Power Sportz (www.powersportz.tv) is Indias first Sports news channel, that runs live on a digital platform. Launched in May, this year, from the Plenary Hall of Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, the channel has received phenomenal traction. We caught up with the Editor-in-Chief, Ms Kanthi D Suresh, who, hitherto, has been known for anchoring the Olympics, Commonwealth Games & Asian Games for India, to know more about her channel
You seemed to have launched your channel at the right time. OTT platforms in India are growing.
Yes, though we conceived the idea in 2015, and took a good 3 years to execute the same, it seems like , we are in the right place at the right time. Globally consumers are spending an average of 67 minutes a day watching online videos this year, up from 56 minutes in 2017, and certainly Indians too are spending more time watching online videos. Our channel is recording an average viewing of 26 minutes on our Live tv, on a daily basis.
You are an exclusive digital sports news channel. Are there any plans to distribute on a satellite platform to capture more audience? If you were to do so, would it be part of the sports segment or the news segment.
That is actually a difficult one to answer. To begin with, we do not feel the need to be on a satellite framework. It was a conscious decision to be on the digital platform because the internet population in India is currently touching 500 million as against a DTH population which stands at around 70 million. Our traffic of 2.5lac-3 lac viewers per day and an average of 1 Million views everyday, is almost impossible to achieve on a traditional tv network for a single channel. And if we were to choose to be on a DTH platform, we would fit into both the news and sports segment, as we seemed to have captured both the sports lover and the news lover!
Your show ‘Talking Turkey with Kanthi’, seems to have caught the imagination of the viewers, and has been subject to different points of views and opinions as well.
Since sports issues are not discussed and debated on any channel, its but natural for Talking Turkey to get that kind of traction. I feel honored that I have completed 25 episodes and the silver lining to the silver jubilee is 7 million views till date for the Talking Turkey show, only on the VOD platform. Yes, there has been some talk of the show being hard-hitting and pre-decided in cahoots with the powers that be, I think its time for people to focus on their business, as digital is such a growing platform, there’s space in it for all, if one were to envision carefully, without unnecessary distractions!
You are gearing up for the launch of your App. How is that going to change the viewership of Power Sportz. Would it add to your revenue generating potential?
The App launch is basically for viewer comfort, and particularly for those who spend most of their time on mobile viewing. We get heavy traffic from desk top viewers as well. It may not make too much of a difference to them, but the App would certainly add value to android and ios viewers. Viewer comfort is top most on our agenda. The rest will follow!
There are many women on-camera on sports channels, but Women entrepreneurship in Sports media is not common. You perhaps are the first Indian woman in the space.
I keep being reminded of the same. I think Women Entrepreneurship across all spectrums in India, without, of-course, a family legacy, needs to grow. That would mark the true independence of women. Coming to sports media, with so many women athletes now winning medals at big events, being a woman entrepreneur in the Sports media, should be looked upon as a by-product of the growing women power on-field!
Tell us your journey in the Sports broadcast segment from 2008 when you started till 2018, where you have finally launched your dream project?
2008 was the first major sports event that I anchored, which was the Beijing Olympics. There was no looking back after that. I was honored to cover the 2010 Commonwealth games, which was hosted in New Delhi. I covered the 2010 Asian games from Guangzhou. The London 2012 Olympics, was then one of the most watched non cricket sporting events. Then came the 2014 Asian games and Commonwealth games, held in Glasgow. 2018 saw the consolidation of all the experience I had, and now I’m looking forward to a fruitful and new journey ahead!
(Indian Authors Association)