“Eurosport thrives on its diverse sports programming and has always given importance to all sports”: Neeraj Jha of Eurosport India

The recent AFC Women’s Asian Cup, broadcast on Eurosport and hosted in India, marked a special event for Indian football fans. Fans were able to enjoy the highest level of women’s football in Asia from the comfort of their homes. They witnessed the poetry in motion of Australian legend Samantha Kerr, Japanese duo Mana Iwabuchi and Saki Kumagai, who play for Arsenal and Bayern Munich respectively, and many more. But what goes into creating the final product that fans are able to experience and enjoy on television?

To find out, Sportskeeda caught up with Neeraj Jha, Head of Content & Production, On Air Promos, Rights, & Acquisition at Eurosport India for an exclusive interview after the end of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup.

Any broadcaster such as Eurosport (a subsidiary of Discovery, Inc.) that is able to bring fans’ favorite sports to their devices has to go through the process of acquiring the media rights to showcase the event from the promoter or federation (known as the rights holders). Touching on the ways in which rights acquisitions for sporting events can happen, Neeraj remarked:

“There are many ways of acquiring rights. If the event is big, generally, every broadcaster has to go through a bidding process. The intellectual property (IP) owners generally do it through a process known as tenders. Nowadays, e- auctions have (also) become more popular.”

“If the event is of medium stature, the owners of the IPs contact the broadcaster directly, and based on their relationship, they agree to finalize the deal. However, in this particular case, personal contacts and relationships with the league owners, federations and officials play a key role in securing the rights.”

The final product showcased by Eurosport or any other broadcaster comes about only with the extensive efforts of professionals such as Neeraj Jha. They work behind the scenes to acquire, create, package, and deliver fans’ favorite events based on a certain look and feel that would be enjoyable for everyone watching the event. Speaking about the nature of his role and how it plays into the sports event Indian viewers see on Eurosport, Neeraj said:

“We at Eurosport are driven by our love and passion for sports. We believe in the plurality of sports, and when we say sports it includes all kinds of sports and not just cricket. At Eurosport India, I entail a lot of creative and business aspects ranging from acquisitions to the final programming, including live events, programming, acquiring rights and new IPs that includes end-to-end ownership of content acquisition, creation, and their delivery.”

As any Indian football fan can attest, the sport has slowly but surely been on the rise in recent times in a country that has often been described as "the sleeping giant in the world of football." Diving specifically into Eurosport’s association with Indian football, Neeraj commented:

“In the past year, we have travelled a distance with Indian football that started with us broadcasting the National Men’s team’s FIFA friendlies. We also broadcasted the SAFF Championship and the Inaugural Hero Futsal Club Championship. The response we received was great and once the opportunity came, it was obvious for us to lap on to the broadcast of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2022.”

Laying out why the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2022 was especially special for Eurosport, he added:

“The stature of the championship (AFC Women’s Asian Cup) is huge in the Asian footballing circuit, as it determines quite a few spots from Asia for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.”

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Consequences of Indian women’s team’s unfortunate withdrawal for Eurosport

Having a major tournament being played on home soil meant the Indian women’s team had high hopes from the tournament. What ended up transpiring, however, was an unfortunate withdrawal from the tournament owing to a COVID-19 outbreak within the team. This meant that after their first goalless tie match against Iran, the Blue Tigresses were unable to field a minimum of 13 players for their second match against Chinese Taipei, and were forced to forfeit the game and withdraw from the tournament.

The devastating circumstances for the Indian players saw a flood of support come in, including one from the tournament’s eventual top scorer Samantha Kerr to "use this as fuel and come back stronger."

From Eurosport’s perspective, Neeraj admitted that the broadcaster had been expecting a spike in viewership numbers and ratings, considering that India had a greater chance of making it to the later stages of the tournament, the event taking place in India, and the India matches being scheduled at prime time.

However, for the response expected after the Indian team’s forced withdrawal, Neeraj added:

“Unfortunately, India just played one match and we saw a very positive impact on the ratings. However, given India’s unfortunate exit it will be difficult to comment on the rating part as the event has just concluded and it will take some time to get the viewership data and analytics.”

While non-cricket sports still lag far behind in terms of the brands advertising with events, the withdrawal of the Indian team also had an impact on the interest of advertisers for the tournament. Commenting on the matter, Neeraj reflected:

“It is still a challenge to find advertisers for non-cricket sports. The challenge grows further with women’s sports, but the situation has started improving, though at a snail’s pace. We initially got some encouraging feelers from advertisers in the beginning, but it was challenging once the Indian team withdrew due to the covid outbreak.”

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Eurosport has a wide range of sports lined up for fans in 2022

Eurosport is a broadcaster that seeks to adopt a diverse, multi-sport approach to their programming. Admitting as much, Neeraj said:

“Eurosport India has always thrived on giving importance to all sports and that’s why you will see that our programming is one of the most diverse in the current ecosystem, and that’s something we are proud of and committed to in all circumstances.”

“Our programming today includes football, golf, cycling, motorsports, professional wrestling, and tennis, to name a few. As a broadcaster, we believe in promoting and showcasing all sports alike and to grow their communities. So far in our existence, we have been able to be true to our ethos and will continue following them for the future as well.”

Moving specifically to Eurosport’s coverage plans for 2022, Neeraj is optimistic about the year ahead, both for Eurosport India and for sports fans. Concluding by teasing some of the exciting action lined up in 2022 for sports fans in India, he signed off by saying:

“While we started our year with the live broadcast for AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2022, we will also be showcasing this season’s Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and La Vuelta – the top 3 global cycling competitions, MotoGP, top international golf Championships like The Open, Ryder Cup and tournaments from various world golf tours like the PGA Tour, Asian Tour and the LPGA.”

“Apart from these, last year we also acquired the broadcasting rights to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) – one of the premier global Pro Wrestling events. This partnership will enthral all pro wrestling fans in India with spectacular high-octane weekly wrestling programs. We are also in discussion with many federations and league owners with the objective to build and launch high profile sports properties on Eurosport.”

Fans in India are certainly going to be spoilt for choice with Eurosport this year, and they would do well to keep an eye on exciting new properties coming up on the roster of the European broadcaster.