Sony Pictures will strengthen its regional presence for IPL 2017, starting on April 5, by showcasing customised local campaigns in Tamil, Bengali and Telugu. This is part of its outreach strategy for the tenth season.

Krishnan said the network has on board a panel of expert commentators to deliver ball-by-ball account of every game and explain the nuances.

This team will also capture local sentiment to engage viewers and increase penetration amongst newer audiences.

Banking on Tamil Nadu’s love for the game, the network will continue to integrate Tamil feed this year. It has also launched a national campaign of ‘10 Saal Aap-ke Naam’ in Tamil, aimed at connecting with its viewers, Krishnan said.

Though Chennai Super Kings (CSK) has been out of the T20 Indian Premier League (IPL), the short-format cricket game, Prasana Krishnan, EVP and Business Head, Sports Cluster, Sony Pictures Networks India, is sure of strong viewership from the State.

CSK did not figure in the 2016 edition following a two-year ban, but Tamil Nadu accounted for the largest number of viewers after Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, he said.

The ninth season last year had clocked 361 million viewers.

The Tamil commentators team includes Pattabhiraman, Hemang Badani, VB Chandrasekhar, S Ramesh and KV Sathyanarayanan, he said.

This year the English feed will be available on Sony SIX channels while Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Hindi feeds will run on Sony ESPN channels. Sony Max will exclusively broadcast the Hindi feed, Krishnan said.

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