Airtel Xstream Fiber is the presenting sponsor, with MPL, Nescafé, Noise, OLX Autos, and Vida as associate sponsors. According to Chaitanya Divan, Head of Sports, Prime Video, India, the company is in the final stages of negotiating with one more co-presenting sponsor.
Prime Video India, which launched as a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) platform in the country in 2016, is set to introduce advertising for the first time. The advertisements, however, will be limited to the India-New Zealand cricket series, for which the OTT platform service has exclusive subcontinental streaming rights.
Airtel Xstream Fiber is the presenting sponsor, with MPL, Nescafé, Noise, OLX Autos, and Vida as associate sponsors. According to Chaitanya Divan, Head of Sports, Prime Video, India, the company is in the final stages of negotiating with one more co-presenting sponsor.
“This is the first time that Prime Video India would offer advertisements to our users. It’s something that a lot of partners have talked to us about because we have an Amazon advertising business outside of Prime Video, and some of these partners are obviously very interested in reaching out to this very premium customer base that Prime Video offers, so we’ve seen a very positive response,” Divan told ET.
However, he stated that during the company’s customer outreach on advertising, what stuck out in terms of criticism was that the volume of advertising and commercial messages in a live cricket game distracts consumers and ruins the whole viewing experience.
“We’ve made a deliberate decision to keep the number of intrusions and commercial messages in our live feed to a minimum.” “We aim to create a terrific experience for live cricket streaming,” Divan explained. “The nicest aspect is that advertisers see the value of giving out commercial brand messaging in an uncluttered setting… It means we’ll have fewer ads and on-screen interruptions while still providing the best cricket experience possible for our customers.”
Under the necessary sharing agreement for games of national importance, Prime Video will exclusively stream the matches, while the TV feed will be available only on Prasar Bharati’s free-to-air channel on DD FreeDish.
According to Sushant Sreeram, director Of SVOD business, Prime Video, India, the firm has been trying to provide users with a consistent experience across devices like as web browsers, mobile devices, internet-connected TVs, set-top boxes, Fire TV sticks, and other suitable devices.
Globally, Prime Video has begun to invest in live sports, in addition to its library of entertainment material, which includes movies and original content. The service has rights to NFL Thursday night football in the United States, the English Premier League in the United Kingdom, and a few notable properties in specific markets.
Prime Video has opted to provide live commentary and match programming in five languages, including English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu, as well as graphics in these languages.
It has also enlisted the services of Ravi Shastri, Zaheer Khan, Harsha Bhogle, Ashish Nehra, Gundappa Viswanath, Anjum Chopra, Venkatpathy Raju, and others as commentators in several languages.
“We’ve spent a lot of time working with our product and technical teams to ensure that we have an exceptionally strong, high-quality experience for our customers across devices, and we’re ready for pretty much the entire country to tune in,” Sriram added. “I believe that this upcoming series will be a watershed point in the history of Prime Video in India.” We have very lofty goals, and it appears that we are meeting all of them.”
The series is significant for India since it will attempt to clear the record against the Kiwis, who eliminated the Men in Blue from the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup and defeated India in the inaugural World Test Championship final in 2021.
