Sports channels go glam!

Noodle straps, tarot card sessions, Shaz and Waz merchandise and movies to promote sporting events. While the serious sports lover stews in frustration, a whole new set of viewers glues in for a piece of the action. The sports channels, meanwhile, are laughing all the way to the bank What started as an experiment by Max in early 2003, has developed into an epidemic. Sony's films and events channel turned vanilla cricket telecast into non stop entertainment with Mandira Bedi's banter and bold dresses last year. Mandira's success in weaning the friendly neighbourhood housewives from soap to sport, has resulted in staid Doordarshan and prim ESPN Star Sports following suit. Harsha Bhogle's serious analysis is tempered with Navjot Sidhu's now famous Sidhuisms, Donna Symonds' cutting edge commentary offset by Mandira and Tanvi Gagoi's coquettish remarks. Expert analyses during breaks are now replaced with Ravi Shastri and Wasim Akram chatting up female fans voted by the viewers in the studio. Mani Ka School on Star Sports has Maninder Singh chalking up scores on a board and the Asia Cup had a pitch nurse in a tiny tunic and nurse’s cap analysing pitch moisture and humidity. The serious sports buff is not amused. Says architect Deepesh Lall, "We don't need flavours to sport. There is no need to add glamour to an event that is already attractive," The channels don't agree. Max's reach expanded by over 30 per cent and female viewership went up by 42 per cent, average ratings for extraaa innings on Max registered a growth of 45 per cent in Cricket World Cup 2003 when compared to ICC Champions Trophy 2002 on Max," points out Max marketing and commercial vice president Tushar Shah. Rupal Seth, a student, agrees. "I wasn't a keen follower of sports, but I definitely love the Shaz and Waz show and I enjoyed Mandira. She brought cricket closer for me." Channels have been quick to spot a winning trend. Even staid pubcaster Doordarshan tried its hand at value added programming on sports by getting Tanvi Gogoi to anchor the LG Fourth Umpire with Charu Sharma early this year, edging out the more serious analysis on 'Wisden 20:20'. ESS, which had earlier decided to stay away from trivialising sport, is going the same way. In fact, the Shaz & Waz Show has apparently become so popular that the channel plans to come out with Shaz & Waz merchandise shortly, in addition to getting the two former cricketers in commercials. Needless to say, Shaz and Waz are now going to be regular features of cricket coverage on the twin sports channels. Serious sport lovers just have to grin and bear it. Channels are obviously laughing all the way to the bank. "'Extraaa innings' and live cricket on Max for the first time in fact provided a pan India platform for advertisers to target female audiences in addition to the regular advertisers, " offers Shah. Shaz and Waz have also boosted ad revenues, and ESS now also aims at the Hindi viewers with Voice Aapki - Choice Aapki hosted by the inimitable Shekhar Suman. The Hindi language programming is expected to help hike revenues by 10-15 per cent for the channel, say industry sources. Ten Sports has stayed immune to the phenomenon thus far. But one cannot be too sure. On Shaz & Waz, complains a sports buff, "Gautam Bhimani, who otherwise is an excellent presenter, is reduced to being bashed by the women nominated. And why did they have to bring in Priyanka Chopra into the show too?" he laments. Obviously, to rope in the hesitant viewer, who would love a dash of Bollywood into the proceedings! Which is probably why, ESS has brought in the Yash Chopra production Dhoom as the flavour of the month during the telecast of the English Premier League and the Asia Cup 2004. The Dhoom star cast were invitees in the Shaz & Waz show on 27 July during the India-Sri Lanka match, the first time a Bollywood movie is being promoted using live cricket programming as the marketing platform. The 'Dhoom' title song was also extensively used by ESPN to promote Asia Cup 2004. Not surprisingly, the ratings reflect the success of such programming. Voice Aapki... and Shaz and Waz feature regularly in the top 100 shows, and even wrap-up programming like the Blue Star Weather Report, Blue Star Pitch Report make it to the top. Former cricket star Krish Srikkanth too admitted recently to the media that,‘‘All channels are doing it now and cricket has become an entertainment. " Charu Sharma too has been quoted as saying that the female quotient on the show enables viewers to ask questions that millions interested in the game would be dying to ask. ‘‘As long as you can break the monotony of the game and as long as viewers do not object, it is fine. The presence of women like Tanvi enhance the concept of television being a visual medium,” he said. Mandira too took the strategy ahead with Gully Cricket and is now an integral part of Max for the upcoming Holland Cup. For the sports channels, the entertainment is just beginning.