Viacom18, the official broadcast and digital partner for Paris 2024, announced the biggest and most immersive Olympics presentation yet in India, with 20 concurrent feeds and a roster of Olympians, starting July 26, 2024, across the Sports18 Network and for free on JioCinema. The network has lined-up a list of former champions across multiple sporting disciplines to amplify the most comprehensive Olympics presentation ever. It also, launched its campaign film ‘Dum Laga Ke… Haisha’, promising an Olympics like never seen before.
For the first time, Olympics coverage in India will be presented across 20 concurrent feeds on JioCinema for free, allowing fans to catch their preferred action and Indian performances at the Olympic Games anytime, anywhere on their preferred device. The presentation will have 17 sports-wise feeds and three curated feeds, all available in 4K. The curated feeds will include an India feed in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu, which allows viewers to catch all the action from the Indian contingent as it unfolds on-ground.
A Women Athletes feed will exclusively capture the journey of women Olympians for the entire edition. The curated feeds will also feature a Global Action feed in English and Hindi, thus allowing viewers to track the finest athletes in the world in action at Paris 2024.
On linear platforms, Sports18 – 1, Sports18 – 1 HD, Sports18 – 2 will run India focused feed, Global Action will be available on Sports18 – 3. Sports18 – 1 and Sports18 – 1 HD will present the Games in English with Tamil and Telugu available on language button. Sports18 – 2 will offer the Paris 2024 in Hindi.
The coverage tips off with a dedicated camera feed on the India float throughout the Opening Ceremony giving viewers a ring-side view of the Indian contingent. In addition, viewers will be able to enjoy coverage of Indian medal moments with live interviews with their family members alongside a domain expert from the studio.
“Our presentation of Paris 2024 is built on the idea of putting viewers front and centre as our athletes aim for glory. For the first time in India, an Olympics presentation will have a dedicated Indian feed, a women athletes feed, and a global action feed, giving fans high autonomy with a lean-in experience as they follow the Games,” said Viacom18 – Sports Head of Content Siddharth Sharma. “We strive to capture the inspiring journeys of Indian athletes and rally the country to back our heroes through our never-seen-before Olympic experience.”
India’s first female wrestling Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik (2016 Summer Olympics) will be joined by Beijing 2008 bronze medallist boxer Vijender Singh. Four-time Olympian and six-time Grand Slam winner and the first Indian woman to be ranked number one in the WTA rankings, Sania Mirza will be joined by Commonwealth and Asian Games gold medallist, Somdev Devvarman. World No. 7 long jumper and Commonwealth Games medallist, Murali Sreeshankar will be seen in a whole new avatar as Viacom18’s expert during the Olympics.
The studio line-up will also feature former Indian Men’s Hockey Team Captain Viren Rasquinha, Commonwealth Games gold medallist shuttler Parupalli Kashyap, multiple Asian Games medallist and World Doubles Championship gold medallist squash icon Saurav Ghosal, and India’s two-time Olympic archer Atanu Das will add gravitas to Viacom18’s line-up.
In the lead up, Viacom18, the official broadcast and digital partner for Paris 2024, also launched “Dum Laga Ke…Haisha!”, its campaign film for the Olympic Games. The campaign film builds on the philosophy of Olympics unlike anything seen before, breaking away from the conventional advertising template employed by past global sporting events for the Indian market such as tropes of serious looking athletes training to motivational voiceovers. It takes a fresh approach instead, by intertwining the magnitude of the Olympics as a global movement and its impact on our daily Indian lives.
“We wanted to keep the campaign idea rooted in the transformative power of viewing sports. The film is our ode to the Olympic spirit and imagines a world where watching the Olympics vicariously, inspires us to push ourselves like runners, boxers, gymnasts, archers and weightlifters in our quotidian lives. We married this idea with a re-imagination of the timeless chant ‘Dum Laga Ke Haisha! that’s deeply ingrained in the Indian spirit of movement and sports, into multiple regional languages to ignite excitement for the Olympics across the country,” said JioCinema’s Head of Brand and Creative Marketing, Shagun Seda. “To bring our concept to life, we partnered with Jugaad Motion Pictures who brought in a fresh approach and elevated the concept to a rich audio-visual experience.”
Viacom18’s comprehensive coverage of Paris 2024 includes content around must-watch events for India fans, Indians to watch out for at the Olympics, greatest performances in Olympics history, unprecedented landmarks Indians can achieve at Paris 2024, and much more.