Viacom18 plans to step into sports broadcasting

Media house has been slowly building its sports portfolio by acquiring rights to multiple global sports competitions.

Viacom18 has been slowly expanding its sports broadcasting portfolio with onboarding multiple sports competitions around the world.

Viacom18 began its journey into the field when it acquired the media rights for the 2018 Nidahas Trophy, a T20 tournament played between India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, which saw the series being aired on its movie channel, Rishtey Cineplex. The media rights of that tournament were shared with Discovery Communications’ sports channel, DSport. 

Viacom18 had also recently attained the media rights for the ‘Road Safety World Series’, a cricket league featuring retired international stars such as Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Brett Lee, Virender Sehwag and Jonty Rhodes among others.

Earlier this year, the media house acquired the broadcasting rights for LaLiga in India. Spain’s top division of football currently airs on Viacom18’s MTV channel apart from being available for live streaming on Jio platforms and Voot. It is to be noted that Viacom18 is a joint venture between ViacomCBS and Mukesh Ambani’s Network18. 

Apart from LaLiga, Viacom18 has also signed a three-year deal for full broadcasting rights for Serie A, the Italian topflight of football, in India, starting with the 2021/22 season. Ambani’s Reliance Jio currently owns the broadcast rights for the Carabao Cup as well along with VH1.

Aside from LaLiga and Serie A, Viacom18 has also secured the digital and television rights for the Abu Dhabi T10 league on a multi-year agreement that will see the cricket tournament streaming on Colours Cineplex SD and Rishtey Cineplex in Hindi and on Colours Cineplex HD in English. 

Nina Elavia Jaipuria, Head of Hindi mass entertainment and kids TV network at Viacom18, spoke about the Abu Dhabi T10 league deal, stating: “Sporting events have always attracted a wide spectrum of audiences and we have been successfully experimenting with sports content on our network. The Abu Dhabi T10 collaboration is a bold step in further enhancing our sports content mix and we are hopeful it will help us expand our viewer and sponsor base.”

Jaipuria also spoke about Viacom18’s future plans about venturing into the sports broadcasting industry: “We are always exploring white spaces. We are getting into sports to evoke emotion, to establish ourselves as a wholesome entertainer. However, launching a sports portfolio is a tough, expensive business call as it has a very high entry barrier and a lot of it has to be measured before you take that call. It has to be a serious, strategic long-term discussion.”

Reports suggest that Viacom18 are one of the four media giants who are vying for the broadcast and streaming rights for the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League. Star India holds the current rights, having won the bid for the 2018 – 2021 cycle which was reportedly worth INR 16,347 crore.