PROCRICKET
CRACKING CRICKET FOR MENA VIEWERS Cricket is the world’s second most popular sport, with an estimated 2.5bn fans globally, but it hasn’t quite reached its full potential in the Middle East. At the IP Studios Future of Sports Broadcasting Summit, MENA stakeholders shared how TV has altered the game and how they are working to raise the profile of cricket in the region. N Nomani brings you the details
With cricket a multi-billion-dollar industry and the Middle East home to a large population of South Asian expatriates, Gulf media entities are looking to cash in on the big opportunity. Neeil Ojha, an award-winning cricket commentator and ICC Level 2 certified cricket coach, explored the sport’s broadcast opportunities and challenges in the region with a panel of senior executives from the broadcast industry. Ojha was joined by Ashok Namboodiri, Chief Business Officer, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited; Vivek Chandra, Director & Head of Business – MENA, ITW Consulting DMCC; and Sammer Elia, Business Development Director – MENA region, Viaccess-Orca. Developing cricket for television One key point of discussion at the panel was the inherent storytelling and hero-building aspects of the game, which Namboodiri called the two key tenets of preparing cricket for broadcast friendliness. “Cricket as a sport is custom-made for building heroes. It’s primarily because although it’s a team sport, it pits one batsman against one bowler. Every delivery is an opportunity to build a hero, whether you look at the cricketing action or the player reaction or the fan reactions. It’s all tailor-made for building heroes, unlike football or hockey where you have to look at the quarters or halves to bring in your broadcast stories. That’s one unique aspect of cricket that makes it very broadcast-friendly.” Storytelling in cricket encompasses how the broadcaster builds the narrative for a series or a particular match. The process starts with the pre-shows, post-shows and midshows, where broadcasters start highlighting the key players of the tournament and whom audiences should watch out
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for. At this stage the look and feel of the broadcast is tailormade for specific markets or franchises and broadcasters to “focus not only on the game per se, but on what the heroes or franchise mean to the fans”, Namboodiri said. “There’s ample opportunity to build that narrative as you go along.” Cricket also has very sophisticated technical backing across the world. It was first aired on TV in England in 1938, which faced a lot of resistance as the organisers thought it would impede ticketing revenues. The game has seen massive technological innovations since that controversial broadcast. “It has progressed from covering matches with just three or four cameras and only live, to eight, ten and 20 cameras in the next decade. In the 2019 World Cup, 36 cameras were deployed for covering the broadcast. Technology has evolved significantly, moving from live to replays to AR/VR to all kinds of simulations that can now be done, which makes both storytelling and hero building very possible,” said Namboodiri. For advertisers, the nature of the game also lends itself hugely to commercial viability. Every aspect of the game, from a change in bowlers to a drinks break to a player walking back to the pavilion, presents itself as an advertising opportunity. “When you produce cricket for TV, you’ve got to keep track of all these four aspects: the technology, the hero building, the storytelling and the commercial aspect,” summed up Namboodiri. Chandra seconded this, adding that India’s historic win at the 1983 World Cup is the perfect case study for several reasons. For instance, that tournament changed the commercial outlook of the sport. Within just four years, the game was sponsored by India’s largest company, Reliance Industries. Chandra attributed this change to hero building and pride. The 1983 win was a major contributor to both factors, and since then there has only been an upsurge in the commercial
