Sports business is all about feelings: Prashant Khanna, Disney Star
With the viewership of the 17th season of Indian Premier League (IPL) crossing 450 million on Star Sports, Disney Star is constantly innovating to enhance customer experience by thinking from a fan-centric perspective, said Prashant Khanna, Head - Field Operations, Studios, Design & Tech R&D - Sports, Disney Star in an exclusive chat with exchange4media. From introducing sign language interpretation and vertical viewing experience through MaxView to providing special feeds for various fan cohorts, Khanna shares how tech in broadcasting is transforming the viewers’ experience and making it more engaging.
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Here are the excerpts from the interview:
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Can you tell us about your experience in the sports broadcasting domain? What are some of the challenges you faced and overcame? Sports business is all about feelings. Everything that we turn around has to do with how viewers would experience it on air. When you look at it from that lens then everything actually becomes an opportunity. It's just the fact that we are privileged enough to be in this space where we define how the coverage should be for millions and billions of fans around us. Technology or what we do is largely an enabler. It allows us to be able to add value to a lot of the things that happen. During Covid, we realized that fans were not going to the stadium. That allowed us to go back and say, how do we look at a cricket or a kabaddi coverage without fans, something that has never been done before. And when we looked at it from that lens, we said we need to adjust our camera angles. We need to make sure that there are more close-ups and viewers are not missing fans in the stadium. Then on top of that came the layer of audio. Now, how do you compensate for all that noise, all those chants? We actually went down to the point of bringing in a few colleagues who were actually in the office at that point in time and bringing in an audio setup, recording five voices together. With the staff that was around in the office, we created a chant for Dhoni. We created that chant. We amplified it on our broadcast. A lot of the fans believed that it was actually fans in the stadium. Star Sports is one of the most sought-after linear channels for cricket and other sports. With changing times, what technology has Star deployed to meet market expectations? While I can't share specific details, what I can discuss is how we assess various solutions and enhancements through a consumer or fan-centric perspective. Ultimately, the goal is to make significant strides and add value at the scale we aim to achieve. For us, it's crucial to play at a large scale. It's incredibly important to consider innovations like MaxView, which offers a vertical viewing experience, or when we consider sign language interpretation, for example. Sign language interpreters are essentially equivalent to commentators providing live commentary on the game. They're there throughout those 20 overs, signing for the audience. However, they also need breaks. So, we have a sign language roster similar to the one we have for talent, where they change every five hours. Now, all of that entails an investment in talent, resources, logistics, and more. But ultimately, it all becomes integrated into our overall production planning the moment we recognize that it will indeed impact a specific cohort. And in this case, it encompassed a cohort of 100 million individuals, including the visually impaired and the hearing impaired (63 million and around 40 million, respectively). It was a substantial number for us to consider. So, I believe the numbers always follow later. The crucial aspect is being able to convince yourself and the team that this enhances the fan experience at any given moment during our broadcast, whether it's on linear or digital platforms. That's what ultimately drives our decision-making process to invest in such initiatives. Tell us about the special feeds that have been introduced to reach out to various fan cohorts? With our intent and endeavour to increase our reach to more audiences, we consistently explore ways to innovate in the special feeds we deliver. During the initial years of our IPL rights, we introduced what was known as the "Select Dugout" feed. This feed was specifically tailored to an analytical cohort, attracting a core fan audience. We expanded our focus to include other elements and introduced a subtitled feed, providing live subtitling not just for fans watching at home, but also for those at bars or social establishments with friends. Our aim was to enhance the out-of-home viewing experience by offering accuracy and giving the monitored out-of-home segment the option to enjoy the game more fully. Essentially, by following the commentary through live subtitles, viewers could prolong their stay at these venues. How do you ensure that it accommodates the way content is consumed today, which is often vertically? So, we reimagined the entire cricket production that has been done over the last 150 years, and ripped it apart in terms of how graphics should be done? It's a small screen. You can't have the same graphics. What is the most relevant information? Do I need to look at both the batsmen at the same time? Do I only need to look at the bowler? How do I define my experience on that vertical space? So, we explored splitting the screen. Now, viewers could actually see the batsman hitting a six in real-time on one side of the screen, while simultaneously watching a replay of the shot at the bottom. If we were at 500 million (viewership) for IPL last year, and have to go beyond that number, how do you engage an audience that's much wider? That's where the need to address those segments allows us to look at these feeds, as they show up. So, sign language came up and that's a hundred million odd numbers that we are looking at currently. It's more, it was equally a high moral compass than when you evaluated it from a commercial or extension bandwidth. With the rise in digital streaming platforms and social media, how do you see the future of sports broadcasting evolving and how do you adapt to these changes? I am now putting together a broadcast for one. And that broadcast for one could be what you see on your OTT platform. How do we customize for the number of people that show up on Disney + Hotstar and on our linear networks? While linear broadcasting offers a unified experience for viewers to come together, how do we segment that experience to provide something tailored specifically to each individual? You might love analytics more than graphics. For instance, do I want to see Shah Rukh more on my feed as compared to a cricketer? But it allows us today to be able to do, look at what is called as a, as a multiple stream or output of the same match that allows you to be able to say, this is my game. And watch my way rather than somebody else telling me how and what to see. Has tech innovation in sports broadcasting impacted advertising? How? Absolutely. We work with the sales team a lot more and work on how to augment the experience. We work on ensuring we are moving away from just simply putting a logo or a lower third on the broadcast. The advertisers today want more. There is so much happening. What can viewers expect from the T20 World Cup? Currently, we are focusing on the IPL. I'm guessing you'll find out very soon when we get to that.