Star Sports is refreshing its portal,starsports.com, from today, March 21, 2014. The change comes on the eve of the India-Pakistan match in the T20 World Cup.
The user will have the ability to watch the match through a series of video clips almost happening in real time. The channel sources suggest that this will give the user an advantage to watch the match specifically for a moment he/she wishes to watch the match. For example, first five overs or a specific ball, etc. However, the control of the timeline will still be the part of the live match.
The portal is also introducing ‘action recap’, wherein a user can get the entire match in one short video. The third change is the introduction of a video scorecard, while the fourth change is a five-minute delayed telecast of the match for free.
Beyond this, the user can also access the live matches of the entire series for a fee of Rs100.
The prime objective behind making these changes according to star sports is to give the user a move over from taking updates of matches in a textual form. “We want people to tell that there is a better way to follow the match than by reading the text,”said Ajit Mohan, Head of Digital Business, STAR India.
The portal this year is also planning monetisation. From a business point of view, the portal is moving towards a model driven by both subscription and advertising for which it is planning to tie up with various advertisers.
Mohan added,“Advertisers want to engage with their potential consumers during a robust video experience. We want to create a platform that delivers content in very specific content categories. All the free content will be supported by the ads, which will be placed very carefully. We will be having ads in the five-minute delayed stream, but for people who pay we will have an ad free experience.”
Source : Exchange4media.com
