Nimbus bets online on cricket and Bollywood

It’s debatable whether there is more excitement around the IPL Twenty20 matches or the India-South Africa series. And that’s probably why Nimbus, which has got the telecast rights for all BCCI matches, is leaving no stone unturned in reaching out to cricket fans in every possible way.

The sports broadcaster has launched a separate new media division to focus on the digital market. It has recently launched a cricket portal, Cricketnirvana.com, which will enable viewers to watch the streaming of cricket matches ball by ball. Though the website has been operational for the last two weeks, the commercial launch of the website happened now with the India-South Africa Test series. As part of a special promotion, live streaming, interactive highlights and video on demand are available free for the first Test match.

The website will be available globally, except in certain blocked areas. The content on Cricketnirvana will be available for streaming purposes, but not for downloading.

Cricketnirvana has sections like columns and interviews by cricket players. The website also has sections such as Wall of Fame and This Day That Year, which give historical information about cricket. To build up interactivity, the website has blogs, polls, discussions and quizzes, all based on cricket.

Nimbus has also launched Filmnirvana.com, which caters to the Bollywood and entertainment needs of surfers. Filmnirvana will be launched commercially on April 3, says Sumit Luthra, business head, new media, at Nimbus.

Luthra says, “For Nimbus, the broadband sites are a business extension activity on to the web by giving users cricket and Bollywood content through the websites.”

Publicitas Digital will serve as the online sales representative for Cricketnirvana and bring advertisers to the site and also serve ads to surfers. Global content distributor Akamai will be the technology partner for the content distribution of the site.

Cricketnirvana’s business model is ad based, though it has no advertisers on board currently. “As per our projections, 40 per cent of the revenue will come from advertising, 50 per cent from subscriptions and the rest from e-commerce,” says Luthra.

Filmnirvana’s business model will be ad based and e-commerce based. Users who participate in the online talent hunt and other website activities will be charged a fee.

Commenting on what chunk of surfers on the website will be NRIs, Luthra says, “The trend will be similar to that on Cricinfo.com, which gets 35 per cent NRI users.”