We want to establish JioCinema & Sports18 as the home for football: Siddharth Sharma

In its ongoing effort to enhance sports viewership and cater to the insatiable appetite of football enthusiasts, Viacom18 is set to strengthen its partnership with LaLiga, a collaboration that has already been yielding positive results. LaLiga, renowned for hosting some of the best football talent globally, has long been associated with Viacom18, and this affiliation has been a source of pride for both entities.

Viacom18’s commitment to delivering the pinnacle of football entertainment is evident in its messaging strategy. According to Siddharth Sharma, Head of Content, Viacom18 - Sports, “It’s something that we take great pride in because the best football is played here. It’s the home of the champions, the best strikers, the best young prodigies that are coming out of the league and their excitement, the emotion attached to the LaLiga Club just goes to show that it’s the home of the best,” said Sharma.

About how Viacom18 is making football viewing more engaging, he shared, “We are very excited by our response to the various kinds of innovations we have done in cricket. It’s something that has now become an industry benchmark and standard for cricket coverage – engaging with fans with multi camera feeds, giving fans myriad language options to choose from. Even the cohort feeds that we built, which included fan feeds, which included the feeds where we targeted to get urban women between the age of 15 and 30 years to come and watch. We had Sania Mirza as our anchor on that feed. I think we believe that it is no longer one-size-fits-all for cricket, because it’s a huge sport.”

Adding further, Sharma said, “Our focus has predominantly been that it’s a journey and that we’ll have to engage with the journey. First step is how do we get to the core fans? How do we get to the core markets? Because the contribution of core fans, because of their fandom, because of the engagement with the leagues and love for the game is always going to be a massive contributor to watch time. So, those are the people who swear by the sport. Hence, our first effort is to really engage with these sports. So, we are doubling down on the core markets like Kerala, West Bengal, Northeast Goa, Maharashtra – that’s the first step that we are taking towards getting these core fans and establishing that JioCinema and Sports18 are the home for the football that you like.”

About the football viewership trends in India, Sharma shared, “For football, our approach is first to really get to the core fan and how that core fan now engages deeply with that. India is a country that worships its heroes. There is a strong bond through that hero. They make it to the club. So, it’s a journey from the core fan’s interest in the hero and from that hero, how we get him to really align with the fans. And then through fans, how do we get those fans to be part of our broadcast? How do we really give them a voice?”

“Football’s approach will always be different from other sports,” he exclaimed.

Regarding sports viewership on OTT versus linear TV, Sharma highlighted, “The way that our approach has been in being more accessible, removing the friction and making people engage freely whenever they want to really get on the app is one step. It's a medium that you can watch on the go, right. That just tells you that makes the story that much more intriguing and interesting.”

He continued, “Because, if there is something on right now you want to watch on your way back, you can catch it regardless of wherever you are. The other bit is, I think the day and age of appointment viewing is on the decline. You can’t really fix up the time. Will you be able to make it to the screen to catch it on linear TV? Perhaps that’s a challenge. But the big screen experience can also be had through connected TV. I think there is so much democratised viewing that can happen through the digital platform. It just goes to further get us closer to the fans and make us the default choice in a lot of the offerings that we give to the fans. I think that to my mind, again the power of choice is in your hand. We have made it accessible. That's the story that I would say has reduced any friction.”