Mumbai: Official broadcasters, Sony Pictures Sports Network (SPSN), gears up to #BackOurBoys during the highly anticipated India tour of England 2021. The much talked about series will begin from August 4, 2021 and all five Tests will be aired LIVE on SONY SIX in English, SONY TEN 3 in Hindi and the newly launched SONY TEN 4 channels in Tamil and Telugu from 2.30 pm IST as well as livestreamed on its on-demand OTT platform SonyLIV.
After establishing their dominance in Australia, the Men in Blue are back in action for yet another historical series against England. To build excitement and rally support for our Indian cricket team, Sony Pictures Sports Network has launched the #BackOurBoys campaign. The campaign calls on the emotions of every Indian fan who will stand by the team through thick & thin, even as the team prepares to take on one of the toughest challenges on the English soil. The pulse of the campaign is “This is our Team India & It’s Time to #BackOurBoys.”
Links to the campaign films:
https://youtu.be/W1KWmY9hRMw
To further enhance the viewers’ experience, SPSN has announced its LIVE studio wraparound show Extraaa Innings will feature eminent panelists like Sunil Gavaskar, Shaun Pollock, Alastair Cook among others to provide their insights through the duration of the series. The LIVE studio show in English will be presented by former players like Sunil Gavaskar, Shaun Pollock, Sanjay Manjrekar, and Harsha Bhogle along with Alastair Cook, Nasser Hussain and Mike Atherton (on-ground) while the Hindi studio show will be presented by former cricketers Ashish Nehra, Virender Sehwag, Ajay Jadeja, Ajit Agarkar, Mohammad Kaif and Vivek Razdan along with Arjun Pandit. The Tamil commentary box will feature Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, WV Raman, Vidhyut Sivaramakrishnan, TR Arasu and S Seshadri while the Telugu commentary will be presented by Venkatapathy Raju, Gnaneshwar Rao, C Venkatesh, Vijay Mahavadi, RJ Hemanth and Sandeep Kumar.
SPSN will also continue to leverage their unique connect with cricket fans and try to take the game to the farthest reaches of the country. Their special presentation titled “School of Cricket” will put fans; especially kids; at the center-stage by getting their expert panelists to offer them cricketing tips. This offering was a great hit during India’s tour of Australia towards the end of last year and the sports network will continue to tap into the combined power of social media and conventional media to spread the gospel of the game.
The highly anticipated India tour of England has received a great response from advertisers across multiple sectors and the main sponsors for the series includes brands like Mahindra & Mahindra, Byju’s, Pan Bahaar, PharmEasy, Ultratech, Fogg WhatsApp, Cars 24 and MRF Tyres. Other advertisers who have come onboard to #BackourBoys are brands like Policy Bazaar, Dafa News, Paisa Bazaar, TVS Tyres, Apollo Pharmacy, Castrol, Accenture, Netmed, Housing.com, Apple, Tata Motors, Wolf 777 news, 1MG.com and Perfetti. Additionally, SPSN’s LIVE studio show, Extraaa Innings, will be sponsored by Kent RO.
Rajesh Kaul, Chief Revenue Officer, Distribution and Head – Sports Business, Sony Pictures Networks India: “Cricket has always been more than just a sport for fans in India and Sony Sports aims on giving our viewers the best of international cricket. All eyes will be on this highly anticipated test series as Team India will look to advance further from their last tour to England. With significant audiences expected to tune in, our LIVE studio show, Extraaa Innings, will provide real time insights and viewers across India can enjoy the series in four languages. We have also received tremendous response from various advertisers across Housing, finance, education, technology sectors and are confident to attract more sponsors as we progress further into the series.”
India Tour of England airs on SONY SIX in English, SONY TEN 3 in Hindi and SONY TEN 4 channels in Tamil & Telugu starting on 4th August 2021 with Extraaa Innings studio show at 2:30 pm IST followed by the match at 3.30 PM IST
