Sony Liv adds Hollywood blockbusters for subscribers.

MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks’ (SPN) VOD service Sony LIV has announced the launch of a cinematic extravaganza for all movie fans with its Hollywood library. Besides a wide range of TV shows, sports properties, Bollywood flicks, songs and original web content, cinema aficionados can now enjoy instant access to internationally celebrated movies anytime and anywhere.

Sony Liv is going the extra mile to enhance the entertainment experiences for its viewers wherein the biggest upcoming Hollywood blockbusters will premiere on the platform before their television airing.

Sony Liv EVP and head for digital business Uday Sodhi said, “At Sony Liv, we are committed to continuously enhance the entertainment experience of our viewers. After receiving an overwhelming response for our Bollywood library, we are now extending our catalogue to allow English movie buffs to catch up with their Hollywood dose of entertainment- right from award-winning favourites to unseen gems. Our endeavour is to make an entire bouquet of eclectic yet engaging cinematic properties accessible at ease since Sony Liv is a complete digital entertainment destination that consumers can turn to for riveting content of every kind.”  

The library gives viewers a chance to access a wide selection of hugely popular American movies on their own preferred digital devices. The platform claims to offer comprehensive and attractive for its discerning digital audience through its Hollywood library.

Liv already offers an extensive Bollywood library with over 1,000 films from across genres. It already has a portfolio of critically acclaimed films like The Pursuit of Happyness, Django Unchained, The Da Vinci Code, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Angels and Demons and the Spiderman series, etc.

The platform also rolled out a web-series for the online platform called #LoveBytes. It has also rolled out a digital film entitled Chhoti Khushito support a social media campaign, #LIVThisDiwali.

IPL season 9 remains sponsor heavy despite earlier setbacks: Onspon.com study.

Mumbai: IPL season nine has been the subject of many headlines – good and bad. The betting scandal leading to two popular teams  -- Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals --   being banned; and its title sponsor Pepsi’s exit from the league didn’t help the tournaments reputation either.  Questions that rose on the tournaments fate and the sponsorship dilemma were soon answered when Chinese smart phone brand Vivo bagged the title sponsorship right for the next two seasons. Vivo plans to spend an additional Rs 200 crore on strengthening the brand association with IPL.

Now, owing to India’s performance at the T20 World Cup, sentiments around IPL Season 9 are on the positive side. A week prior to the IPL season, sponsors such as FreeCharge  and Maruti Suzuki had confirmed their associations with the league. These central level sponsorships are each estimated around Rs 10 Crore and above as per a study conducted by Onspon.com.

At a team level too, the teams are seeing an increased interest from brands, where team sponsorships are getting closed faster, whereas last year half the slots were available until about two to three days prior to the IPL. While commercials for team level sponsorship rights were expected to take a dip due to the betting fiasco surrounding IPL, teams have been in a position to bag sponsors at commercials similar to those of last years, the study revealed.

These team level sponsorship rights range from Rs 1 crore to Rs 20 crores – dependent on the logo spot on the jersey and other rights such as player imagery, merchandise options etc. A number of sponsors have in-fact also continued their association with their respective teams.

Coming to the two new IPL teams, Pune Super Giants and Gujarat Lions have also been successful in clinching lucrative sponsorship deals with each of these teams managing to rope in about 10 sponsors each. With the Pune franchise boasting of a star studded line-up, including the likes of M.S Dhoni, Faf du Plessis, Ajinkya Rahane, Kevin Pietersen etc – the Pune franchise has emerged as a strong IPL title contender and has managed to bag sponsor’s within the Rs 2 Crore to Rs 16 crore range.

The Gujarat franchise, owned by smartphone manufacturer Intex has also bagged a number of high value sponsorships ranging from Rs 1.5 Crore to Rs 15 crores.

As per Onspon.com  the reason for the increased sponsorship interests from brands in this season’s IPL can be attributed to the pre-event cricket warm-up from the multiple cricket series leading to IPL – making the brand continuity easier and effective.

Faraaz Peerbhai who leads brand partnerships at Onspon.com said, “Additionally, the low event density in the non-sport space – with few high voltage movie releases or any other major music events, making sponsorship routing to IPL more effective. The advent of early summers have also lead to buoyancy in consumption categories such as FMCG, Air-conditioners – thereby leading to pre-allocation of marketing budgets, especially for categories such as drinks, consumer durables etc,” Peerbhai added.

If one were to look into brand categpries in IPL, a number of FMCG brands such as Haldiram’s, Britannia, Mother Dairy - Deodorant brands such as Sparkle, Kama Sutra have partnered with various IPL teams. Air-conditioner brands such as Daikin, Lloyd and Sansui have also partnered with teams such as Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata respectively.

The smartphone category as-well has taken to IPL Season 9 in a huge way – Three big smartphone manufactures entering (or re-structuring their entry) in India (Oppo, Vivo and LeEco) have allocated a significant budget to cricket and in particular IPL. They are seeking to leverage IPL to create awareness about their brand and reach out to the young audiences.

Overall, after the pre-IPL ambiguity, IPL Season 9 is seeing a massive positive upswing from sponsors and audience alike.

Sony's Ek India HappyWala for IPL scores big on social media, wins hearts.

MUMBAI: If sports channels are raising the expectations of viewers, the general entertainment channels cannot be left behind.

Leaving no stone unturned, Sony Pictures Network began a month earlier with its campaign EK India…Happywala (One Happy India), so that the excitement builds even before the ninth edition of Indian Premier League.

The campaign Ek India….Happywala (One Happy India) was launched on 1 March with the IPL anthem.

To the launch the Vivo IPL 2016 anthem video, Sony did a Vox Pop activity featuring kids who were asked to answer a few questions about India. The same set of questions was thrown to adults on social media.

The anthem was launched on social media that trended on twitter across India for five hours. The channel recorded 4,526 tweets, more than 42 million timeline deliveries, and had a reach of more than 5 million and recorded 3 million views anthem video. The anthem video received more than 100,000 likes and 26,131 people had shared it on Facebook.

In order to take the campaign forward towards creating a happier nation, Sony started a user-powered activity where they motivated users to spread happiness with #15days Happywala. The core task is to make a stranger smile every day, thus converting users into happiness ambassadors. The activity kicked-off with a lot of user participation resulting in getting the activity to trend across India for more than 4 hours. The channel achieved 3,672 tweets, more than 28 million timeline deliveries and more 4 million plus reach - and 805 entries for the same.

On 17 March, Sony launched the taxi promo, through which they emphasised on how the assurance of safety and well being can spread happiness among our citizens. The activity focused on driving conversations about spreading positivity.

With this activity, the campaign thought #Ek India Happywala once again got a lot of buzz resulting it to trend for over 5 hours across India. More than 10 million people watched that video on social media platforms.

The next in list was the Newsroom promo, with the launch of the news room video urging users to focus more on the country's positives than the negatives, Sony Pictures Networks decided to reward users who would help support this cause. This activity turned out to be a huge hit amongst the audience as the broadcaster garnered more than 4000+ entries within a week. The Newsroom promo achieved more than 500,000 views on twitter.

The next initiative of the campaign was to spread happiness in the lives of underprivileged kids. Users have to tell the story of a child who aspires to be a cricketer but doesn't have the means. Sony offered to help 11 children (scouted by the users) with professional cricket kits and so far, they have received 145 entries since the launch of the activity. With 1, 255 tweets, 13 million timeline deliveries and 2 million of reach, the initiative #HappyXI was trended for four hours across India.

To highlight the current mood of the country, the channel started Happiness meter activity. Happiness Meter is a listening activity that tracks the conversation happening on Twitter to gauge what is the current mood of the people in the country.

The next Old Age Home promo recorded 29 million views on social and 1504 likes on Facebook. On 1 April Best Cricket game was a prank where the audiences tricked into playing the best ever online cricket game & having the best cricket experience they can ever have. Later, they realized that it’s the cricket insect that played them.

The idea is to highlight that the best ever cricket experience can only be lived with vivo IPL. 2,045 tweets, 16 million timelines deliveries and 3 million reach, the prank activity was trending for five hours across India.

Don't mind if IPL is shifted out of Maharashtra, water is more important than cricket: CM Devendra Fadnavis.

MUMBAI: Controversy and IPL go hand in hand. While the cricket lovers await the kick off of the million dollar league, water crisis controversy threatens to take the tournament away from Maharashtra. Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants are the Maharashtra based franchises and a total of 20 matches is scheduled to be played in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur.

"Water is more important for us than cricket. So, even if the cricket matches are shifted out of Maharashtra, I don't mind," Fadnavis told reporters in Mumbai.

Several districts of Maharashtra are facing acute water shortage and objections have been raised over the "wastage" of water to maintain cricket grounds across the state. Petitions have been filed against hosting the Indian Premier League in the state at a time when people are finding it tough to arrange water even for their daily needs.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' comments will certainly not sound sweet for cricket lovers of the state,"

"The last moment change can leave a big impact on the tournament, specially from sponsors point of view as it needs some time to create the creatives which in result will generate the eyeballs," says a sports media planning expert.

Vivo spends 50 percent of annual budget on IPL campaign.

Mumbai: After the successful launch of its latest smartphones V3 and V3Max in Mumbai, IPL's title sponsor Vivo has launched a 360 degree marketing campaign to promote the brand amongst the consumers. With an aggressive marketing plan chalked out, Vivo India is geared up to capture the hearts of millions of customers across India.

Riding on the IPL bandwagon, Vivo started with the first ever VivoIPL trophy tour to six cities in India, where thousands of fans got the first-hand experience of VivoIPL trophy. With the new brand ambassador Ranveer Singh, Vivo has recently launched its first ever TVC that has been shot by renowned Bollywood director and filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee. The TVC has been launched during VivoIPL for its latest devices V3 and V3Max.

Sharing his excitement on launch of various marketing initiatives, Vivo India DGM Jerome Chen said, “We are a young brand in India and our association with IPL as title sponsor, brings us to the forefront of our consumers. We have spent close to 50 per cent from our year’s budget on our ATL and BTL marketing campaigns this VivoIPL season. Vivo signifies youth and enthusiasm therefore we signed Ranveer Singh as our brand ambassador. Our new TVC with Ranveer, showcased during the V3 & V3Max launch, will be on air across channels.

In a unique initiative, cricket lovers and VivoIPL fans can also watch matches from the Vivo Hi-Fi box in each stadium during the season. This time in VivoIPL, fans who don’t visit the stadium can experience the stadium-like environment at VivoIPL fan parks in 34 cities across India as compared to 16 fan parks last year.

Hotstar.com's Ajit Mohan targets 100 million digital viewers this IPL

MUMBAI: Star India has long presented itself as undisputed disruptor when it comes to the Indian media and entertainment industry. The disruption wave does not look like settling down any too soon. Star India digital head and president Ajit Mohan is now chasing history: something that The Facebook achieved in early 2015 and India’s largest telco Airtel got to in 2009.

"Our objective is to reach out to 100 million users this IPL for our digital streaming services," says Mohan with a smile on his face.

Star India started the online streaming of cash rich Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2014. The matches were streamed on Starsports.com and as per Mohan's analysis over 21 million people logged on to watch the action on their hand held devices.

A year later, Star India invested a whopping Rs 302.02 crore to outbid then Multi Screen Media or MSM (now Sony pictures Networks or SPN) and Times Internet (TI) bid to acquire the streaming rights for three more years.

 "The reach doubled and we got to over 42 million viewers. Not only that we also witnessed a significant traction when it came to time spent watching,” discloses Mohan.   

Complementing Star's unfettered digital disruption is the improving bandwidth condition in India. The affluent metro youth who are considered to be the biggest spenders and are always engaged with their hand held smart devices. It is these mobile natives that Hotstar is targeting this year.

"The audience we cater to is what makes Hotstar an attractive platform for advertisers. The response we got so far for IPL is overwhelming and we are extremely happy with it. We are selling as per slots exactly how it happens on television," avers Mohan.

The digital innovation of Murdoch's media conglomerate has roped in nine brands so far. Flipkart, Volini, Raymond, Axe have come on board as sponsors, while the other large advertisers include Lloyd, Hindware, Hero Fincorp, Airtel and Amazon.

"The metro is either working or returning back by the time IPL matches start and hence the streaming service is the go-to for cricket lovers. Moreover, with 3G getting better and 4G coming in, the infrastructure is also looking good so the streaming service is becoming more useful," explains Madhouse COO Milind Pathak.

The growth of Hotstar continues unabated as per Mohan, especially its reach. It was at just two per cent of TV a year back. Today, Mohan, says it has multiplied manifold. "Hotstar has already reached 40 to 45 per cent of television audiences,” he points out. “I believe more than compete with TV, what we are doing is adding another screen and forming a consumer habit which is a great benefit for the industry.”

The leapfrogging numbers are not only because of the sacks full of dollars being spent on content, but also on account of an aggressive marketing overdrive. Captain of the Indian cricket team M S Dhoni promotes the platform. And for IPL the media house signed on with ad creative power house Lowe Lintas to unleash a cutting edge campaign.

"With our analysis we found out that affluent male youth in metros are the ones who spend most of the time on their mobile phones and our creative is targeted at them. Also there is a perception that Indian youth are selfish and stay by themselves which is not totally true and that's why it has the tagline Screen Chota hai magar Dil bada," says Mohan.   

The promotional spots focuses on youth and their connection with community. It shows that although they are always in their own world, but whenever needed they become an active part of the society.

Last year Starsports.com streamed the matches along with Hotstar, "This year also we will continue to stream the action on both the platforms. The rights that we have are for a five minute delayed stream; an addition that we have this year is the fact that both Hindi and English commentary will be available for audiences to enjoy," reveals Mohan.

Digital is still perceived as an ancillary consumption medium, mainly for snacking and for small pieces of content, not long form.  Mohan believes Hotstar is paving many a pioneering path. "We broke all such myths, we proved the perception wrong,” he says with a wide grin. “One more wrong notion that we tore apart was that India was not ready for a premium OTT platform. With the time spent on OTT that we witnessed in the past and the way it is increasing now, I must say that the platform is only going to get bigger.”

Vivo IPL's Trophy Tour from March 19

MUMBAI: Indian Premier League (IPL), the sporting spectacle cheered by every Indian and cricket fan across the globe begins its journey with the first ever Trophy Tour starting March 19, 2016. Making its debut from Pune, the Vivo IPL 2016 trophy will travel to six different cities in India ending its journey with Mumbai, home to last year’s IPL champions.

It would be a great opportunity for the cricket loving fans to see the trophy from such close quarters. It will add to their thrill and excitement to view the trophy which would be sought after by eight competing IPL teams.

IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla  said, “This is the first ever trophy tour, which will not only promote the league but will also give the cricket fans across the country a chance to witness the trophy first hand in their cities. With the new title sponsor ‘Vivo’, on board we are thrilled to embark on this exciting six city tour to showcase the trophy for Vivo IPL 2016.”

Sharing the excitement on becoming the new title sponsor for IPL 2016 and announcing the trophy tour, Vivo India  CEO Alex Feng said, “Vivo is the first ever title sponsor to organize the trophy tour. IPL being the most professional leagues played across the world. It truly reflects the love and passion Indians share for this wonderful sport. Vivo is a global brand which appeals to the sensibilities of the young Indians. We are constantly striving to innovate and translate our vision into reality. And, undoubtedly, the partnership with IPL is the fastest way to reach out the youth of India.”

The trophy tour to six cities will start from March 19, 2016 and will close the tour with Mumbai on April 03, 2016. The schedule to each city will be: