Sony Pictures Network India has signed a multi-year television and digital broadcast deal with India’s first ever professional Kho Kho league – Ultimate Kho Kho. This deal will the first full-fledged live broadcast of the domestic sport tournament to the Indian household.
The idea is to bring forth a homegrown sport in a never-seen-before avatar by telecasting it over its television channels as well as on its OTT application which will allow users to view the games anywhere. The inclusion of a different sport is considered as an attempt to encourage diversity in sports.
In the debut season of Ultimate Kho Kho in 2021, men’s teams under and above 18 from all states across India register under Kho Kho Federation of India. The franchise owners will be offered a pool of over 150 Indian players based on their performance and score in National tournaments and recently cocnluded high-performance training camp in February, 2021.
According to Ultimate Kho Kho CEO Tenzing Niyogi, for a sport to be worthy of called a brand, it needs to have ‘an edge of the seat’ format, where every minute is a spectacle. Niyogi said, “With Sony Pictures Networks India as our partner, our endeavour is to deliver a compelling product that will attract not only the fancy of the viewers but become a platform for the brands to connect with consumers.”
SPNI will be broadcasting the event exclusively in Hindi and English, with a provision of regional language telecast to select service providers. SPNI currently broadcasts a number of events ranging from Olympics to Football that includes broadcast rights with multiple Cricket Boards, UFC, Impact Wrestling, the Australian Open, UEFA Champions League, Europa League, Nations League and Euro 2020, Serie A, FA Cup, Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and so on.