MUMBAI: Star Sports has roped in three sponsors including Amul, Dabur, and Tata DoCoMo for the inaugural Hockey India League (HIL).
The sportscaster had launched a high decibel 360 degree marketing campaign to promote HHIL across various communication platforms with the core theme as ‘Ladoh Toh Aise‘ - Or "Fight Like this". McCann Erickson India led by Prasoon Joshi and his team conceptualised the campaign.
"We have tried to capture the aggressive and positive attitude required to fight leveraging on speed and physicality of hockey in our campaign. To make it happen, we flew in celebrated ad-film director Nick Livesey from England who has shot hockey in an iconic new way," said ESPN Software India MD Aloke Malik.
The sports broadcaster has roped in former India cricketer and Member of Parliament Navjot Singh Sidhu as the brand ambassador of the league.
The HIL will be broadcast in English and Hindi on Star Sports and Star Cricket in addition to being streamed live on YouTube.
The league will be broadcast with Hindi commentary on Star Sports while Star Cricket will broadcast select matches of the league in English. A total of 22 matches will be broadcast in English commentary on Star Cricket.
Star Sports will broadcast 31 matches, while two matches will be broadcast on ESPN and one match is scheduled on ESPN HD. There will also be a 30-minute highlight capsule each match day after the airing of the last match.
Live streaming of all the matches would also be available on youtube.com/thehockeyindialeague.
A total of 34 matches will be played across 24 match days on home and away basis across five franchisee cities namely Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Jalandhar and Ranchi. HIL. The event, kicking off this Monday, will end on 10 February.
"As official broadcasters, we will showcase hockey in a completely new avatar. It will be a TV experience relevant to India‘s young sports audience. We will have HD production supported by new camera angles for sharper imagery. We will support the telecast with vibrant color stories to sustain viewer interest through the league. For providing our viewers with a sharp, incisive and engaging view of the game both in Hindi and English language, we have put in place an illustrious panel of experts as well," said Malik.
The broadcaster unveiled a panel of hockey experts and presenters who will do commentary on live telecast as well as pre and post match analysis through the league.
The Hindi commentary panel includes eminent former Indian Hockey players like Mir Ranjan Negi, Jugraj Singh, Deepak Thakur, Mohammed Shahid and Pargat Singh. The English commentary panel comprises of Viren Rasquinha, Cedric D‘Souza, AB Subbaiah and Sandeep Somesh.
