Big brands bet on World Cup fever in India, where cricket is ‘religion’

Agencies
June 28, 2019

Bengaluru, Jun 28: Indian advertisers are on track to spend more than USD 400 million during this year’s ICC Cricket World Cup, looking to cash in on a mania that is smashing viewing records in the world’s biggest market for the sport.

About 1.5 billion people are expected to watch the tournament worldwide, more than 15 times the audience for the Super Bowl of American football.

From ride-hailing firm Uber to tech giant Samsung Electronics and snacks maker Mondelez, companies are banking on television, radio and online campaigns, as well as live fan events, to woo cricket-mad consumers.

“We might have different religions, but cricket is the biggest one,” said Shashi Kumar, a 34-year-old in the technology hub of Bengaluru, who said the game unites the country and brings people together.

The surge in advertisement spending during the six-week tournament that runs until July 14 could boost consumer demand and help India’s economy run out its slowest period of growth in four years, analysts say.

“Brands would not like to lose the opportunity to capitalise on this frenzy,” said Vinita Pachisia, senior vice-president at media agency Carat India, part of the Dentsu Aegis Network.

Although a niche sport with just 10 participating countries, versus 79 in the FIFA soccer championship, cricket’s popularity in the Indian subcontinent means companies allot about half of their marketing budget to the World Cup. Sponsors and media buyers say they expect more than 800 million Indians to watch this year, but there are no official projections. Four years ago, 635 million watched, mainly on television, as online streaming was in its infancy in India.

The much-anticipated match between arch rivals India and Pakistan on June 16 prompted 206 million fans to tune in to official broadcaster Star network, a unit of Walt Disney Co, to watch India win.

Star’s streaming platform, Hotstar, said the 15.6 million concurrent users for the match was its highest tally for a one-day international game.

‘World cup mania’

The matches start later in India’s day and run through prime time, while the return to a round-robin format cuts the chances of an early knockout of favorites Australia, India and New Zealand.

They are also being broadcast in six more Indian languages this year, as well as Hindi and English.

Greater television and internet access and India’s success under captain Virat Kohli have helped push spot advertising rates up by 40 per cent to 60 per cent from four years ago, media buyers say.

They estimate this year’s advertising spend of more than USD 400 million will be nearly double of 2015.

Smartphone maker Samsung Electronics Co, which is giving away Amazon Echo devices with high-end TV sets, said it doubled sales of big-screen TV sets in the month before the tournament began on May 30, versus last year.

Uber Technologies Inc, which operates in eight World Cup countries, ran a contest offering tickets to the games in Britain as prizes, while Mondelez International Inc, maker of Cadbury’s chocolates, launched a special variety.

The “World Cup Mania” sale of Amazon.Com Inc’s rival Flipkart, a unit of Walmart, offers discounts on televisions, and its digital payments unit Phone Pe is running promotions online.

“We want to reach the next 250 million Indians who are on the internet, but not using digital payments yet,” said the unit’s chief executive, Sameer Nigam.

Spot TV advertising slots for the June 16 match cost up to 2.5 million rupees (USD 36,000), versus a package for all games ranging between 1 million and 1.5 million rupees, media buyers say.

Some companies are also sponsoring fanzones.

A thousand fans watched the India-Pakistan match at a brew pub in Bengaluru, in an event sponsored by Bira 91, a recent entrant to the beer market, backed by US-based Sequoia Capital.

“We wanted to pick up a sport which had very very wide appeal to Indian consumers and there is nothing comparable to cricket,” said Chief Executive Ankur Jain.

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News Network
November 17,2024

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An Israeli airstrike on the office of Syria’s Baath party in Lebanon’s capital Beirut has killed the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah's Media Relations Officer, Mohammad Afif, reports say.

Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported that the Israeli raid struck the Ba'ath party’s building in central Beirut district of Ras Al-Naba'a on Sunday, adding that the strike was an attempt to assassinate the leader of the resistance media front.

According to Baath Secretary-General Ali Hijazi, Afif was having a meeting in the Baath Party headquarters when Israel carried out the attack.

"Afif did not fight with weapons and did not lead a military unit in Hezbollah. Rather, he led a media unit," he said.

Reuters, Sky News, Al Jazeera and a number of Henrew-language media reported that Afif was killed in the Israeli strike.

However, Hezbollah has not yet confirmed Afif’s death or whether he was present at the site or not.

Earlier, the Lebanese Health Ministry said at least one person was killed and three others injured after an Israeli strike targeted a central district in Beirut.

Lebanon's al-Mayadeen television network reported that five people were killed in the attack.

The latest development came after Afif said Hezbollah was behind the Caesarea operation and targeting Netanyahu’s home during a speech at the Ghobeiry area in the southern suburbs of Beirut on October 22.

This was the second assassination attempt on Afif in the last two months, after he survived an attack on the Hezbollah media relations office several weeks ago.

Israel launched a ground assault and massive air campaign against Lebanon in late September after a year of exchanging fire across the Lebanese border in parallel with the Gaza war.

At least 3,287 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon over the past year, with the vast majority in the past seven weeks. Another 14,222 have been wounded, mostly women and children.

In response to the ongoing aggression, the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has been staging hundreds of retaliatory strikes against the occupied Palestinian territories and the Israeli forces trying to advance on southern Lebanese areas.

The movement has vowed to sustain its strikes until the regime ends the escalation.

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News Network
November 14,2024

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The UN special rapporteur for Palestine has slammed Israel’s parliament for passing a law authorizing the detention of Palestinian children, who are “tormented often beyond the breaking point” in Israeli custody.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in a Thursday post on X, characterized the experiences of Palestinian minors in Israeli detention as extreme and often inhumane.

The UN expert highlighted the grave impact of this policy, noting that up to 700 Palestinian minors are taken into custody each year, a practice she described as part of an unlawful occupation that views these children as potential threats.

Albanese said Palestinian minors in Israeli custody are “tormented often beyond the breaking point” and that “generations of Palestinians will carry the scars and trauma from the Israeli mass incarceration system.”

She further criticized the international community for its inaction, suggesting that ongoing diplomatic efforts, which often rely on the idea of resuming negotiations for peace, have contributed to normalizing such human rights violations against Palestinian children and the broader population.

The comments by Albanese came in response to Israel’s parliament (Knesset) passing a law on November 7 that authorizes the detention of Palestinian children under the age of 14 for “terrorism or terrorist activities.”

Under the legislation, a temporary five-year measure, once the individuals turn 14, they will be transferred to adult prison to continue serving their sentences.

Additionally, the law allows for a three-year clause that enables courts to incarcerate minors in adult prisons for up to 10 days if they are considered dangerous. Courts have the authority to extend this duration if necessary, according to the Knesset.

The legislation underscores a shift in the treatment of minors and raises alarms among human rights advocates regarding the legal and ethical ramifications of detaining children and the conditions under which they may be held.

Thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of children and women, are currently in Israeli jails—around one-third without charge or trial. Also, an unknown number are arbitrarily held following a wave of arrests in the wake of the regime's genocidal war on Gaza.

Since the onset of the Gaza war, the Israeli regime, under the supervision of extremist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has turned prisons and detention centers into “death chambers,” the ministry of detainees and ex-detainees’ affairs in Gaza says.

Violence, extreme hunger, humiliation, and other forms of abuse of Palestinian prisoners have been normalized across Israel’s jail system, reports indicate.

Over 270 Palestinian minors are being detained by Israeli authorities, in violation of UN resolutions and international treaties that forbid the incarceration of children, as reported by Palestinian rights organizations.

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News Network
November 15,2024

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Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has killed or captured 69 terrorists linked to the Israeli spy agency Mossad during a major counterterrorism drill in the country's southeast, its spokesman says.  

General Ahmad Shafaei, the spokesman for the “Martyrs of Security” drill, said Friday that a total of 23 terrorists have been killed and another 46 arrested in various clean-up operations ever since the IRGC Ground Force launched it in the Sistan and Baluchestan province on November 1.

Seven terrorists have also turned themselves in during the period.

“The undeniable fact about terrorists is that they rely on arrogant powers, particularly the intelligence service of the wicked and vicious Zionist regime," Shafaei said.

“Unfortunately, weapons and munitions at terrorists’ disposal are among the most sophisticated ones in the world. This accounts for their heavy dependence.” 

The official stated that several members of the disbanded terror teams were non-Iranian nationals, who had been hired by foreign intelligence agencies to carry out acts of sabotage and terror inside Iran.

In a most recent operation, six terrorists were arrested and four others were eliminated, three of whom were non-Iranians, he added. 

On October 26, ten members of Iran's law enforcement forces were killed in a terrorist attack in the Gohar Kuh district of Taftan in the Sistan and Baluchestan province.

The so-called Jaish al-Adl terrorist group claimed responsibility for the assault, which was one of the deadliest in the province in recent months.

The group has carried out numerous terrorist attacks in Iran, primarily in Sistan and Baluchestan.

Its tactics include the abduction of border guards as well as targeting civilians and police stations within the province to incite chaos and disorder.

In January, Iran launched a military operation during which the headquarters of the Pakistan-based terrorist group was targeted in missile strikes, destroying its infrastructure.

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