Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) has signed a one-year principal sponsorship agreement with Huawei India, the China-based global information and communications technology (ICT) company that set up business in Bangalore fifteen years ago.
The company has been associated with Arsenal, Paris SG Football Club and Canberra Raiders, Australia.
Welcoming Huawei’s maiden entry into cricket, RCB captain Virat Kohli said at a media event on Sunday: “Firstly it’s an honour for RCB to be associated with Huawei, which is associated with a few major sporting properties in the world.
“We are looking forward to the partnership and hopefully this will be RCB’s year in the IPL especially having the Huawei logo on the front part of the RCB jersey. Maybe it was the lucky logo we needed in the past few years.”
Touching a bit on Pepsi-IPL-7, which will be initially played in the UAE, Kohli said he’s excited and looking forward to the UAE part. “We have a great team, great bunch of guys and all are raring to perform well. We really do well every year and excite a lot of people in India. A lot of people love our team because of the way we play. Hopefully we will entertain all fans and go a few more steps ahead to get that trophy.
“We have added a few more quality players to the side and I am sure we will come out with flying colours. We have been trying hard every year to win the tournament. We have a strong team, a good combination this year and we will utilise them to win the title,” concluded Kohli.
The Royal Challengers will be playing their inaugural match on April 17, 2014 at the Sharjah Stadium, in Sharjah, UAE. This will be the second match of the tournament. The Challengers will also be playing five matches in their home ground at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, India.
Star India to take StarSports.com a notch higher during IPL
MUMBAI: Star India’s digital sports destination will get a huge leg up in visibility as the broadcaster has decided to promote StarSports.com as the official on-ground sponsor during the seventh season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Star, which has a three-year sponsorship deal with the IPL worth Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion), had used the IPL platform to promote its flagship Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) Star Plus last year. It must be noted that Star India had partnered Times Internet Ltd (TIL) to stream IPL matches on StarSports.com.
The broadcaster will synergise IPL sponsorship to encourage cricket fans to watch the IPL online on StarSports.com. By streaming the cricket league on StarSports.com, Star has signalled its bigger intentions for the cash-rich property much to the dislike of official IPL broadcaster Multi Screen Media (MSM). “The message this season will be that people can watch the IPL online on StarSports.com,” Star India COO Sanjay Gupta said.
Star India is running a campaign across its channels and on other networks also telling sports fans to watch the IPL online on StarSports.com. Asked if Star is trying to ambush MSM by streaming the IPL on StarSports.com, Gupta said that the digital coverage will complement the television coverage. “Given a choice, people would rather watch the matches on television if they are at home.
The digital platform is used when they are out of the home. The television and digital mediums will complement each other during the IPL,” he states. Gupta also says that the on-ground sponsorship gives an opportunity for content integration. “Last time we did the ‘Star Plus Nayi Soch Awards’. This time we are figuring out how to take things forward.” He adds that there are no plans on the part of Star to do a sponsorship deal with any of the franchises.
“We are happy with the investment that we have made. Doing a regional deal with a franchise would not allow for any content integration opportunity. That is why we took the on-ground opportunity when it arose.” The Star India honcho feels that the shift to the UAE will not affect viewership. “For us, the target of the on-ground sponsorship is on-air viewership.
I don’t see this number being affected by the IPL taking place abroad for a limited period of time. Our target is on-air viewership because on-ground you will only get 30–40,000 people in a match. On air, you will get crores of people watching a match. Therefore, visibility on the ground for us is limited compared to what Sony will deliver on-air,” he avers.
Positive advertiser response
Star has already roped in few advertisers as sponsors for IPL online streaming. “A few deals have been closed. HUL is one brand that is with us. Other deals are being done. The viewership on StarSports.com for the T20 World Cup was much more than what it was online during last season’s IPL on YouTube. This has given advertisers the confidence to do business with us. “More smartphones are being sold, which means more audience for mobile video watching. The second factor for the great performance of StarSports.com during the T20 World Cup is that connectivity has improved with 3G. The third reason is the experience that StarSports.com offers.”
Pepsi IPL 2014 announces global broadcast partners
MUMBAI: As the Indian Premier League explores new avenues this season by making a debut in the UAE, the coverage of the tournament will be bigger and wider than ever before. The Pepsi IPL 2014 will reach a worldwide audience over television, internet and mobile devices through some of the best broadcasters of the respective regions.
Looking at the television broadcast space; Pepsi IPL 2014 will be available on IMG in the Caribbean, PCCW in Hong Kong, OSN Network in the Middle East, StarHub in Singapore, SuperSport in Sub-Saharan Africa, Set Max and Sony Six in India, Geo Super in Pakistan, Maasaranga TV in Bangladesh, Carlton Sports Network in Sri Lanka, ITV Networks in UK, Sportsnet in Canada Rogers, Willow TV international in US, Sky NZ in New Zealand, Measat (Astro) in Malaysia and EMTV in Papua New Guinea.
With the Pepsi IPL 2014 also reaching out to the world on the internet, the list of operators who will be partnering with IPL for the same are: GoCricket.com & Starsports.com in India; willow.tv in US; Rogers in Canada; OSN for Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Gaza Strip, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, West Bank, Yemen; TBC in Pakistan; for rest of the world GoCricket.com and 404 Not Found
As for mobile streaming, in India StarSports.com & nexGTV/GoCricket (apps) will be providing all the action from the field. And for outside India youtube.com/gocricket and GoCricket apps will be the destination to catch the live action.
Chennai Super Kings unveil jersey, announce new sponsorship deal
Abu Dhabi: Chennai Super Kings unveiled their jersey - which has only minor logo changes - for the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League, here on Monday. A sponsorship deal with a California based IT services and solutions company was also announced.
The unveiling of the jersey and the announcement of the partnership was made during a press conference in the UAE capital, ahead of the IPL which begins from Wednesday.
Chennai Super Kings will begin their IPL 7 campaign against Kings XI Punjab at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium here on April 18.
Our match jersey is the same with a few diff sponsors,practice 1 has more blue in it compared to yellow which is looking good
— Mahendra Singh Dhoni (@msdhoni) April 14, 2014
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