The highly anticipated bilateral series between India and New Zealand, which will be live-streamed by Prime Video will be the first property of the OTT platform to have advertisers.
The upcoming series will experience massive traction and the advertisers will get proper exposure to a premium audience as the OTT platform is only accessible to paid subscribers.
With the streaming service giant offering limited inventory for brands, Amazon Prime Video has still managed to sign Airtel Xstream Fiber as its presenting sponsor. Noise, OLX Autos, Vida, MPL, and Nescafé are also onboarded as associate sponsors. DBS and AMFI are also involved in the list of sponsors.
Chaitanya Divan, Head of Sports, Prime Video, India, said, “Over the last 10-15 years, the match-viewing experience has been diminished by the intrusion of abundant commercial messages. We’re going to present a live experience, with a limited number of ads and commercial messages.
“The intention is not short-term revenue maximisation. Our number one priority is to deliver the best possible experience to both the customers and advertisers.”
In December 2021, Prime Video acquired rights to exclusively provide live coverage of New Zealand Cricket in India. Since the agreement, this is the first time the Kiwis will square off against India and the competition will be widely watched.
Sushant Sreeram, Director – SVOD Business, Prime Video, India, added, “Prime Video is streamed across 99% of pin codes in the country. It is accessible and relevant. So, when we have live cricket on the service, we are confident that it will be widely consumed.”
Sreeram concludes, “We are a mobile-first country. Live cricket is not something that can be watched later, when one reaches back home. It needs to be watched immediately. So, mobile phones become a crucial viewing device. Though not timed for this tour, the mobile edition makes access to high-quality cinematic value content easy and within the reach of more people. It really democratises access to premium content.”
The bilateral series consists of three ODIs and T20Is each and will be played between November 18 – 30, 2022. Hardik Pandya will lead the team in the shortest format and Shikhar Dhawan in the ODI format.