements and loyalties on this medium. In 2014, a great amount of investment from teams has driven exclusive digital content and campaigns across events like IPL and ISL. 3 Social Insights and broadcasters: Leading sports broadcasters

have really pushed the envelope in 2014 in setting up infrastructure for their teams to monitor social media for insights and also leverage learning to improve programming, promotions and digital content.

There is great intent and commitment to use this platform as a source of insights to better content and drive tune-ins.

32

SPORTS & SOCIAL MEDIA

4

Sporting individuals becoming brands and influencers themselves: Be it commentators or players or just bloggers of sport, 2014 was a watershed year in terms of them garnering great following for their own handles on social media. This has also catapulted them into the realm of becoming influencers in this space – not just for events, but also for brands.

5

Twitter – The new match-time best friend: Twitter has always been the medium for a huge volume of match time conversation. The sporting ecosystem is now using this timed and focused thrust of conversation and converting it into deeper engagement for the brands. Commentators tweeting in-match, players tweeting from the dressing room, broadcasters processing snacking content like interesting data points are all examples. Curiously, for the FIFA World Cup 2014, Twitter itself created content used data interestingly and spoke real time

What is in store for 2015?

1 Changing form factor of game content: Be it ‘Tweetplay’ that succeeded during IPL or shorter, incident-based

highlights, live match content is being repurposed in multiple ways to facilitate social consumption. This trend will grow even bigger in 2015.

2 Smart Stadiums: In stadium experience will be more social, more enhanced. Given that 70% of fans bring a

mobile device to the stadium or arena and expect to use it during a game - check-ins, drones, Wi Fi enabled stadiums, unique camera angles for digital only viewing are the next things

3 Command Centers & Responsive Content:

With live events, celebrities and exclusive content, sports organizers are coming close to being news stations. Command centers at NASCAR, IPL, FIFA now generate and curate content that receive more traction than the event itself. With insights and ability to cull real time insights, this content and its reactions will only become more responsive.

4 Deeper Content Engagement: – Beyond The Game:

Fans want to be connected to sports teams and content anytime, anywhere in a continued migration through devices. Video is a key point to websites, instigate sales, establish of access.

Content will drives traffica relevant audience and build a larger fan base.

34

CRICKET WILL BE BACK FRONT AND CENTRE; PKL THE ONE TO WATCH

CRICKET WILL BE BACK FRONT AND CENTRE; PRO KABADDI LEAGUE THE ONE TO WATCH I

f 2014 was the year of new leagues, of unprecedented amounts of investment being pumped into sports other than Big Daddy Cricket, of a price correction and Supreme Court-directed course correction for India's most loved sport, expect 2015 to be the year when the 'empire strikes back'.

Call it happenstance if you must, but two weeks into the ICC World Cup, and with Team India playing out of their skins, saw the return of veteran Bengal cricket administrator Jagmohan Dalmiya as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India after a decade. But even more significant was the BJP's Anurag Thakur edging out N Srinivasan loyalist Sanjay Patel to become Cricket Board secretary. Thakur has bigger aspirations—to be the next board president, no less.

And with his party ruling at the Centre, he could well swing it in future. Ergo, Srinivasan may never return to the helm of Indian cricket.

What impact the changed power equations will have on the running of the world's most powerful Cricket Board can only be speculated at, but love him or hate him, Srinivasan's will be a hard act to follow in terms of pure administrative competence.

Action on the cricket field is however, what ultimately gets the advertising money rolling; scandals or no scandals with Boys in Blue performing exceptionally well in ICC World Cup the news is all good on this front. While IPL is getting great traction amongst advertisers, Sony MSM would be expecting the kind of numbers it delivered in previous editions of the cricketainment extravaganza.

The news is similar as far as the IPL franchises go as well, with upsides of 15-30% expected from the 2014 numbers. Kings XI Punjab for instance has already declared it is expecting to a 30% increase in sponsorship revenues over last year.

Coming to the new leagues that launched in 2014, the one that is expected to

seriously up the ante on the revenues front is the Pro Kabaddi League. What the PKL proved was that Kabaddi is not just a Tier II –Tier III sport, as ratings were higher in the Metros. Having reached 128 million viewers with an all India average 0.9 TVRs (TG CS 4+) in its inaugural season, the word on the street is that Rs180 million is what the title sponsorship pitch is for its second season, which would put it on par with the ISL, which has set the benchmark for Non-Cricket Sport in India.

Also, expect at least two more IPL-styled leagues to launch with announcements of 8-franchise leagues for table tennis and cue sports launching any time between June and August 2015.

Details around both leagues were still sketchy at the time of going to print but one at least has a name. "Cue Slam – Indian Cue Masters League", involving eight city-based franchise teams and comprising Indian and international players is promoted by SportzLive, which has the former CEO of Zee Group-owned TEN Sports, Atul Pande, as its chairman. The league has the backing of both the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI) and the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA).

Then there is an Indian Series of Boxing (ISB) launched by Boxing India (BI) and templated on the World Series of Boxing. ISB will also act as a qualifier for WSB and this qualification will give the boxers an opportunity to directly qualify for the World Championships and the 2016 Rio Olympics.

What is also awaited is news on two fronts. Will there, won't there be a second edition of the Indian Badminton League, is the question after the IBL failed to "turn up" for its second season in 2014. Basketball is the other Sport of which there has been no word other than on the development side. IMG-Reliance is into Year 5 of a 30-year lien it has on all commercial rights to Basketball in India. That IMG-R has plans to launch a franchise based league on the lines of ISL is known. What is not is the when part of it.

On to Motorsports, the kite flying around the "not happening any time soon" Indian Grand Prix will continue on and off through the year no doubt, but what is a more tangible expectation is of Gulf Oil Lubricants, a major player in world motorsport, targeting December to bring a leg of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) series to Indian shores.

All in all, there remains much to look forward to in 2015. And Sport as a participation activity and not just as spectator engagement continues to widen and deepen. That is the reality that underpins every new wannabe league that is looking to make a play in this market that holds manifold challenges and immense opportunities.

Play On!

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