The Olympics closed with much fanfare, and many of us in India would have watched it on Jio Cinema. All across the world also, many streaming platforms showed the games live. However, a global audience for sport is an emerging phenomenon. Sports have been one arena that has been stubbornly local. India’s cricket Premier League’s media rights are sold at humongous amounts, but 96% of that money comes from the host country. Similarly, the National Football League of the USA makes more than 98% of its media rights money domestically. However now, much like movies and entertainment, sports too have arrived on the global scene.

In the last few years it has been common to hear of movies, both Hollywood and Bollywood, that have made more money abroad than at home. Entertainers too earned globally, take the example of Taylor Swift tours that have impacted the economies of the countries she performed in. Sports on the other hand, had remained local in taste and preferences. People rooted for their teams and players, further often the game too remained a local preference. Think of football in West Bengal, while most of the country revolves only around cricket.

Technology has however transformed how sports are broadcast, and now sports and leagues of all kinds are going global. Sports that were hitherto played in localities are transforming into leagues eg Kabbadi and Kho Kho. Indian Racing league for automobiles has also begun in 2019. These leagues have the opportunity today to go global. The sport can make millions along with the media company that decides to broadcast it, as they can reach a global audience.

The shift of sports broadcasting from regular TV channels to streaming platforms is pushing the shift. Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Jio Cinema – all have begun streaming sports live on their platforms. Audiences world over can develop an interest in sports not necessarily played in their countries and areas. No more do sport buffs have to wait for the Olympics or other international games to catch a glimpse of different sports. Audiences too are changing. Social media creates fans of individual players, movie stars and entertainers. Rather than be fans of teams, people follow individual players and root for them. Messi is a great example of such a sports person, and the recent Turkish shooter Yusuf Dickek. These fans tend watch the sports that their idols play.

Much like entertainment and movies, sports may also face a criticism that global sports will tend to throttle local sports and games. However, global sports also give impetus to games that did not find airtime on traditional channels.

Women’s sport is one such example. The Women’s Premier League 2024 had bigger audiences as it streamed on Jio Cinema. In fact, ESPN’s streaming output is more than fifty percent composed of women sports.

Now that sports have debuted on streaming channels, it is not far-fetched to think that soon we will have fan clubs for Kabbadi in Mexico, and rugby fans in Kanpur! Sports may well emerge as the new soft power of nations, giving movies and web series tough competition.

Published in Lokmat on September 1, 2024