Exclusive | ESPNFC, a new commitment to soccer: Ramesh Kumar

Global sports channel, ESPN has launched new football brand, ESPNFC, on multiple platforms- television, online and mobile. The new platform is a multi-platform, multi-language and multi-country global football brand, ESPNFC. ESPNFC aims to serve fans by being the leading destination for definitive football coverage worldwide and year-round whenever and wherever fans want it. In India, ESPNFC adds to the company’s leading digital sports portfolio, which also includes ESPNcricinfo, ESPN.com and numerous other sites and mobile products. 

 

Speaking to Adgully, Ramesh Kumar, Senior Commercial & Sales Director for International Digital Media, ESPN said, “ESPNFC is actually the beginning of a new worldwide commitment to coverage of football/soccer by ESPN. So the launch is not just for India, but for the global audience of football fans.  In India, specifically, ESPNFC has a great opportunity to capitalise on ESPN’s already leading position within digital media – led by ESPNcricinfo.com – as the market continues to grow.  Digital media – especially mobile – is an enormous opportunity to connect with all kinds of spots fans in India, across many kinds of devices.” 

 

Although cricket is obviously the leading sport in India, football as a sport is also growing in India. ESPNFC aims to capture and ignite more interest and passion in fans for the game. At the same time there is a growing interest from marketers in reaching the growing football fans  in India.

 

Says Ramesh Kumar, “cricket will remain “king” in the Indian sporting landscape, but India is a big country with a huge population that has a broad diversity of interests.  There are more and more media consumers every day in India, and they are consuming across mobile and digital platforms in huge numbers. So, whenever an Indian sports fan decides they want football coverage -  be that the news, scores, live digital experience, commentary, multimedia – we want ESPNFC to be the place they can turn for that.  Our role is to serve sports fans, and as more and more people in India want to follow football, we want to be there to serve that need for them as we already do for cricket”

 

As a global initiative, ESPN will be putting a significant amount of marketing support behind ESPNFC, across our own media around the world, as well as external and search marketing and advertising.  On the ad sales side, one of the great strengths of ESPNFC is that it is very well placed to be able to deliver multiple different kinds of opportunities for different kinds of clients. Adds Ramesh Kumar, “we can help brands connect to football fans globally across online, mobile and television if that is what they want to achieve.  Likewise, if a brand has a collection of specific markets they want to reach – for example, let’s say they want to reach football fans in India, the UK, Argentina, Brazil and the US on mobile and online – we are in a unique position to do that because of ESPNFC and our sales teams around the world”.  Locally in India, ESPNFC is looking to work closely with brands to develop creative and individual solutions for them to reach Indian fans.

 

On being asked how will ESPNFC aim to serve football fans, Ramesh Kumar said, “the goal is to be the single best digital destination for coverage of the global game, and local passions for it.  That will be across computers, tablets, mobile web and apps. Whether that is the top leagues in Europe, or local and regional leagues in other markets around the world – our aim is to be there.  Already, we’ve expanded the number of reporters and correspondents that we feature from all over the world”. 

 

ESPNFC has also launched the ESPFC blog network, with dedicated bloggers covering the top teams and leagues from all over the world. It means comprehensive multimedia coverage from ESPNFC includes on-demand video highlights, studio programming clips, news, analysis and commentary, digital audio and podcasts, real-time scores, stats and more.  With particular emphasis on the live game experience, a Live MatchHQ service features data-driven content, including real-time scores and stats, highlights, message boards and more, all in a single unified interface. On mobile, ESPNFC is on the mobile web, and a new ESPNFC app launched - giving fans access to its content wherever they are, available on Apple, Windows Phone and Android handsets. Key features of the site and the mobile app include personalisation, allowing football fans to personalise the app by their favourite leagues, teams and tournaments, and, exclusive video and audio from ESPN’s various studio-based discussion and analysis shows.

 

As for future plans in terms of global as well as India, Ramesh Kumar says, “Over time, we will expand to include content in other languages, and we will continue to add coverage locally in markets around the world as needed, to ensure coverage of both the global football scene, and the local passions of football fans in markets all over the world.”