Star India is looking to rope in a clutch of comedy artists including the popular stand-up group All India Bakchod (AIB) for a special post-match recap show after each big cricket World Cup match that will be shown on the broadcaster's digital platform. The show, which will start with the India-Pakistan match in which Amitabh Bachchan will make his commentary debut, will break the traditional post-game format and present it to a younger online audience in alighter vein. AIB has seen a sudden surge in popularity, especially on social media, over the past few days since its controversial 'Roast' video went viral. On Facebook, the group got over 1.4 lakh new likes in one week. It also got 15,224 new subscribers on YouTube, according to social media analysis website socialbakers.com.
Ajit Mohan, head of Star India's digital platform Hotstar said the new format post-match show will primarily be available on its newly launched Hotstar app. "We are currently in discussions with a number of different artists from the comedy genre including AIB to create this programme," he said. "Some of them are deep fans of cricket."A text message sent to Gursimran Khamba of AIB did not elicit any response.
The 5-15 minute capsule will recap key moments of about 20 big matches in the World Cup, including all India matches and the quarter finals, semi-finals and the finals, leveraging humour. There will be a mix of artists for each match.
Most of the matches will end between 3 pm and 5 pm in India but Star is looking at tapping a whole new audience — the catch-up audience — between 8 pm and 9 pm. "This is the time when we usually see a huge surge in online traffic," said Mohan.
Ahmed Naqvi, CEO of digital agency Gozoop said consumption patterns online are changing. "People already know who won the match or who lost. Consumption will be around other angles. Fun, humour and giving it an identity will be the key," he said.
Source: Economictimes.indiatimes.com
