MAM
‘Sport’ sports the top slot among Asian audiences for OOH viewing
MUMBAI: Sport is the top choice of viewers regardless of where they’re watching television across several Asian markets, states the latest findings of the out-of-home (OOH) viewing research from the first Asian OOH survey.
The survey undertaken by Synovate and commissioned by ESPN Star Sports was conducted to gauge OOH viewing in Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok and was expanded to include the cities of Shanghai and Beijing.
The first phase of the results revealed that 88 per cent of all those surveyed watch out-of-home, with a whopping 9 out of 10 watching out of home in cities such as Bangkok, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Sport occupied a market share of 87 per cent of the OOH choice of programming.
“Our OOH findings reflect studies in the US as well as existing research that sport is an appointment viewing priority not only in but out of the home as well. Research shows a sizeable, captured and passionate audience that cannot be ignored by advertisers, marketers and media planners in their media buying decisions,” elucidates ESPN Star Sports Managing Director Rik Dovey.
Continued Dovey, “After this round of research, it is clear that OOH viewing is prevalent across Asia and sport is what they are watching. What’s significant is that this viewing phenomenon is as big in China as well. Ongoing research in collaboration with our distribution partners in China as well as surveys like this demonstrate that our programming is desirable and watched.”
The findings also suggest that over 60 per cent of viewers are missed out by traditional in-home meter systems across the six-city study, with the figure climbing to 80 per cent in Bangkok.
The diversity of sport viewed out-of-home emerged as another interesting finding from the survey. 96 per cent of respondents who watched sport claimed football was their sport of choice led by the English Premier League (84 per cent)., The UEFA Champions League and the FA Cup also showed healthy growth in Singapore and Hong Kong. However, other sport popular with OOH viewing includes basketball, tennis and motoracing, all of which are showing strong upward growth.
A large number of viewers plan their OOH viewing experience, with 73 per cent visiting a commercial establishment such as a pub or a restaurant and 41 per cent joining friends in order to enjoy a game better. Most watched in a group of at least 2 friends – with the numbers increasing with bigger match-ups. In established markets, the average group size tended to be larger.
“People watch sports from a wide variety of locations out of home. Restaurants, pubs and bars featured high on the list of commercial premises, whilst viewing at a friend’s home was the most popular non-commercial location. Around three quarters of out of home viewers are glued to the screen once a month or more frequently, a clear indication of how important the audience is to broadcasters and especially sports channels,” notes Synovate Media Director Steve Garton.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
