After sports leagues for Kabaddi, Badminton and Football, the new kid on the block is Prime Volleyball League (PVL) which is taking the conversation beyond cricket in India's sports league ecosystem.
India is home to over a dozen leagues in various sports, but it is cricket that still sees the most traction.
So, what prospects does the Prime Volleyball League see in India?
According to business strategist and angel investor Lloyd Mathias, the past decade has seen sports leagues for Kabaddi (Pro Kabaddi League), Badminton (Premier Badminton League), Football (Indian Super League) and Wrestling (Pro Wrestling League), all Trying to emulate the immense success of cricket extravaganza Indian Premier League (IPL).
“Of these, the Pro Kabaddi League has been the most successful, which has changed the face of Kabaddi. For football, the Indian Super League, Hockey India League (HIL) and Badminton League have also managed to attract some of the game's top-ranked professionals. Each league has been able to create a huge niche and has managed to attract sponsors, media coverage and benefit the players,” Mathias told Moneycontrol.
When it comes to PVL, Sandeep Goel, managing director of advertising agency Rediffusion, said that volleyball is a fast-paced game and easy to understand. “So I think it will slowly gain traction. But Season 1 will be off to a slow start,” he said.
Echoing the view, Tuhin Mishra, managing director and co-founder of sports marketing, brand licensing and athlete representation firm Baseline Ventures, said that volleyball has deep roots in India. “We all have played sports in school and college. It's an easy game to play and not difficult to understand."
Marketed by Baseline Ventures, PVL will air from February 5 on Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI), the official broadcaster of the league.
Mishra said he was expecting $2.5 billion in revenue for the league.
Rajesh Kaul, Chief Revenue Officer, Distribution, and Head, Sports Business, SPNI, reported that the viewership for volleyball during the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 was around 34 million on Sony Sports Network, even though there was no Indian participation.
Mishra also said that the PVL in 2019 had recorded around 21 million viewers. Hence, he believes that PVL has immense potential. "If we give good content, Indians will adopt it," he said.
Mathias said the league's popularity will depend on the build-up it receives through the media, sponsors and celebrity associations.
“Support from the sponsors will be crucial and getting RuPay as a title sponsor and a host of other brands like Byju’s, Cred and Amul (Cool) is a great start,” he added.
Mishra said the league has got 13 sponsors. “PVL is powered by gaming partner A23. Then several associate sponsors including EatFit, Dafa News, Apollo Hospitals, Cosco. ShareChat and Moj have joined as official content partners,” he said.
Raghav Anand, segment leader of digital media (AIM Africa, India, Middle East) at Ernst & Young (EY), said that niche sports leagues largely depend on broadcast rights, title sponsorship and team sales as it has a lot of sales. and ticketing is also small, especially for sports such as volleyball.
“Cricket in India captures more than 87 per cent of the advertising in the game. Hence, small broadcast and digital rights make the possibilities for other leagues small. But after the pandemic new age companies like Fantasy Gaming, NFT, RMG And there may be opportunities that physical sports can take advantage of especially for sports like volleyball because volleyball has a lower cost of execution. They have to create smart revenue and expand reach through digital , "They said.
With traction from sponsors, Mathias said that the telecast of PVL on Sony network in five languages and on OTT platform SonyLIV augurs well for the league. "Broadcasting the league in multiple languages is a plus for the tournament, especially as volleyball is a distinctive sport whose popularity has spread to the interiors," he said.
Kaul informed that Sony Sports has a multi-year deal with Baseline Ventures and this year, they will telecast the tournament live in Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.
The league will be telecast on Sony TEN 1, Sony TEN 2 (Malayalam), Sony TEN 3 (Hindi) and Sony TEN 4 (Tamil and Telugu).
Mishra said that apart from targeting audiences in the Indian subcontinent, matches will be telecast live on Facebook for a global audience.
The upcoming PVL will have 24 matches and will include seven teams from Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and two teams from Kerala.
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