Mumbai: Star Sports, the official broadcaster for the upcoming bilateral cricket series between India vs England, has signed as many as 18 brands as sponsors for the series that is scheduled in February-March 2021. The broadcaster has seen keen interest from categories including auto, ed-tech, e-commerce, automotive, insurance, financial services, gaming, and telecom.
The list of brands associated with the series includes Dream 11, Byju’s, Ceat, Maruti Suzuki, Kamla Pasand, Orient, Amazon, Mondelez, Pepsi, Ultratech, Policy Bazaar, Exxon Mobil, Zomato, Havells, Paisabazaar, LIC, Lenskart and Oppo.
Star Sports has a fantastic calendar of Cricket, starting with India vs England, followed by IPL 2020, and the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Live cricket in India will be back after long with Ind vs Eng series, The pink ball test is going to be a big one as it will be played during prime time.
“There is high interest in the series post the remarkable Australia win and the fact that the test will also decide India’s participation in the World Test Championship makes us confident of achieving record viewership. The series also marks the return of international cricket after a long gap, this has built great anticipation amongst the fans as well as advertisers,” said Anil Jayaraj, Executive Vice President, Star Sports.
“The two-month-long series will prove beneficial for brands, especially the day-night test which will be an exceptional opportunity for advertisers to leverage as the matches will be broadcast during prime time,” he added.
According to Star Sports, the consumption and reach of bilateral series have been growing year on year across consumer segments. With 20 playing days, the India v SL series held in Nov-Dec 2017 has generated a reach of 202 million views, while Ind vs west indies held in October-November 2018 has delivered 181 million views over 14 playing days.
The Avg. reach for a bilateral series on Star Sports telecast for 2-3 weeks typically has been close to 190 million (BARC; figures are @ 2+ U+R level) i.e. Nearly every third ‘PAID TV viewer’ (30%) tuned-in to watch the bilateral series telecast on Star Sports.
The tournament will be broadcast on the Star Sports network and streamed on Disney+ Hotstar across 5 languages –English, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu.
This test series will be a decider in India’s participation in the World Test Championship, which should create interest, buzz and thus build more viewership. Post the Border-Gavaskar trophy, India moves to the No.1 spot in the ICC World Test Championship rankings.
