2017 marked a watershed moment for sports in India, as global events like the Homes Season of Cricket and home-grown tournaments such as VIVO Pro Kabaddi pushed all boundaries to reach more sports fans across the country.
The year 2017 could be marked as a year of noteworthy achievement for Star India’s Sports Broadcasting Business with handful of achievements right from winning the bid for IPL Media rights for the next 5 years and peaking to new high in terms of reach and viewership by expanding its reach in regional languages and securing a near monopoly over cricketing and non-cricketing sporting events in India on both Television and Digital front.
The year has seen ICC Champions Trophy 2017 India vs Pakistan match attracted 201 million viewers, becoming the highest rated ODI match in BARC history. The significant moment for Star Sports in 2017 also includes the launch of launch of Star Sports FTA (Free to Air) Channel and Star Sports Tamil.
With this tvnews4u.com has lined up key moments of 2017 for Star Sports in areas of various sporting events such as Cricket, Football, Kabaddi, Badminton and Table Tennis as following:
VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season 5: The Second-Biggest Sports League:
- In season 5, VIVO Pro Kabaddi added 4 new teams, becoming India’s biggest league offering the longest tenure for any national sports league. This included 12 teams, 130+ matches, and 13 weeks of competition.
- Season 5 saw a new title sponsor as well – Chinese handset maker VIVO acquired the title sponsorship rights for the Pro Kabaddi League for a period of five years, starting 2017.
- The highest player bid growing from INR 12 Lakhs in Season 1 Auction to an unprecedented INR 93 Lakhs in Season 5 is testament of the enormous scale of the league.
- With the vision of making Kabaddi more accessible and engaging for young talent, Mashal Sports and Star Sports launched KBD Juniors, a pioneering initiative focused on spreading awareness about the sport by facilitating grassroots level engagement. The KBD Juniors matches saw young Kabaddi enthusiasts participating in large numbers from across the 12 host cities of VIVO Pro Kabaddi.
- Season 5 of the league was viewed by a staggering 313 million viewers.
- The inaugural day of the league registered a cumulative reach of 50 million viewers. The first two weeks, keeping up with immense viewer interest attracted over 165 million viewers to witness the category defining league across Star Sports’ rich bouquet of channels.
- At the end of Season 5, gross impressions for India’s most watched non-cricketing league stand at 3.3 billion with a watch time of 100 billion minutes. In new markets such as TN, UP and PHCP (regions) witnessed significant increase in viewership, with TN being the most successful new market with a 3.6x growth in ratings.
Star Sports First: India’s First Private Free-to-Air Sports Channel:
- Star Sports launched India’s first private free-to-air sports channel, Star Sports First
- The channel allows sports fans and enthusiasts to watch their favourite sports, in Hindi, without paying any subscription fee.
- Star Sports First contributed immensely to the growth of Kabaddi and allowed millions of Kabaddi enthusiasts to enjoy the best of Kabaddi action in the comfort of their homes. The channel has accounted for over 47 million viewers during the course of the first 2 week of the league.
Star Sports Tamil: India’s First Tamil Sports Channel:
- A first-of-its-kind regional sports channel, Star Sports Tamil brings fans across Tamil Nadu closer to their favorite sports and heroes.
- The channel has a rich calendar of sports – which started with the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, moving into Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL 2.0), VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season 5 and Hero ISL.
- The channel provides curated Tamil content localized to Tamil Super Stars – R. Ashwin, M S Dhoni, TNPL Stars, and Stars from Chennaiyin FC.
Cricket Highlights
- ICC Champions Trophy2017 India vs Pakistan match attracted 201 million viewers, becoming the highest rated ODI match in BARC history. Also, an impressive 294 mn viewers tuned in for the first half of the tournament.
- The Star Sports network set yet another record and established a watershed moment for cricket at a pan India level, making the Paytm India vs New Zealand T20 series as the highest rated bilateral T20 series on any sports network in the history of BARC.
- The 3-match T20 series delivered 16.8 million average impressions on Star Sports network, an increase of 14% over the previous highest ratings for a bilateral T20 series (14.8 million impressions delivered for the Paytm India-England 2017 T20 series).
- Star Sports has acquired the broadcast and digital rights for New Zealand Cricket for all men’s and women’s International matches being organized in New Zealand for the next 3 years for the Indian subcontinent and South-East Asia. India is expected to play a total of 3 Tests, 10 ODIs and 3 T20s during this period in New Zealand.
Football
- The Hero Indian Super League Season 4, opened spectacularly with 100% stadia attendance in Kochi.
- The inaugural match between the two time champions, ATK and last year’s runner-up Kerala Blasters FC got 25 million total TV impressions and registered an impressive 59% growth over last season’s opening game.
- The opening game of Hero Indian Super League Season 4 recorded 7.4 million average impressions; which is double the India v/s USA opening game at U-17 FIFA World Cup 2017.
Badminton
- The third edition of the marquee badminton tournament Premier Badminton League began on, December 23, 2017, the #Baddies are back to #SmashTheHouseDown.
- Star Sports recently launched a new film that features Olympic medallist and World Number 2, PV Sindhu, Commonwealth Games medallist, Saina Nehwal, World Number 3 Kidambi Srikanth and Indian badminton mavericks like HS Prannoy, Ashwini Ponappa, Sai Praneeth, and Ajay Jayaram.
Table Tennis
The inaugural table tennis league, Ultimate Table Tennis, witnessed the victory of The Falcons, Ho Ching Lee and Sanil Shetty who celebrated their victory with great spirit. Over the course of three week UTT captured audiences with their astounding display of grit, skill and talent. The first season laid the foundation for future table tennis leagues of this calibre. UTT was broadcasted exclusively on the Star Sports network.
