IPL viewership has set new records this year and encashing on it, Disney Star, the official broadcaster, has added 11 million more paid subscribers in the first month of IPL to reach nine out of 10 Indian pay TV homes. In an interview with ET Online’s Gourab Das, Gurjeev Singh Kapoor, Head – Distribution and International at Disney Star, said they had a three-pronged approach ranging from working with affiliates to new interactive features on live TV to penetrate deeper into the market.

How did your distribution numbers change in recent months, particularly with the ongoing Indian Premier League?

Gurjeev Singh Kapoor: Before IPL started, Star Sports reached 8 out of 10 pay TV households and we went on a mission to take it further deep and we are happy to quote that after the first 20-25 days of IPL, we are present in 9 out of 10 pay TV homes. We have added 11 million homes by doing upselling and cross-selling through our partnership programs which we have run with our affiliates. What has been the driving force behind this and what were your strategies?

Gurjeev Singh Kapoor: IPL is a marquee property for subscriber growth. We collaborated deeply with our partners with the mission to take Star Sports to every household in the country. We worked out on a three-pronged strategy where we collaborated with our affiliate partners. This was not just transactional, but a complete collaborative work where we went with a joint vision in the market, with the aim of getting more subscribers and to delight & engage with them. We have worked with our partners to create joint marketing plans, not just with the MSOs and DTH partners, but also with their LCOs and DTH retailers, to attract new subscribers.

Secondly, we focused on offering Star Sports as a part of our value packs which provides wholesome entertainment for families across genres. The third is our regionalisation strategy. By providing dedicated sports channels in multiple languages, we have given viewers the choice to enjoy their favourite sport in the language they are most comfortable in. This has been a game-changer in the industry.

The BARC results are out, and for the first 29 matches we had 409 million viewers, which is 37 million higher than the previous IPL edition. And the viewership saw a 24% increase in the first 29 matches.

We also came out with our interactive offerings for our customers and tied up with the likes of Airtel and Tata Play. Interactive features like instant highlights, key moments, and the stats feed were really appreciated by the subscribers.

Some IPL matches were broadcast for free on Star Utsav Movies. What was the strategy behind that for the free to air matches?

Gurjeev Singh Kapoor: There is an audience on Free Dish who did not get to view IPL in the past and this strategy was to give an opportunity for the viewers on Free Dish to sample IPL. BARC estimates the Free Dish viewers to be about 42 million. We built a narrative and a campaign where we encouraged people to move from Free to Pay TV by just paying Rs 19 for Star Sports 1; and this really worked for us.

Do you have any data to see how many of these were transferred into the pay TV channels?

Gurjeev Singh Kapoor: It is difficult to pinpoint on whether the new connections are coming from Free Dish or are they from reactivations or if they are new to the TV category as this information is not separately tracked. But if you look at the total number that I have mentioned before, I think the numbers speak for themselves. We have good subscriber growth coming in from the HSM market and this is a testament to the fact that our strategy has worked well for us.

Do you think the pricing of channels is fair at the moment?

Gurjeev Singh Kapoor: After a period of four years, the regulator has allowed us to take an increase. In the past four years, we did not even get an inflationary increase. And even so, what we have done is for a channel like Star Sports, where the cost of rights have increased many folds, we have not even increased the price of Star Sports 1 HD or SD channels. So, the a-la-carte price of the channel remains at Rs 19.

We have not burdened any of our subscribers who are taking Star Sports on an a-la-carte basis. Even for our packages, we have been very mindful. We are aware that essentials are becoming expensive for the consumers at large and in this kind of a scenario, we need to be careful with our pricing strategy. Just to quote you an example, in the HSM market, we have taken price increases on packages not more than 10% and that 10% is after a period of four years. This strategy was to make sure that our viewers can continue watching their favourite content at affordable rates.

How has the adoption rate looked like for a-la-carte and packages?

Gurjeev Singh Kapoor: While I can’t comment on the adoption rate, what I can tell you is that we are extremely thrilled with the response we have received for both our packages as well as a-la-carte offerings. Given the affordability element, it has been accepted very well. As mentioned, the sports channels are still available at Rs 19, and we have not burdened our subscribers with the increased cost of sporting rights which has gone up many folds.

What is the share of HD channels and the SD channels in viewership in India?

Gurjeev Singh Kapoor: Let’s take a step back, I would like to talk about our channel mix as a network. We have 77 channels and out of these 40% are HD. In India, there is a good adoption of HD channels. According to BARC, today we have 75 million HD homes and our focus is to grow the HD market. People prefer watching Sports in HD as it provides a far superior viewing experience with features like a wider picture, five times sharper picture, and 5.1 Dolby surround sound making it a stadium like experience at home. Our Sports portfolio has 17 channels out of which seven are HD. In addition to Hindi and English HD channels, this year we launched two more HD sports channels, which are Star Sports 1 Tamil HD and Star Sports 1 Telugu HD.

As per BARC Data, for the first 29 matches of IPL, we have 66 million reach on HD, which is three times the reach from the previous IPL.

How much has the regional language commentary helped to lift viewership?

Gurjeev Singh Kapoor: We have been pioneers in regionalisation of sports in the country. It has always been core to our strategy. This has been a big game changer since fans love watching sports in the language they understand and relate to. This year our IPL offering is in nine languages – English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bangla, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam and Gujarati. This has been a big growth vector for us and we have seen good consumer traction in markets like West Bengal, AP/ Telangana, Maharashtra and Gujarat.