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Mumbai, September 15, 2014:
As curtains were drawn on Star Sports Pro Kabaddi, the league created history, lifting this ancient sport out of its `hinterland' stereotype, catching the imagination of the Indian youth and forever changing the way the game is perceived -- all this in a matter of 5 weeks. Star Sports Pro Kabaddi took the entire nation by storm during its run, gaining exponential popularity and striking an unbreakable chord with millions of people. Star India and Mashal Sports will return with more kabaddi action in March 2015.
The 37-day long Star Sports Pro Kabaddi raised an extraordinary viewership bar for this sport, with a whopping 435 million viewers having tuned in to catch the action – almost triple the number of the FIFA World Cup 2014 in India. That is also second only to the 552 million viewers for the IPL, undoubtedly making kabaddi India’s second-most favourite sport after cricket. (Source: CS4+; Extrapolated from TAM panel)
The title clash between Jaipur Pink Panthers and U-Mumba served as a kosher ending to a riveting first edition of the league that alone surpassed the viewership numbers of the finales of all other sports except cricket. The final day of the league recorded a historic reach of 86.4 million people or 3/4th of an average IPL match. In a major contrast, some of the key global sporting events this year, such as FIFA World Cup, WWE Wrestlemania, Hockey World Cup and Wimbledon Men’s Final recorded only 24.6 mn, 32.2 mn, 10.4 mn and 6.1 mn, respectively.
To further put the number into perspective, 1 out of every 4 Indian TV viewers was watching Star Sports Pro Kabaddi finale day coverage between 2000 hours and 2230 hours on August 31. (All numbers are based on TAM panel reach using standard extrapolation estimates). The ratings of 3.7 TVR in males 15+ABC TG is higher than most movie premiers and equivalent to top sporting events like IPL cricket.
The first-of-its-kind Star Sports Pro-Kabaddi league that portrayed action packed ‘Live’ Kabaddi content in an uber-cool format has now made the game living room talk in India. And with women accounting for over 39% of all viewership and children 22%, this is perhaps the only sport that's no longer a male-viewer dominated sport and is rather a family viewing sport.
Commenting on the league’s success, Mr. Anand G. Mahindra, Co-promoter, Mashal Sports, said, “Given the love and support that has been showered on the Pro Kabaddi league by spectators and television audiences across the country, Charu and I feel humbled that our conviction in the potential and the popularity has been vindicated. We thank all our partners in the journey so far and hope the game and the league will enjoy similar enthusiastic support in future editions as well.”
The unprecedented response received by Star Sports Pro Kabaddi not only reinforced STAR’s vision for the game, but also boosted the morale and confidence of the young players of kabaddi. The objective of reinventing and making the game exciting even for the un-initiated urban youth has been successfully met; so much so that kabaddi is now being played by people everywhere – from the Himalayas, to the beaches, in parks and on terraces!
Mr. Uday Shankar, CEO, STAR India, mentions, “Kabaddi was a signal of our commitment to foster a truly multi-sport culture in India by taking a nearly forgotten game and transforming it into a contemporary offering. The fact that it now has the overwhelming support of people brings us great pride.”
“This success will help us in our goal of encouraging sporting talent. We want sports to be the trigger for creating and nurturing outstanding new opportunities for India’s youth. This journey of transformation goes beyond our ideas and investments and is made possible only because of the support from all our partners.”
The population, which until now only followed cricket, embraced this new offering throughout the duration of the league and eventually placed kabaddi on the pedestal that this truly Indian sport deserved. The league recorded a whopping 2.3 billion plus impressions on the social media during its highly successful run.
It is not only the number of impressions, but also, the immensely positive sentiments reflected through these social media conversations that share the highlight. Over 90% comments and reactions noted on social media with regards to the Pro Kabaddi League have a positive tone. August 29 and 31 (series culmination day) generated the most ever daily conversations for the Star Sports Twitter handle with more than 25,000 tweets coming in each day.
Star’s efforts to restore the thrill and celebration of kabaddi was bolstered by its strategy of packaging the game differently -- televising it and infusing glamour, and ensuring maximum buzz through an innovative, 360 degree marketing blitzkrieg. The superlative production of the league was supported by global experts in sports programming, offering a world-class experience to viewers across the country. The games witnessed high celebrity turnout – attracting icons from film, television and political leaders to watch the revamp of this ancient sport.
Mr J S Gehlot, President - International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) states, “Over the past few decades, the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) and Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) have been working hard to popularise the game of Kabaddi. Our efforts were not only restricted to India and by sending Indian coach to other nations to train the players of that domicile, we have been taking baby-steps to make kabaddi a global sport. Star Sports Pro Kabaddi has increased the popularity of the game by leaps and bounds. The unprecedented response and acceptance of kabaddi by the masses as an interesting and engaging sport is pleasantly surprising.”
Star Sports pulled together a global best-in-class production team with experts in the world of production, graphics and analytics with the help of IMG, Prometheus and Allston-Elliot. Along with using as many as 15 cameras to cover every piece of action during the league, the sport of Kabaddi was analyzed in terms of statistics which boosted the perception of the game being a serious sport.
The on-air effort was complemented by a strong on-ground activation which got consumers across the 8 franchise cities to experience the sport. Bollywood icons like Salman Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Ajay Devgn and Anupam Kher extolled the virtues of the game and drove aspirations of millions through the league.
