LaLiga revamps with new identity to capture India, global markets
Since its decision to expand to India about seven years ago, the association shifted from broadcasting on the Sony Sports Network to independently broadcasting its matches on Facebook to finally moving to Viacom18’s MTV in 2021.
PremiumNew Delhi: A sports association which lauded itself for having two of the world’s biggest football stars pitted against each other— Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo—for more than a decade, is now having to rebrand and sell itself harder in markets worldwide. One of those markets for the Spanish football league, LaLiga, is India where it has had three different broadcasters in less than seven years of its presence in India.
In chasing new fans and exploring newer revenue streams, the football association’s managing director for India, Jose Antonio Cachaza, said they were surprised with what JioCinema managed with cricket (IPL) and they could benefit from that.
Since its decision to expand to India about seven years ago, the association shifted from broadcasting on the Sony Sports Network to independently broadcasting its matches on Facebook to finally moving to Viacom18’s MTV in 2021.
To be sure, LaLiga is still the second most popular European league in India, after the English Premier League and is ahead of German (Bundesliga) and Italian (Serie A) leagues in terms of viewership and followers. However, since moving to Viacom18, the league has stopped sharing viewership numbers. It was initially available on MTV in 2021 and Voot Select, the paid OTT service of the broadcaster. Now, it is available on Sports18 on linear TV as well as for free on JioCinema and for a paid subscription on Voot Select.
As part of its global strategy, LaLiga has looked at regaining economic control because a large number of Spanish clubs were near bankruptcy about 10-15 years ago. To improve this economy, it had to find money elsewhere like in moving the sale of broadcast rights directly and individually sold by clubs to central selling.
“The English Premier League was 20 years ahead of us and had sold its global rights at about 1.2 billion Euros a season. We, on the other hand, had sold for 500-600 million Euros. The only way we could catch up was to expand to markets like Dubai, China. India was in the second batch of the countries we chose to expand to," he said.
In terms of volumes of the business, India is the right place to take risks because the broadcast market is just evolving. “Facebook got out of the live broadcasting business and we soon became the first big property Viacom18 signed, even before it had a sports channel," he said.
“Of course, they did not tell us what they were doing with cricket (the Indian Premier League on JioCinema), but we realized, we were part of a big project. I wouldn’t move to any other broadcaster now, be it Star or Sony," he added.
While declining to share the details of the media rights deal that the league has in India, Cachaza said that the Indian market is evolving and the increasing concentration of money in cricket will affect all other leagues and is a threat to the other sports.
But now with OTT growing and because of its varied media strategy, it may have lost out on a continual audience. “We are growing alongside our broadcaster which is growing itself. It is important to piggyback on channels that have good cricket assets. Cricket has about 85-90% of the live sports in India. Which is why our local brand ambassador is Rohit Sharma," he added.
“We do not pretend or expect to be the first choice in a cricket-crazy nation but we know that a sports fan can be polygamous. We can convince cricket fans they should love this sport too," he added.
The league has had a very difficult past. In 2021, Lionel Messi left FC Barcelona because of financial problems as Barca was in a €1.35 billion debt following years of overspending. Cristiano Ronaldo left La Liga in 2018. LaLiga had a loss of €250 million in the 2020-21 season.
The company at a global level is now looking to revamp the entire business strategy. Today it has unveiled a new brand identity under the slogan “The Power of our Fútbol". It said it has grown over the last decade, both in terms of size and global recognition and at present it is in 41 countries and has 11 offices.
Its new brand logo is represented by the initials “LL". With the incorporation of new strategic partners such as EA Sports, it said it hopes to change the football experience and is looking to break down barriers between the physical and virtual worlds.
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