Beyond movies: INOX builds esports calendar as it strengthens its alternative content strategy

Multiplex chain INOX Leisure has started building its calendar for screening esports tournaments on the big screen.

The company announced a partnership with Esports Federation of India (ESFI) on February 28. As cinema partner for three years, INOX will host and promote ESFI tournaments across India.

Esports are games that are played online by individuals or teams. The most common genres associated with esports are real-time strategy, fighting, first-person shooter, and multiplayer online battle arena. Such games have become spectator sports now with more than 500 million fans in 152 countries that watch these competitions online through various platforms, according to ESFI.

Anand Vishal, chief sales and revenue officer at INOX, said esports tournaments will start coming to the big screen around the time of the Asian Games. Esports is set to make its debut as a medal event at the Asian Games in Hangzhou to be held from September 10 to 25.

In 2018, when esports was a demonstration event at the Asian Games, India’s Tirth Mehta won a bronze medal in the esports title HearthStone.

Engaging with esports

Vishal noted that INOX will screen esports tournaments under two models – one catering to professional players and the other allowing gamers to come to INOX to play Esports games under one roof.

“The friendly tournaments are going to be priced,” Vishal said. “We understand that this segment is going to have a very young population and we will price it at around Rs 100-150 for a ticket. We expect a lot of corporate bookings to come (for Esports). We will do it like a gamer’s Sunday. If we serve this to the right segment, it will bring in revenue.”

Although Vishal said it’s still early to talk about revenue from esports, he added that INOX had dabbled in alternative content five years ago and has been able to engage audiences beyond movies. He pointed out that half of INOX’s 70 million audience is aged below 25 and all its viewers are smartphone users.

According to an Ernst & Young 2021 report, a survey of over 1,100 smartphone users indicated that out of every eight people, one user participates in esports tournaments for every six people who play social games. The report noted that current viewership for esports tournaments is 17 million in India and is expected to reach over 85 million unique viewers by 2025.

Beyond movies

While Vishal said that esports is the flavour of the season, INOX will also look at getting cricket on the big screen this year.

“We will be engaging with the International Cricket Council for the Australia T20 World Cup scheduled in October 2022 and also the World Cup that India is hosting next year. Last year, we screened ICC matches that happened in Dubai. Also, it’s not just cricket – we are partners with the Premier Badminton League and Table Tennis League, among others,” he said.

The India-versus-Pakistan cricket match of the 2019 World Cup drew upwards of 60 percent occupancy in INOX theatres. The screening of the ICC T20 World Cup played in Dubai recorded double-digit occupancies. And the first two matches that India played saw more than 50 percent occupancy. For the ICC 50-over World Cup held in England in 2019, INOX had a large number of corporate and group bookings.

“We are very heavy when it comes to school contact programmes. So, there are these documentary dramas of Discovery and National Geographic that are screened for school-going children. Along with this, we realised that K-pop (Korean pop) is very big in India and we screened K-pop movies and concerts in our theatres and at all times we saw housefull shows,” said Vishal.

Rival PVR is not only focusing on an alternative content strategy but is also betting big on the growing esports segment, which is estimated to bring in Rs 1,100 crore in revenue by FY25 from Rs 250 crore in FY21, according to the EY report. The company partnered with esports company Nodwin Gaming, a subsidiary of Nazara Technologies, last year to screen esports tournaments.

While PVR and INOX say there is strong traction for alternative content, experts noted that non-studio content adds 8-10 percent to a theatre chain’s revenue. Yet, the experts said alternative content is important because theatres face competition from streaming platforms that offer strong content to viewers at affordable prices. Theatres need a great driving factor to get audiences back to the big screen.