La Liga could have seen two of the largest names in world soccer, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, go away the league however that has not affected the viewership of the league itself. In truth, La Liga India Managing Director Jose Cachaza says that gamers coming and leaving golf equipment is a actuality that these working the league have to simply accept as it’s the golf equipment themselves which might be the one non-variable issue within the recreation.
“No,” was his unequivocal reply when requested if the departure of the 2 superstars has had an hostile affect on the viewership figures within the nation. “Our viewership numbers have saved growing. Our following in social media has been growing and so has our sponsorships. That’s the nature of the sport, gamers do not final eternally, golf equipment do,” Cachaza informed HindustanTimes.com.
The Spaniard says that having big-name gamers enjoying within the nation is one thing that the league all the time desires however it isn’t too involved if, say, Actual Madrid fail to signal Kylian Mbappe or Erling Haaland. Conversely, the very fact stays that Actual, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid proceed to own field workplace gamers amidst their ranks.
“In fact we wish to have the very best gamers. We wish to have Haaland and Mbappe in La Liga. Possibly in the future, they are going to come. However for instance, we’ve got two of the very best strikers on the planet enjoying for Actual Madrid (Karim Benzema) and Barcelona (Robert Lewandowski). Now we have among the most promising kids enjoying for Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico like Vinicius, Ansu Fati, Rodrygo, Joao Felix and so forth,” he mentioned.
The very fact additionally stays that whereas the 2 Spanish giants have had their troughs in recent times, notably Barcelona with their monetary debacle, they continue to be two of probably the most tough sides to beat in Spain and Europe. “Allow us to not neglect, Cristiano left however Actual Madrid gained the Champions League once more. Barca suffered rather a lot however they’ve made a robust begin to the season.”
Cachaza additionally mentioned that the league was proud of Viacom18 buying the digital rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL), a improvement he feels will draw extra eyeballs to its OTT platform Voot and thus to the league itself. La Liga is being aired this season on Viacom18’s channel Sports18 as nicely.
“We’re within the second 12 months of our relationship with our broadcaster Viacom18. Final 12 months we had been on MTV solely and this 12 months we’re rising with them on their new channel Sports18 and the OTT booklet. We need to maintain growing our business footprint within the nation.
“Product-wise this season might be slightly extra aggressive than the final in order that might be good for the followers and growing the viewers. We can not neglect that the cricket asset Viacom18 has simply acquired and on the finish of the day, that might be good for us as a result of the final viewers of the channel might be greater so our viewers might be greater too.”
La Liga had uniquely tried out streaming matches unique on Fb in India earlier than it turned one among many sports activities organisations to maneuver out as a part of the social media large’s gradual shift away from the sector.
“Fb was a reasonably good expertise. It helped us study rather a lot about our viewers as a result of there may be plenty of instantaneous knowledge that we’re getting from Fb. It helped us attain new followers. Now we’re in a unique scenario, the place we’re in a channel and in an OTT platform. Fb determined to not proceed with reside sports activities of any form. If they’d continued with that technique, then we might have by no means mentioned no to them,” mentioned Cachaza.