Sony Pictures Sports Network has reportedly signed seven sponsors for Australia’s tour of England.
The England and Wales Cricket Board is scheduled to host Australia for three T20 Internationals and as may One Day Internationals between September 4 and September 16. The T20I series starts two days after Pakistan play their last T20I on the England tour tomorrow (Tuesday).
The broadcaster also in a first will also air a non-India international cricket series with Hindi commentary.
Neville Bastawalla, Head, Marketing & On-Air Promotions, Sports Channels, Sony Pictures Networks India has said that the broadcaster was expecting an average audience of 50 million of an England-Australia match.
“This whole thing is very provocative and we believe that this is going to provoke the real fan. We believe that India is the cricket-loving country and viewership of non-India cricket is 10%-15% of India cricket and if we provoke that emotion into the cricket-loving fan – if you are a cricket-loving fan you will watch England- Australia,” Bastawalla told Exchange4media.
“We have a great line-up of sponsors as well for the series. We have already signed 6-7 sponsors including My11circle, Skoda, Perfetti Van Melle, HDFC Life Insurance, Dafanews, Maruti Suzuki and many more to come.”
Earlier on Thursday, SPNI has also launched a video campaign for the England vs Australia white ball series.
Also read: Sony launches ‘Real vs Fake fans’ campaign for England-Australia series
The network is reportedly also planning extensive digital marketing initiatives for the series. “We believe in the power of Digital and Television primarily and in the current scenario, we will continue with the same only. We have a strong digital plan for the England- Australia series. On TV, the series will be marketed within the network’s channels only,” said Bastawalla.