You in no way realize when and in which the possibility to come to be an entrepreneur comes calling. In 2008, Kanthi Suresh was a political reporter with Doordarshan while the sports activities reporter on responsibility dropped out. She was then picked to cowl the Olympics in China.
Moving from the political beat to sports did now not take a good deal time, and Kanthi soon realized that the business of sport become in which she should put her new-located talent to good use.
Ten years later, while OTT structures like Hotstar and Sony Live realized that leveraging sport made top commercial enterprise feel, Kanthi notion she could also translate her sports activities acumen into a stable business concept. And consequently, Power Sportz came into being as a channel extraordinary to OTT systems.
The channel was released in May 2018 and began to broadcast exclusive sporting events – no longer just cricket – on its app. Power Sportz become launched on IoS and Android systems.
Kanthi explains the concept behind the task. “The idea behind Power Sportz changed into to observe sports activities as a subject to be discussed and debated upon, as opposed to just searching at it from an enjoyment and enjoyment perspective, as carried out in India these kinds of years.”
The early mover gain
Therein lies the distinction Power Sportz brings to a marketplace flooded with OTT systems. Its ambitions to offer a platform for all stakeholders inside the sporting atmosphere, be it athletes, coaches, guide group of workers, or management. “We name ourselves the voice of sports activities,” she says.
Thanks to the “early mover advantage”, her channel now claims to have near million views every day.
“It was a crucial step to head virtually because there are Indians who need to look at different games and no longer just cricket. Our largest audience is women,” she provides.
It’s thrilling to the word that Kanthi commenced her profession as HR Manager at Reliance and Max Healthcare before becoming a TV journalist. But it turned into at Beijing Olympics that she determined her true calling: sports.
Ten years after she ventured into sports activities, in 2018, Kanthi satisfied a snatch of traders (undisclosed) to back her and released Power Sportz with a Rs 7 crore funding. She used the price range to construct a CMS and produce content material on to the platform.
The business enterprise nowadays has inventory (sponsored and unsponsored) from all sports broadcasting channels. Their commercial enterprise model is similar to any TV channel at half of the price and has a clean measurable viewership as measured with the aid of Google analytics.
“We provide free business time, sponsorship, branded content material, and on-air integrations,” says Kanthi, adding that the organization became experimenting with several commercial enterprise models, which includes advertising.
“We have to consolidate as we’ve got grown too speedy, too early. At the equal time, we must build new content and offer innovative and affordable answers to corporates eager on figuring out their brands with sports. Not too many options are to be had in u . S. For them to help the sport,” she says.
