Exclusive | Taking IPL to southern markets, MSM's Krishnan

Sony Kix, which is set to broadcast the best in sports and entertainment in India, is MSM’s second foray in sports after a successful stint with Sony Six. As it was shared during a media announcement that the channel intends to cater to Tamil and Telugu audience for MSM’s premium property, IPL (Indian Premiere League). 

But interestingly enough, the channel has a strong line up post IPL too which includes the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Australian Open Tennis Championship, National Football League (NFL), Rugby World Cup 2015, premier fight sports properties such as Glory World Series and CSI Boxing alongside some marquee events in football and rugby.

The news of new sports channel launch has been making the rounds from last couple of days however the team could not be reached yesterday. We at Adgully caught up with Prasanna Krishnan, Business Head, Sony Kix to understand the rationale behind launching a new channel and plans in the way forward.

On asking about the rationale behind launching a new sports channel all together for a specific regional feed, Krishnan said, “We started a trend during FIFA broadcasting in Bengali. The only reason to do it then and now again, is to take IPL to southern heartland and that simply means that regional markets play an important role in our strategy and offer a huge opportunity. Undoubtedly last few months have seen this trend establishing with every sports property. So we thought of exploring the idea deeply and innovatively.”

Though Sony Kix will be an all sports channel but one of Sony Kix’s flagship offerings would be the Pepsi IPL, which begins from April 8 this year and will be telecast on the channel in English, Tamil & Telugu. The telecast will be in conjunction with that of SIX and MAX, which will show the tournament in English and Hindi, respectively. He also stated that though, the name Kix , is suggestive of  content which will be more skewed towards Football and Fight Sports, but it will be an all sports channel.

“We have already acquired and have a very strong bouquet of rights including some of the major sports hitherto unseen on Indian television,” he added.

Interestingly, Sony Kix is the first one to start a Telugu feed so when asked the thought behind taking this step, he said, “We believe in taking first steps in the best possible way.  We thought of exploring regional market in a different way. But more importantly it is one of the huge markets with passionate following for Cricket and it has a cricket team too so it was really important to try and connect with this market”.

Krishnan also mentioned that there are a lot of other acquired sports properties but due to the insufficiency of time slots, broadcasting all possible sports was becoming a challenge. Stating further, he said, “There was a need and demand for a new channel. If one looks at the way we have expanded our footprints and the way have been beefing up the content that only reflects to the fact that we have sufficient line-up to sustain and successfully run two channels. Earlier we were struggling for audiences to sample one channel but with this new channel we will be able to provide a vast content library to or viewers.”

He believes that as the channel will be launched with IPL, that itself becomes a big platform for  Sony Kix to carve its place among its audiences but post IPL there will a strong marketing push for the channel. Also the channel is starting with Standard definition but moving on if there will be a need, they would look at launching HD (High Definition) feed too.

“Sony Kix will not only be an extension of our sports portfolio but it also serves as an opportunity for us to expand the sports viewership in the country. We will continue to build on and expand our range of offerings. ” Krishnan said while concluding.

The MSM sports portfolio includes some of the biggest sporting events including The Pepsi IPL, 2014 FIFA World Cup, 2018 FIFA World Cup, UEFA EURO 2016, Qualifiers for UEFA EURO 2016, European Qualifiers for 2018 FIFA World Cup, The Australian Open Tennis Championship, Champions Tennis League, The NBA, TNA IMPACT WRESTLING, The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Copa Libertadores, Copa do Brasil, V8 Supercars and Race of Champions. | By Aanchal kohli | Twitter: @aanchalkohli

 

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