Exclusive | WKL cannot be compared with other leagues: MSM's Krishnan

While India’s much appreciated performance at the Common Wealth Games 2014 shifted sports lovers focus to games other than cricket, broadcasters have now upped their games by taking rooted games like Kabaddi to Indian homes. While a few weeks back, Star India launched Pro Kabaddi League with high glamour quotient, Multi Screen Media’s sports arm Sony Six has joined the bandwagon with World Kabaddi League 2014. Greymatter Entertainment’s Wave World Kabaddi League (WKL) kicked off over the weekend on 9th August 2014 at the O2 arena in London.

Adgully caught up with Prasana Krishnan, Sr. EVP & Business Head at Sony Six to know what distinguishes WKL from it rival league, the marketing plans to promote this property and more.

Krishnan states that the World Kabaddi League, unlike its competition league, is said to use circle kabaddi which is more popular in the Northern belt of the country, especially Punjab and UP. “This style of kabaddi is more physical, contact driven and fast paced and since the northern states are more familiar with the format of the game, we are looking forward to more viewers coming from the semi-urban and even rural parts of north India. On the other side Pro Kabaddi League has just one similarity with WKL – the word Kabaddi; the formats of both the leagues are different”, he added. He maintained that the look and feel of the game is almost in sync with what is currently played in states like Punjab, UP and Haryana.  

While Pro Kabaddi League, he states receives major viewership from the western states of the country, he affirms that national and regional star power like Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha and Yo Yo Honey Singh having their own teams will provide the needed glamour and push to the league in the northern markets.

WKL will follow the travelling format (similar to Formula 1) and will be played at 15 international venues with 86 matches over a period of 19 weekends / four months. Krishnan informs that since the games travels to different cities and countries, the telecast of the games will be done considering prime-times of the respective countries, while its repeats will be done on Indian prime time. It is slated to travel across six countries beginning in the UK, the US, India, Pakistan, Canada and UAE and has eight franchisee teams battling for the winning crown. The league matches will be held in London, Birmingham, Dubai, New York, Sacramento, Stockton, Toronto, Vancouver, Delhi, Bathinda, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Mohali.

Industry sources and experts, however, have citied the long period of the league as a concern as it may bring in fatigue problem with the viewers. Krishnan however disagrees and states that while if the world can schedule and look forward to international football games every weekend (a format followed for many years), viewers will get more from WKL, thanks to its travelling format!  

While currently, the league has only Wave has the title sponsor; the broadcaster is playing the wait and watch game to receive reactions from the national and international markets and advertisers. “While it’s a little early to bring in one and all aboard as sponsors, we are looking at monetising WKL after its first two rounds are held internationally and it comes to India. We believe that once the game and property establishes itself in the minds of viewers and advertisers, conventional sales and monetisation will follow subsequently”.

Sources state that the channel may have bagged the broadcast rights for Rs 30 crore to Rs 50 crore, while the title sponsors would be placed between Rs. 1 crore to Rs. 3 crore. Krishnan however, refrained from stating any ad-rate that the channel is looking at. While in the current agreement, the broadcaster has inked one year deal with WKL, Krishnan is confident of the response it will receive from the audiences, following which, he said, an extension of the deal shall be looked in to.

Speaking of the possibility of other language feeds of WKL in the coming months, Krishnan said, “Currently, we are only looking at Hindi, since our expectation are from largely Hindi-speaking markets like Punjab, Haryana, UP etc. But the pre and post match analysis, which will be done, straight from the venue, will be done Hindi, using English when needed”.

Krishnan mentioned that WKL will be promoted across the MSM network, especially the English channels – AXN and Sony Pix. “Alongside our own network, our marketing campaign is devised according to our target market – the northern belt of India. Thus, we shall be having print ads in both vernacular and English newspapers and radio spots have been bought on Radio Mirchi, Big FM and My FM. Also, Mumbai and Delhi remain top priorities as far as outdoor is considered, and this will scale up as the league enters the India phase. The power of YouTube and social media is also in the marketing package”.

Punjab’s Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, is the owner and president of this privately held company – WKL. The company has Pargat Singh as commissioner and Raman Raheja serving as the CEO.