Vodafone partners with Star to launch 'Vodafone Sports' on mobile

India's first telco to offer a comprehensive sports channel on mobile, powered by starsports.com; caters to smartphone as well as feature phone users

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | February 14, 2014

Vodafone India yesterday announced a strategic partnership with Star India to create a multi-sports offering – Vodafone Sports portal on Vodafone Live. This offering is a first-of-its-kind service that brings the best on track, on court and on field action to feature phones as well as smartphones and allows customers access to a variety of creatively packaged prime sporting content on the go.

Vodafone Sports powered by starsports.com will offer customers premium live and curated in-depth content built around some of the most popular sports in India such as cricket, football, tennis, hockey, golf and motorsport. Vodafone Sports is being launched with cricket, football and hockey, and will rapidly cover other major sports like F1, tennis, etc.

Launched in June 2013, Star's sports service on the mobile, starsports.com, has become the go-to-destination for following the best of international sports. It has redefined the sports experience through a revolutionary video timeline that is a first of its kind in the world of sports, and allows the viewer to keep track of live sports as well as catch up on games with ease. The company has also built an advanced technology infrastructure that enables HD quality streaming across multiple devices. It will now bring the power of the proposition to the most important screen in the country – the mobile – for Vodafone consumers.

Customers using Vodafone Sports will have access to an exhaustive array of legal, unadulterated content at their fingertips, including all the latest news, trivia, scores and results, instant access to live matches, interactive video scorecards, exclusive insight and analysis, columns, photos and wallpapers across sports.

The interactive video scorecard, for example, will allow users to watch the fall of a wicket or replay individual innings highlights for a particular player right from the scorecard. So, if you miss a pivotal, game-changing moment in a game, or a match-winning knock, you can replay it at the touch of a button. Apart from live games, customers will also be able to sample additional archived video content, such as the best of MS Dhoni's sixes or Sachin Tendulkar's straight drives, created from over 10,000 hours of cricket footage.

Vivek Mathur, Chief Commercial Officer, Vodafone India, said, “The launch of Vodafone Sports is an industry-first initiative to bring across best of premium live and curated sports content blended with immersive interactive platform and content-delivery. Following the launch of Vodafone Music few months ago, it complements our strategy to expand our digital offering and tailor it to mobile internet users who are increasingly consuming content on the go.”

Sanjay Gupta, COO, Star India, said, “Our ambition is to the shape the future of entertainment on a mobile screen; sports is the first big initiative for us. starsports.com has already set a new standard for sports fans hungry to consume sports without being tied to their television. This partnership will bring the power of our service to a whole new audience.”

Customers can avail Vodafone Sports by visiting live.vodafone.in/sports or sending a simple text message to 111.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com