EXCLUSIVE | 'FIFA World Cup becomes an ideal anchor property for us': Unite8 Sports chief Bavesh Janavlekar

In 2002, backed by Abdulrahman Bukhatir, Ten Sports made a splash in the sub-continent's broadcast market with the FIFA World Cup. Numerous other properties followed and the company built a strong subscriber base in competition to ESPN Star Sports.

Before its merger with Star Sports, Jio made the same endeavour in 2022 with the FIFA World in Qatar. Through JioCinema, the company offered free consumption on OTT (JioCinema).




In 2026, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) hopes to achieve the same bump with Unite8 Sports and Zee5 by acquiring the broadcast rights for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and beyond.

The company's stock price had undergone a 16.63% increase in the 10 days leading to the official announcement. As the tournament, which begins on June 11, gets closer, that growth has doubled to 32.44% at the time of writing.

ZEEL had announced its intention of re-entering the sports broadcast space last year. Earlier this year, steps were taken to that effect and now Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has given approval for four channels: Unite8 Sports 1, Unite8 Sports 1 HD, Unite8 Sports 2 and Unite8 Sports 2 HD.

Contrary to 2002 and 2022, the upcoming World Cup, to be played in the USA, Mexico and Canada, faces the big hurdle of difficult time zones, thereby seeing little interest from advertisers.

Bavesh Janavlekar, Chief Business Officer of Unite8 Sports, claims there has been positive feedback from advertisers and audience, who are willing to pay Rs 799 for three months (FIFA World Cup + all access).

To target a variety of audience, live coverage will be available in Bangla (Zee Bangla Sonar), Malayalam (Zee Keralam), Hindi (Zee Cinema and Unite8 Sports 1) and English (Unite8 Sports 2).

Beyond the FIFA events, the company also has broadcast rights of the ILT20 (cricket), Bengal Super League (football) and UP Kabaddi League (kabaddi) and aspires to add more regional sporting content to the portfolio while not shying away from the biggest churner: cricket. In an exclusive chat with TimesofIndia.com, Janavlekar shares his thoughts on Indian sport, the broadcasting landscape in the country, the FIFA World Cup, the cricket challenge and more.


Excerpts:

Q. What are your early thoughts at this stage?

Bavesh: Early thoughts, I think the response from the market, from the audience, from everyone, it's been very very positive. And, our team is taking the best strategy that we have now.

And, from the audience, it's been very positive. And then, in the future, we hope to get a positive response from the whole nation.

I feel like this is a really strong role. I think that the key thing here is that we have a long-term target with FIFA and it is not transactional, there is a long-term thing with them. Along with, not only being home to football, but actually a lot of football at a national level. And, the large audience that it already has. So, this is a good beginning for us.

Q. Launch of a sports channel after almost a decade. How much of a push was this from the shareholders?

Bavesh: See, I think this is nothing to do with a return. Ours is an entertainment organisation, and sports actually is a form of entertainment.

It's actually playing a very significant role across the board. There is live sport, live music, live theatre, everything live is going to happen across the board.

There is definitely traction in sport. The kind of capitalisation of sports has been important as well, there has been an opportunity.

Q. For the last couple of years, India had reached a point where it was just JioStar, right? Sony also has some properties, but when it comes to large scale properties, it ended up being a one horse race. Do you think that will change now with your launch?
Bavesh: Sports economy in India is at an inflection point. Now, it is not only in terms of viewership, but it is also in terms of experience that we see across multiple sports today. Despite, you know, all the challenges that we have, we have world-class performances, in badminton, we have chess, we always had boxing in the last couple of years.

I think there is a surge of excellence which is being achieved by our sports people. And, it's an opportunity to get into alternative sports teams, if I can call it that, and grow with it.

Our strategy is not going to be about buying media rights but also going and developing a relationship with stakeholders.

The way sports is going right now, we believe that it's time to explore other sports, which have a very strong potential.

Q. Time zone for the upcoming FIFA World Cup makes it very difficult to find advertisers, and for a country like ours, advertisers make up a bulk of the money that any broadcaster makes when it comes to live sport. And, in this scenario, live sport will possibly be less consumed than the highlights. How do you tackle that predicament?
Bavesh: I think the strategy is in place. More importantly, we are trying to make the time zone flexible for us, in our favour. We have developed a programming strategy in terms of live and the types of programming.

The morning of the programming, the day of the programming, the highlights, the external distribution, the market model will be there for the times.

Advertiser response has been very positive. The fans have also been very positive. And, the entire buildup is great, the team is working very hard and we are developing more platforms on the channel and getting more videos.

Q. The FIFA World Cup has been bundled as a Rs 799 package on Zee5 (for OTT). When compared to other platforms, that is steep. What is the thought process there?
Bavesh: ZEE5 team has studied the platform and the packages that you are talking about are not only for the FIFA World Cup package. After that also, we have to enhance that.

That (response) also has been very positive. This is going to amplify the Zee5 package. We've seen a lot of passion and hence we are confident.

Q. What is the real value of a FIFA World Cup and the package?

Bavesh: I don't want to make up numbers (laughs). You have seen that people want to secure rights for the next 8 years and they want to win the World Cup rights if they are interested enough. I guess the ups and downs have kind of been interesting to read as well. The fact is that we are going to prepare for the next almost a decade.

Not only in terms of stories, but also the development of football in India. It is a very important thing. I would like to see the football team in the World Cup pretty soon.

I think the football fans will not have to worry about football kaha pe dikhega over the next 8 years. FIFA World Cup becomes an ideal anchor property for us. We can ensure a strong relationship with them.

Q. You have entered into an 8 year association with FIFA, covering 39 tournaments. Barring perhaps the 2030 FIFA World Cup in Spain and Portugal, which will be in a good time zone for India, how much of this is portfolio vs business sense?
Bavesh: We intend to grow and we intend to make it popular. We intend to improve the relationship. Not only in terms of the viewership, but also on ground. 8 years is a long time and with a bit of passion, a mindset, we can do a good job of it.

Q. Right now you have the ILT20 as the only property which is cricket associated. Do you intend on entering that space or is this going to be an endeavour where non-cricket entities will flourish?
Bavesh: I wouldn't want to compare two sports. 80-90% of India does watch and consume cricket as per the reports. I wouldn't want to compare it right now. It's not a non-cricket strategy and we would have to get into it.

But our focus on cricket would be guided by the principles of financial literacy. I have commitment to all the stakeholders so if it makes sense not only as a cricket property but in the long run if it makes sense we are definitely going to go for it.

But once it becomes a driving thing, that is something that is getting worked, a lot of innovation can be made. Cricket is the heart of India and if we see sense in it, we will go for it.