Twitter has partnered up with Sony Pictures Networks India for India’s upcoming bilateral series against Sri Lanka and England which allow the users of the former to enjoy premium coverage on the microblogging platform.
The Indian users will be able to access the cricket video content with the powerplay and in-match highlights on their timeline. The partnership includes coverage of India’s bilateral series against Sri Lanka starting from July 18 and the five-match Test series against England series which will be commencing from August 4.
The sports channel of Sony Pictures Networks (@SonySportsIndia) will provide live coverage of the tours on Twitter. The coverage on the social media platform will include match highlights, Man of the Match clips and also crucial moments of the game. The fans can access these video highlights and Twitter moments across various cricket formats.
Amrita Tripathi, who leads global content partnerships for Twitter in India, said, “While the sports experience has changed in recent times, the roar of sports fans on Twitter is louder than ever. Conversations around cricket leagues in 2020 increased by 23 per cent when compared to those in 2019 – which in itself was a record-breaker with 27 million Tweets.”
“We are delighted to partner with Sony to bring in-match premium cricket video content to people on Twitter in India for the very first time, building on a promising content partnership with one of the top sports broadcasters in the region,” added Tripathi.
Manish Aggarwal, Head – Growth and Monetisation, Digital Business, Sony Pictures Networks India said, “We are excited to partner with Twitter and take our viewer engagement to the next level. It is a pleasure to come together and be able to reach out to cricket enthusiasts with video highlights. Since it is a new and refreshing phenomenon, the viewers will now have one more platform to share/discuss and express their views on the matches.”
The partnership between Sony Pictures India and Twitter will provide an opportunity for the brands to amplify ads via pre-rolls with this premium content.
According to research by Twitter, 69 per cent of all people using the microblogging site in India classify themselves as cricket fans and 30 per cent of people determine themselves as cricket fanatics. Around 52 per cent of cricket fans on Twitter prefer reading about players, news, matches, reports; in the upcoming season about 25 per cent of fans plan to engage with Tweets during the match and 31 per cent of cricket fans plan to watch videos. In the upcoming months, Twitter is likely to bring some unique cricket content from its partners for the users.