'What KBC did for entertainment, sports will do for the digital ecosystem'

Sports commands appointment viewing at scale, making it a critical pillar for capturing a captive audience, especially in the realm of AVoD

VINIT KARNIK, head of sports, eSports, and entertainment at GroupM, South Asia, delves into the evolving landscape of sports in India and its impact on the digital ecosystem with Vanita Kohli-Khandekar on Microsoft Teams ahead of Tuesday’s release of Sporting Nation — Building a Legacy, GroupM’s annual study of the sports business. Karnik shares insights on the rise of non-cricket sports, and the critical role of sports in the media and entertainment industry, and offers valuable advice for advertisers navigating this market. Edited excerpts:

How can we call India a sporting nation when cricket is the only sport that interests us? Other sports lost share…

Most world economies function on similar lines, with one or two sports serving as key pillars of the commercial end. However, consider participative sports such as marathons, pickleball, and badminton, where spending reached Rs 1,000 crore in 2023.

The investment in Women’s Premier League (WPL) teams is roughly double what owners paid for Indian Premier League (IPL) teams in 2008. Viacom18 has paid just under Rs 1,000 crore for five years for rights to the WPL.

The big non-cricket sports...

Comparing other sports to cricket would be unfair given cricket’s 35-year history.

Football and kabaddi have massive potential for scaling up. However, sports scales up differently compared to entertainment where you could produce one big show like Bigg Boss or Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) and achieve reach.

With sports, you need to create a culture and an ecosystem before you can milk it. There is also a huge scope for football and volleyball.

Netflix will become the home of WWE, and Amazon Prime Video has been licensing all kinds of sports. How critical is sports in the media and entertainment ecosystem as a content genre?

For a long time, Star was the home for sports, investing in kabaddi and holding a 33 per cent stake in the Indian Super League. That is the kind of thrust broadcasters have put on sports.

Sports commands appointment viewing at scale, making it a critical pillar for capturing a captive audience, especially in the realm of advertising video-on-demand. What Close-Up Antakshri and KBC did for entertainment, sports will do for the digital ecosystem.

Disney Star lost over Rs 5,000 crore on sports in 2022-23 and is set to lose another Rs 6,500 crore next year. Why does sports (even cricket) continue to make losses?

This is a valid question. When Star India bid just over Rs 16,347 crore for the IPL in 2017, many predicted it would lose money. However, it did prove profitable. If cricket, the most popular sport, struggles to make money, it begs the question: which sport can? At some point, profitability will come.

What would be your advice to advertisers looking at sports?

Catch them young, watch them grow.

Consider emerging sports not only for national reach but also for regional appeal. Kho Kho, for instance, performs well in rural Maharashtra.

Football thrives in Goa, Kerala, and the Northeast, while kabaddi finds traction in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh.

I would also advise advertisers not to compare emerging sports with cricket or high gross rating point-driven properties on general entertainment channels.

The investment in these non-cricket properties is far lower. For example, while the title sponsorship of IPL costs Rs 500 crore, sponsorship for other sports could be obtained for less than Rs 100 crore. If central sponsorship for IPL stands at Rs 80 crore per season, for other sports it could be as low as Rs 15 crore per season.