Indiantelevision.com Team

(29 February 2008 8:00 pm)

MUMBAI: The Barclays Premier League (BPL) is increasingly gaining in importance in India, and one major resaon for this is ESPN Star Sports' (ESS) sustained coverage of the English league over the years.

Now, in a bid to get fans closer to the experience, commercial and retail banking services company Barclays, in association with ESS, has brought the BPL trophy down to India for a tour.

The trophy was unveiled after a football match between NGO kids and celebrities like Marc Robinson. The trophy is in Mumbai, and will travel to Delhi after a couple of days.

In order to create awareness about BPL Barclaycard, Barclays is currently running an ad campaign on television, and doing outdoor activities in Mumbai and Delhi.

Card members have the opportunity to be photographed with the trophy.

Barclays global retail and commercial banking MD India Samir Bhatia says, “Barclays has always been associated with innovative services. Our brand is all about being young at heart, having passion and being innovative. These are the same value that BPL stands for. We are proud that we have brought an opportunity for soccer enthusiasts in India to view one of soccer’s priceless possessions.”

ESPN Software India MD RC Venkateish notes that the channel has been doing sustained marketing around BPL for the past four years. The aim has been to create fan affiliation for the clubs. This has been done through among other activities and television spots.

“Our endeavour has been to push not just EPL but soccer as a whole. So we air shows like Nike Football Locker Room and Football Crazy. What we have been seeing is a steady rise in the viewership graph for EPL not just in the states of Goa, Kerala and West Bengal but also in the metros. This has led to a trickle-down effect where soccer is starting to grow
in interest in the smaller cities as well.

“At the grassroots level, we have been doing the ESPN Learning Ground Schools Programme for a few years now where we reach out to 1,200 schools and 2.5 million kids across the country,” Venkateish says.

In association with the FA Premiere League (FAPL) and the All India Football Federation (AIFF), the channel is also doing a Premier Skills initiative. Warren Barton and Robbie Earle, two former Premier League stars, are involved with the coaching development project.

Moreover, the project, in conjunction with the British Council, is working with Indian soccer coaches to enhance their football coaching skills and develop their English language ability.

A week-long course was recently conducted in Delhi. Premier Skills will now take place in Kolkata in March.

“Today kids are exposed to different sports and are thus more receptive to them compared to older people who have mainly grown up on cricket. A generational shift in attitude is needed for Indians to watch different sports and so doing activities with kids is a natural start,” adds Venkateish.

Last year, Barclays had renewed its sponsorship of the Premier League. The deal is worth 65.8 million pounds and runs till the 2009-2010 season.