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- The importance of technology
- The IPL, and cricket with it, has become as large and widely spread as it has thanks to developments in technology resulting in accessibility to a much more extended audience. Furthermore, technology has defiantly helped create a more attractive and entertaining environment also contributing to the popularity of the game. Obviously the impacts of technological changes have moreover been large for teams, leagues, players along with referees, and not only for fans.
I love the IPL for this, and i hope all sports leagues would take example of this :-P screw the broadcasters!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteApart from this, fans can view the matches for free in public venues such as food courts in numerous shopping malls.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the public viewing in Sydney in 2006 during the Ashes (AUS - ENG) Unfortunately it was rather chilled and no one cheering so it didn't catch my interest (and I didn't understand the rules), but public viewing is always great and even more if its free!
ReplyDeleteThis is incredible and it is probably a great business strategy. The IPL understand the potential for global reach, but the fan audiences are probably too concentrated in a few geographic locations to get any favorable international broadcasting contract. So instead of being happy to make a few millions it is allowing users to watch events for free. This allows IPL to make the viewer happy, as there are no extra costs once the internet connection is in place. In addition it has control over the quality of the commentators and other aspects.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with it, as the global audience increases, is the relevance of advertisements, the language and other factors. The ads that are broadcasted cannot easily be personalized to the country where the IPL is being watched, but the ads on the website can with simple coding and detection of the IP address. The language of commentators will also be an issue of it is only in english and someone in China is watching it and doesn't speak english, although a cricket fan might also be more inclined to speaking english.
In general i favor the approach as it also disables illegal broadcasting that happens for all other sports, adds value to the IPL brand, enhances the world viewership, but there will be the need for increase in economical returns which cannot only be achieved through merchandise and tickets: there will be a need of personalized content for specific geographies. I do imagine that the model is also working well right now as many of the international viewers must be Indian expatriates. (maybe Luv you could confirm/disprove this last assumption?)
Apart from merchandise and tickets, IPL gets revenue from the large list of sponsorship deals it has (Main sponsors, mobile partners, mobile application sponsors, strategic timeout partner, etc.) and also from the owners of the teams (recently 2 more teams were created and sold for the next season in 2011).
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Claudio's last comment. But with the 2nd season being held successfully in South Africa and after ICC's acceptance of having a permanent window in its calendar (this means that no international cricket matches would be held during the IPL) I believe that more foreign viewers are getting attracted mainly because of the large number of foreign players involved.
I agree with a lot of Claudio's comments, very true. But about the billboard or advertising issue I just want to comment that for advertisement ads are often times personalized per country (so for example for the UEFA Champions League Heineken's commercials on Bulgarian TV will be in Bulgarian).
ReplyDeleteAs for the electronic billboards in the stadiums, I know from inside intelligence that very soon there will be a technology out that allows to virtually change these billboards depending on your location!!! So let's say a billboard in one of the stadiums during the World Cup in South Africa features the logo of a South African beer, now it would appear on your screen here in Spain as the logo of Estrella Damm or San Miguel!
Pretty crazy I must say, and again, another step forward to getting more money in the sport industry...