SPN to air 2016 National Football League season

Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) brings to its viewers one of the biggest professional sports leagues from North America - the National Football League (NFL). The action begins with the first game of NFL Kickoff 2016 Weekend featuring the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos hosting the Carolina Panthers in a rematch of Super Bowl 50. on Sony SIX, Sony SIX HD and SONY ESPN, SONY ESPN HD on September 9, 2016 at 0600 hrs IST. Three NFL games a week will be telecast live on SONY ESPN and SONY ESPN HD during the 2016 NFL season. 

Indian viewership preferences have evolved over the past few years with fans craving for best sporting action from across the world. This demand for sports has led to the creation of non-traditional viewing slots for sports consumption and the sports cluster of SPN opened up ‘breakfast viewing’, a concept that benefitted immensely from this trend because of the time zones. NFL games will be telecast three times a week on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays at 0600 hours IST giving viewers more options in the breakfast viewing category. Apart from this, select games during the season will also be telecast at primetime. 

The NFL is one of the four major professional sports leagues in North America, and the highest professional level of American football in the world. It consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). Each regular season runs for a period of 17 weeks with each team playing 16 games and having one bye week. At the end of the regular season, six teams from each conference (four division winners and two wild card teams) advance to the playoffs that concludes with the Super Bowl, played between the champions of the NFC and AFC. American Football is a strategic game of physical strength and grace with players that exhibit athletic perfection given the high jumps, tackles and far passes. It is not only a fun sport in general to watch but also can get really tense at times that makes it all that much more exciting to watch. Viewers will get to watch talent like quarterback Cam Newton (Carolina Panthers) and JJ Watt (Houston Texans) who have received international recognition for their pure athleticism.

Comments:

Rajesh Kaul, President, Distribution and Sports, Sony Pictures Networks

“The sports cluster of SPN possess the broadcast rights of two of the ‘Big 4’ professional sports leagues in America with the NFL and NBA, consequently showcasing the best of American sports leagues to our viewers. We have seen a growing interest amongst urban Indian viewers for American sports it seems set to grow further with the NFL games”

“Breakfast Viewing is a transformational concept initiated and fostered by SPN that has changed the way live sports is consumed by viewers today. At present, we are the only network catering to die-hard sports fans in this segment and are giving our viewers more options in sports consumption owing to the demand for live international content in this time band. There is a significant viewership in the breakfast viewing category for our other content and we are expecting to see a definite growth in viewership for the NFL too.”