Premier Futsal to go global in season-2

Encouraged by the response to the first season, the league now plans to take season 2 to television sets of 40-45 countries

The Premier Futsal League said it had reached 50 million television viewers in 10 countries and had nearly 700 million engagements with the property across the world (including repeat).

The league garnered nine million TV views in its first season in the UK and six million views in West Asia. These are the biggest markets outside India, where the league captured 30 million impressions on TV over its 10-day telecast. The final of the tournament had 300 million tune-ins globally, including social media.

In its second season, the league will focus on international broadcast rights and sponsorship revenue. The second season will be held in the first quarter of 2017 with eight franchises. The two new franchises to be added are Delhi and Hyderabad.

The eight teams will be divided into two groups to play at four venues before the final. The two new franchises will be assigned  six international and five Indian football players each. The first season of Premier Futsal had six teams playing in Chennai and Goa, where stadium occupancy exceeded 80 per cent.

The league is financed by Xavier Britto of the Indev group of companies and is co-owned by a consortium that includes his wife Vimala and cricketer Virat Kohli.

Kohli, the face of the league, was involved in promoting the first season in which the promoters invested over Rs 100 crore.

The league will now focus on technical investments, monetisation and transparency. It is working with a consultancy to draw up a franchise auction plan, revenue model, and player allotment process.

“We want to be known as a serious professional league. The first season was about building confidence. We have shown prospective partners, franchises and sponsors that we bring value to the sports ecosystem,” Britto said.  

“We have decided to make Premier Futsal a bi-annual event and all the International footballers will go under the hammer in season two. We will announce the process and auction dates next month.”

Premier Futsal was the first Indian sporting event to be telecast on Facebook Live. Its broadcast rights are with Sony Pictures Network.

“Several brands have reached out to us. We are confident of announcing our title sponsor in a few weeks,” said Dinesh Raj, managing director and co-founder, Premier Futsal.

The league’s talent hunt in its inaugural season attracted 300-600 participants in each city, this time the league expects 3,000-5,000 entrants.

Co-Founder and CEO, Abhinandan Balasubramanian said, "We set out with a mission to give India a new fast paced sport and with the first season of Premier Futsal, I think we are on the right track. The stadium attendance and Social Media reports suggest 35-40 per cent of the audience were women. We have started work towards packing Premier Futsal as a sport for family audience. On an average, over 5 goals were scored every game and then obviously the finals also lived up to its expectations by going right down the wire and in to penalties."