The Curious Case of Indian Sports Consumers
Deep diving in the Indian sports consumption ecosystem
To say India is a complex country is massively understating it. Between 1.2 million square miles lies a unified diversity of 28 states, 8 union territories, 22 official and 447 native languages, a deep heritage, very colourful cultures and last but not the least a home to 1.3 billion people or almost 17.14% of the world’s population.
In the midst of all this diversity, there are two things that unite Indians unequivocally, cricket and movies. While not so much in case of movies but it is definitely a lopsided environment favouring cricket over other sports in India, in terms of viewership and brand spends both. It can be looked as a huge challenge as well as a big opportunity for other sports to grow and establish commercially in India. In any case, it’s definitely worth exploring the intricate and curious case of the Indian sports consumer
How Large is Sports Consumption in India?
Like all things in India, there isn’t any straight answer to this J
Unfortunately, a figure about the total sports loving audience does not exist. In order to find a reasonable one, I have dared to consider few assumptions
1. All sports loving audiences watch sports over linear satellite television or digital streaming. India is still a television dominated market, so the number of TV viewership could be assumed as the universe. According to BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council India), India has 210 million TV homes and 892 million individual viewers
2. IPL is the most dominant sports event and every cricket loving audience would have watched IPL 2021, the most viewed IPL season. A similar study for IPL conducted by BARC shows the first 35 matches had 380 million viewership in 2021
3. According to the FICCI - EY Media & Entertainment report in March 2022, cricket retains the lion’s share of TV sports viewership with 79% (data sourced through TAM AdEX) share with the rest of the sports combined make up for the balance 21% share
Combining second and third point, it can be assumed that thetotal sports consuming audiencein India can be 380 million + approximately 25% more, totaling to475 million, that is approximately 53% of Indian TV audience or roughly 35% of Indian population
This, in no way, means 475m odd people are sports fans in entirety, but just an indication of how many people watch sports on TV, the most dominant medium of sports viewing in India
The Indian Sports Consumption Pattern?
It is more than common knowledge that Indians really prefer to watch cricket. The challenge is to analyze Indian sports consumption patterns beyond cricket. This is what I dare to try and attempt
Starting with the EY-FICCI Media & Entertainment report 2022 glimpse
Further analyzing the viewership figures of Indian Super League football or Pro Kabaddi League independently, the consumption patterns seem to indicate a combination of two or more sports, like Cricket + Wrestling or Cricket + Football and so on
Deep-diving into the top four sports
Football
A fast-rising sport in the country, football is counted amongst the top three sports in terms of viewership and followers. With the emergence of Indian Super League in 2014, a keen interest has developed and the league registered a 3.42 billion viewing minutes in 2021, as recorded by BARC India. With a claimed average of 28 minutes viewing time per viewer by Star India, we can estimate ISL to have approximately 120 million viewers.
The most popular global football property, English Premier League is also very keenly followed and Premier League claims to have 155 million active fans in India.
Somewhere in middle of these two, we can assume approximately 120-150 million football fans in India
The next metric to understand is where do these fans come from. Unlike cricket which is omnipresent across the country, football is skewed towards certain states in India, particularly the states of West Bengal, the eight north-eastern states, Kerala, Goa. These states have historically been aligned towards football.
An interesting thing to note here is, although the viewership numbers seem quite minimal in the map but the actual numbers might be surprising when it comes to the areas with high consumer spending power like the cities of Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune. All these cities have a very active football interest and have active and official fan clubs of the top six Premier League Clubs. Hell, Chelsea FC has more than 80 official supporters’ clubs throughout India across more than 50 small & big cities
Wrestling
Traditionally a favourite sport of the rural heartlands of India, it was turned into the next big thing with the introduction of Pro Wrestling League in 2015. Since then it (along with Kabaddi) has captured the imagination of urban audiences as well and taken the nation by surprise
The inaugural season in 2015 saw a viewership of 47.56 million on the opening day. Since then in 2018, it averages to have a 33 million viewership. Since the last two years, PWL was not held due to the pandemic, but this no way diminishes the fan base
It is important to underline the impact of WWE in India. An average WWE Monday Night Raw episode regularly rakes in about 4 million viewership and WWE SmackDown sees 3 million while the lesser known NXT surpassed 1 million. This is more than double that of the US average
Strong viewership comes from the states of Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh in case of PWL. For the lack of any concrete data, the most of WWE viewership map can be assumed to be from the urban conglomeration of Tier I cities though it does catch the fancy of Indian rural audience too
Kabaddi
Once a domain of rural India, the ancient sport of Kabaddi grew leaps and bounds after the introduction of Pro Kabaddi League in 2014. From relative obscurity with minimal wages, the star players command a salary in upwards of $100,000 in a season
According to Nielsen Sports, interest levels in Kabaddi has grown by 14% year-over-year since 2015, while interest in the Pro Kabaddi League has grown by 33%, making it the second-most popular and watched sports league on TV in India after the Indian Premier League
The 2021 season of PKL saw 1.2 billion impressions, an assumption of 15 minutes of viewing time per viewer gives us roughly 80 million Kabaddi viewers in India. This is merely a calculated assumption on the erroneous side
A strong affinity from the South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh/Telangana & Karnataka, the Western state of Maharashtra/Goa and the Northern states of Punjab/Haryana show the popular regions of Kabaddi. Like other sports, Kabaddi has also seen a strong viewership from the top cities in India with a good female viewership share
Esports - The Rising Giant
Virtually unknown few years ago, Esports has grown tremendously in the last few years. Deep penetration of smart phones and cheap internet has given esports a major boost. Add the infusion of investments, rise of gaming platforms and the inclusion in the upcoming Asian Games, esports is on its way to become of the top sports in India
According to a report from EY in June 2021, the 17 million viewership was generated across 14 broadcast platforms. This is poised to grow to, hold your breath, 85 million viewers by 2025. Force to reckon with?
Sum of it All
The diversity and varied sports preferences of the Indian audience makes it a very challenging, interesting and also complex ecosystem for sports properties to operate and grow. This is all the more important for international properties and rights holders who have to understand the curious Indian sports consuming audience deeply, to be successful
In the upcoming article, I will explore the best possible way to occupy a place in the Indian minds for the international properties