The fourth edition of the International League T20 — United Arab Emirates' premier franchise cricket offering — commenced in front a packed Dubai International Cricket Stadium, with Ali Zafar performing in the opening ceremony.
Like the previous three editions, six teams will be competing in this edition, five of them being sister franchises of Indian teams in the Indian Premier League and Women's Premier League, namely — MI Emirates, Abu Dhabi Knight Riders, Dubai Capitals, Gulf Giants and Sharjah Warriorz. Competing the quartet will be Desert Vipers, owned by Manchester United's co-owner, Avram Glazer. The league will feature former Indian players in Dinesh Karthik and Piyush Chawla, alongside India's U-19 World Cup winning captain, Unmukt Chand.
This edition of the competition can be seen live on &Pictures SD, Zee Cinema HD, Zee Action, Zee Thirai – SD, Zee Cinemalu and OTT platform Zee 5. Ahead of the competition, The Quint spoke with Laxmi Shetty, Head – Advertisement Revenue, Broadcast and Digital, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.
Here are excerpts from the interview.
Can you explain your broadcast and platform strategy for showcasing the ILT20 this season?
Currently we are showcasing this on five of our entertainment channels, and we are also streaming it live on Zee5, which is available in seven different languages. We don’t have a dedicated sports channel, but we do have male-dominated movie channels, which is why we’re putting this on &Pictures — our Hindi movie channel — and Zee Cinema HD, again a Hindi movie channel that gets strong traction from younger and male audiences.
We’re also looking at a free-to-air channel that speaks to tier-2 and tier-3 towns, which is Zee Anmol Cinema 2. That’s the mix we’re looking at, so we ensure we capture audiences who are used to watching movies but also want a different flavour from time to time. Like I said, the mindset today is that people constantly crave something new, and this gives audiences a good mix while also bringing in an entirely new set of viewers.
The other thing we’re doing, from a promotions point of view, is integrating ILT20 mentions into our regular non-fiction shows to drive audiences towards it. So if there’s a non-fiction show, we’re talking about ILT20 and telling viewers, ‘Come watch with us on so-and-so channel.’ We recently had Grand Masti 4 as a movie promotion where all three big stars spoke about ILT20.
How significant is it for the league to now have Indian players involved, and do you expect this number to grow?
It is a good start with three Indian players coming in. Earlier, the league was anticipated or visualised as being non-Indian, but with three Indian players coming in, home representation always matters and it gives a good boost for viewership. So yes, three players have come in. I don’t see an issue with more coming in going forward.
And with more and more, like you said, big Indian franchisees invested in this league, I think we’ll get to see more Indians coming in as well over a period of time.
Why is it important for 'Z' to invest in sports, especially at the regional level?
We are present across genres, and we are present across all audience sets. This is one audience set we do not want to let go of. In India, there are a lot of regional sports that play a very important role — be it Kabaddi, Kushti, or football. And the most important thing is that we are a network that connects with the cultures and subcultures of every market.
For example, in Tamil Nadu, we are coming up with the Tamil Nadu Kabaddi League, which at one point nobody knew about — but it’s big. Similarly, we’re looking at the Maharashtra Kushti League. So we are looking at investing in sports, but a large amount of it will be regional sporting events or talent-led sporting events.
As a company, we believe in grooming talent, discovering talent, and showcasing their capability. That’s also the reason we got into ILT20 — because you get a new set of talent that blossoms. In the same way, we’re looking at making regional sports big as well.
What drives your strategy of expanding into multiple content spaces, including regional sports?
All kinds of content and all kinds of geographies and all kinds of cohorts — age cohorts or audience cohorts — is what we are into. So we want to capture all kinds of audience sets across geographies. And for that, if we need to get into sports, including regional sports, why not?
We are in every space where we get the right audience mix, and we want to cater to all kinds of audiences. Hence, we look at all kinds of content pieces.
Beyond regional sports, what other sporting categories are you exploring for the future?
So, over and above the regional sports, we are also looking at sports that might interest India — like baseball and pickleball, which are actually growing in our country as well. You have that kind of youth; not everybody can get into cricket. There are a lot of experts and a lot of kids who are invested in these sports.
Why not look at every kind of sport? We actually want to get into sports that can grow in India. Baseball and pickleball are something we will be broadcasting as well, including shows from a global set, so that Indian audiences get the hang of these and we get that kind of talent coming up too. This is something that is part of our future intent.
Speaking with The Quint, here's what Z's Chief Sales Officer Gunjarav Nayak had to say.
Beyond cricket, what other sports is the network focusing on to strengthen its presence across regions?
We are doing baseball, we are doing pickleball. As a network that appeals not only to Hindi audiences but also to language audiences — like Maharashtra, West Bengal or the southern markets where prominence is very high — these are the kinds of activities through which we are trying to build our presence.
Other than cricket, we are present across all sports as well. That’s the objective behind building sports beyond cricket across the Zee network.