Football fever leading Sony Six and Sony Aath to success !

As the world’s largest sporting event, FIFA World Cup 2014 heads to its culmination, everyone right from sports lovers / fans to advertisers and broadcasters, and no one seems to be complaining! Multi Screen Media (MSM) currently telecast FIFA World Cup 2014 on its sports arm Sony Six and Sony Six HD (in English). But according to experts that move from the broadcaster came when it decided to broadcast the WC on Sony Aath, the Bengali channel of the network. Also, interestingly, matches in the last round of the group stage were aired simultaneously on Sony Pix, the English movie channel of the network.

Officials at the channels state that FIFA WC 2014 has been very fruitful for the channels, both on numbers and on ground-levels.

As per numbers shared by the broadcaster network, according to TAM ratings for match number 1 to 59 on Sony Six, Sony Aath and Sony Pix registered 605, 209, 85 TVTs respectively all over India in CS Male 15+years; as their combined ratings stood at 899 TVTs.

The total reach garnered by Sony Six, Sony Aath and Sony Pix in 000’s CS4 + years all over India are 43,968, Aath 9,816, Pix 5,350 and the combined number is 50, 184.

As per TAM WK 16-WK 26 (13 Apr-5 Jul 2014), Sony Six leads the charts for 11 weeks consecutively.

Speaking exclusively to Adgully, Prasana Krishnan, Sr. EVP & Business Head at Sony Six, credits this success to the viewers who for the love of the sport have come to the channel. “The response has been tremendous and that is only because of high involvement of viewers. This evolved and involved audience has managed to convert even a large number of passive viewers to participate in the biggest sporting event of the world. Hence we the trending FIFA WC 2014 across on-ground and online conversations is obvious”, he added. He mentioned that Sony Six, in the week gone by, in the third wave of quarter finals of the WC has managed to bring 50 million viewers to the channel. “The 50 million number is huge in a ‘cricket-loving’ country. Also, another important aspect is that this number does not come only from prime-time matches but the ones on the late-night schedule as well. This, I believe will be an important aspect to note in the growth story of football in India”.    

Numbers shared also suggest football – loving state West Bengal has been a large contributor to the performance of the network on TAM charts. IN West Bengal only, Sony Six registered 218, Sony Aath registered 203 and Sony Pix recorded 27 TVTs in CS Male 15+yrs; with a combined score of 449 TVTs.

Tushar Shah, Sr. EVP & Business Head, Sony Aath, said that with FIFA WC 2014, the channel has received tremendous feedback from game lovers across the state. As the state’s passion and love for the game is not unfamiliar, he mentions that the idea of language feed has worked really well not only for the network, but has helped the channel to make a space for itself in the hearts of the viewers. “While the game has been and will continue to be loved by one and all, if people get commentary in their own language, it helps them enjoy the game more”, he said. This, we believe has helped the channel to broaden our viewer base and also, add some Bengal-specific sponsors to the channels current list of advertisers. “While FIFA WC 2014 or any such sporting event is a premium property for the channel it is aired on, the response for us has been very positive. Apart from the national advertisers who have associated themselves with the event, we have about 8-10 local (Bengal-specific) sponsors on board as well”, stated Shah. While the national sponsors (for Sony Six) include Hero MotoCorp, Xolo Mobile and Microsoft, some of the Bengal–based companies to get associated with the property (on Sony Aath) include Dollar Industries, JG Hosiery, Lux Industries, Salical, Sencogold, Acharya Institute of Management and Science and Passport Deos.

Shah, citing some of the numbers the channel holds pride in sharing said, “Sony Aath’s channel share in West Bengal has seen a 204% growth from June 2014 till date. Also, in week 24-27 of TAM, total viewership of the game in West Bengal was about 265%, with male viewership at 344% and female viewership at 190%. A remarkable thing that FIFA WC 2014 has done is the spike in female viewership number – off the 9.8 million viewers who tuned into FIFA WC 2014 in West Bengal, 45% of them were females. This I believe is very encouraging as diminishes the idea that women are passive sports programming viewers”.  

As known to all, apart from West Bengal, states of Kerela and Goa are also hubs of the sport in their own ways. However, speaking of the best performing markets for Sony Six, Krishnan said that, “While the story continues to be glorious in markets like West Bengal, Assam and other parts of the North-east, this time, the game has travelled beyond these traditional markets and managed to find new houses in top metors like Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi”. He added.

Speaking about what’s on the menu after FIFA WC 2014, Krishnan said, “We are set to bring to our viewers some more interesting and nail-baiting big properties which are lined up already for the following months. As the first edition of The Caribbean Premier League was a success, we have the second edition out and will take off from 11th July and end on 17th August 2014. It will be telecast on Six HD and SD feed, showing live coverage and highlights of all 30 matches. Later in the year, our focus will be on a new deal we have inked recently, that is – World Kabaddi League, which will be followed by Champions Tennis League while NBA JAM is set to hit the ground in September 2014”.

Sources inform that this year, the domestic Twenty20 tournament league will commence at Grenada before moving on to the other Caribbean nations. The opening clash will be between Guyana AMAZON Warriors and Antigua Hawksbills on Friday 11th July 2014 at 11.30 PM on Six HD and SD. The tournament will feature global cricketing superstars Chris Gayle, Kevin Pietersen, Dwayne Bravo, Ross Taylor, Saeed Ajmal and Kieron Pollard.

Sony Six’s kitty includes exclusive broadcast rights of international sporting properties like The Pepsi IPL, 2014 FIFA World Cup, UEFA EURO 2016, Qualifiers for UEFA EURO 2016, European Qualifiers for 2018 FIFA World Cup, 2018 FIFA World Cup, TNA, The Australian Open Tennis Championship, The NBA and The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).