Sony's N.P. Singh On Life After IPL

Sony Pictures Networks India continues to grow despite losing the IPL broadcast rights to rival Star, says CEO N.P. Singh. How? By acquiring the rights to air new sports tournaments in India, giving SonyLIV a new lease of life, and expanding regional content.

- Aveek Datta And Sourav Majumdar

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is arguably one of the most watched and profitable sporting leagues in the world. The month-and-a-half-long Twenty20 cricket league features star players from around the world and celebrity owners, including Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan and India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani.

Over the years, many faces associated with the cricket extravaganza have changed. These include new team owners, new and rising cricket stars, and new title sponsors. But for the first decade of the league that started in 2008, one face remained common— N.P. Singh, the 59-year-old managing director and CEO of Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN), IPL’s official broadcaster from 2008 to 2017.

Singh, who joined SPN in 1999 as its chief financial officer and became CEO in 2014, was instrumental in bringing the IPL to SPN and building it up as a property.

It was a symbiotic relationship wherein—through its marketing campaigns and wide reach—SPN helped build IPL’s popularity and the network’s revenue progressively soared over the years, as the IPL gained traction with viewers and advertisers. So when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to re-auction the television rights for the tournament in 2018 and SPN’s rival Star India bagged the rights for a staggering $2.55 billion, people logically wondered what this meant for SPN’s future in India.

Singh, a media and entertainment sector veteran, knew that no good thing lasts forever and consequently started putting in place a plan to build other robust revenue streams for SPN to offset the potential loss of the IPL well in advance. As a result, even after losing IPL rights, SPN’s revenues are consistently growing on the back of its strong library of general entertainment content and rights to other sports properties acquired over time.