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MUMBAI:
The Great Khali, standing 7 feet 3 inches, has brought in
new audiences for Ten Sports which telecasts the popular show
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) daily.
Taj
Television India MD Rukin Kizilbash admits that the local
presence of Khali has helped the sports channel grow its WWE
viewership by 15 per cent year-on-year.
Which
is why Ten Sports is on a marketing overdrive and has brought
down Dalip Singh (Khali's name) to India.
“We
have been receiving many emails over the past year from fans
who wanted to see him in person. We tied up with Pepsi, Tata
Indicom, Parle and Dish TV. We decided on a two-city tour,
comprising an event and a client party. In Delhi, we had a
sellout crowd of 3000 people. We replicated a WWE stage,”
said Kizilbash on the sidelines of a media briefing.
 Spinning
around the event, Ten Sports carried out a slew of interactive
initiatives. Mountain Dew, for instance, got fans to send
SMS, with the promise that the best one would get entries
to the events in Mumbai and Delhi.
Ten Sports also plans to get another star down later this
year like Shawn Michaels or HHH or Batista.
WWE
works as as a high tune in, second only to India cricket in
the sports genre. Ten Sports uses the platform to push its
other properties. For instance with Australia’s tour
of the West Indies kicking off shortly, promos of the upcoming
clash will air on Raw and SmackDown!.
The
viewership for WWE has evolved over the period. while a lot
of WWE viewers used to be in the 4-14 age group, now the 14-35
age group has also become important. “45 per cent of
our audience is women. This is not professional wrestling,
after all. It is an entertainment sport, like a soap that
the whole family can watch. The shift in viewer profile is
also being reflected in the advertisers we have. Earlier there
used to be a lot of kids brands like Perfetti. Now we have
the likes of Levers and Pepsi on board,” said Kizilbash.
WWE
director marketing and distribution Nicola Reeves said India
is the main market for the company in Asia. “ In fact
it is our second biggest market after the US due to its size.
Asia is the emerging market for us in the coming five years.
It will grow the fastest and India will lead this growth.
This is why five months back we set up an office in Sydney.”
Reeves
explained that the aim is to grow the WWE brand in India and
Asia in different areas apart from television viewership.
One of these is live events involving Raw, SmackDown and ECW.
Right now there is a programme every year for Australia and
New Zealand. The aim is to take it to Asian markets in 2009
and 2010, in conjunction with broadcast partners.
WWE,
for instance, recently renewed its deal with StarHub in Singapore.
"Holding live events will also depend on the infrastructure
in that country. It will also depend on where gaps can be
found in a hectic schedule," Reeves said.
WWE is still gathering information about what Asian audiences
want and what works in a certain market. Reeves explained
that in the US live events are as important a revenue generator
as is television. That is why there has been more focus on
doing live events in Europe in recent years. In the UK, the
WWE does two events each year.
The
other key area for growth is in the licensing and merchandising
arena. This is usually led by DVD sales and is then followed
by things like T-shirts. In India, though, the obstacle lies
in high import duties. WWE has a deal in India with telecom
content company Phoney Tunes.
WWE
will be releasing both a 3-disc deluxe DVD package and the
2-disc Blu-ray version of WrestleMania XXIV later this month
in the US and other markets. It has a subscription Video on
Demand service (SvoD) which features classic matches. The
company is talking with telecom companies to finalise deals
in this regard across Asia, Reeves said.
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