Until the turn of the century, cricket ruled the imagination and passion of Indian viewers. It still commands significant viewership but gradually other sports are creating space in the media largely due to the changing preferences of today’s generation. It is not as if India ruled the game of cricket in the world. Long before India won its first cricket world cup in 1983, Indian Hockey had won eight Olympic Gold and numerous other world and Asia championship titles. But somewhere down the line, Indian hockey lost its sheen, thanks to the famed apathy of the Indian state towards sports. There was no BCCI for hockey and there was no television to catapult the game to the cult status for Indians. Indian hockey did not have the advantages that Indian cricket enjoyed. There was no television in those days to constantly keep the game alive in the psyche of people. For cricket, it is just the case of being at the right place at the right time. It is not as if that before the advent of television, cricket had any less following. It always had. But Indian hockey had more potential to be where cricket is today but it lost out to comparatively under achiever cricket.
With opening of the economy and freeing of the air waves to private players, the Indian scene suddenly was flooded with several television channels, each competing for larger audience base; an essential requirement for getting advertisement revenue. There was constant look out for contents that would capture audience’s imagination. At that point of time, they had only one sport to look out for; the cricket. As I mentioned before, hockey was past its glory and Indian cricket team had just won the World Cup. The channels started marketing cricket in a big way and as viewership meters went soaring up, new sports channels made forays into the market looking for new contents.
In the early years of the first decade of the 21st century, it was becoming evident that the audience was losing interest in cricket. The new generation growing up with Play Stations and X-boxes was busy with their virtual world in their hands. They were more excited with prospects of virtual involvement in games rather than watching cricket. They were getting exposure to many other sports through games in which they could virtually be players and not just spectators. Then, of late, Indians are winning Olympic Golds in other sports and capturing the imagination of the audience. They created their own niche audience. The media captured the mood and modified contents and started bringing home live to Indian audience other sports like World Cup Football and Formula 1 Racing and Olympics, and what not. The managers of Indian cricket got the wind too and they too innovated and brought interest for cricket back with IPL and Twenty20 formats in keeping demands of the new generation for exciting and fast paced sports. But then there is too much of cricket. The audience now is at saturation point. Of course, there exists the Grand Old Constituency for cricket that is still loyal to the game but it is being fast outnumbered by younger generation which is constantly looking out for variations – cycling, motor racing, tennis, football and host of other sports.
Will other sports elbow out passion for cricket? With the number of viewers increasing for other sports, media will have no problem deviating from one revenue generator to the other and while passion for cricket will remain, there is audience now, and therefore sponsors and advertisers, for other sports as well. And as so long as there is no disturbance in this equilibrium, others sports will continue to share space with cricket. While it is too early to say whether cricket will be elbowed out, it is true that cricket no longer enjoys dominance in the Indian air waves and among Indian audience.
With opening of the economy and freeing of the air waves to private players, the Indian scene suddenly was flooded with several television channels, each competing for larger audience base; an essential requirement for getting advertisement revenue. There was constant look out for contents that would capture audience’s imagination. At that point of time, they had only one sport to look out for; the cricket. As I mentioned before, hockey was past its glory and Indian cricket team had just won the World Cup. The channels started marketing cricket in a big way and as viewership meters went soaring up, new sports channels made forays into the market looking for new contents.
In the early years of the first decade of the 21st century, it was becoming evident that the audience was losing interest in cricket. The new generation growing up with Play Stations and X-boxes was busy with their virtual world in their hands. They were more excited with prospects of virtual involvement in games rather than watching cricket. They were getting exposure to many other sports through games in which they could virtually be players and not just spectators. Then, of late, Indians are winning Olympic Golds in other sports and capturing the imagination of the audience. They created their own niche audience. The media captured the mood and modified contents and started bringing home live to Indian audience other sports like World Cup Football and Formula 1 Racing and Olympics, and what not. The managers of Indian cricket got the wind too and they too innovated and brought interest for cricket back with IPL and Twenty20 formats in keeping demands of the new generation for exciting and fast paced sports. But then there is too much of cricket. The audience now is at saturation point. Of course, there exists the Grand Old Constituency for cricket that is still loyal to the game but it is being fast outnumbered by younger generation which is constantly looking out for variations – cycling, motor racing, tennis, football and host of other sports.
Will other sports elbow out passion for cricket? With the number of viewers increasing for other sports, media will have no problem deviating from one revenue generator to the other and while passion for cricket will remain, there is audience now, and therefore sponsors and advertisers, for other sports as well. And as so long as there is no disturbance in this equilibrium, others sports will continue to share space with cricket. While it is too early to say whether cricket will be elbowed out, it is true that cricket no longer enjoys dominance in the Indian air waves and among Indian audience.
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