Indian Localisation for Sports Content Creators

Introduction 

India’s football fans as of January 2024 was estimated to be 305 million, as per the Ormax Sports Audience Report : 2024. That is 60 times the population of England. Let's digest that. 

Brown Collab, our up and coming Indian Localisation Agency with just two years in business, has already worked with established global content creators, to name a few – @vincentgao, @DanWolley, @JackSucksAtGeography and in realms of football, @JohnNellis. After seeing the passion and craze for football in India, we spot the opportunity and are more than eager to connect global sports content creators to Indian audiences. 

We see the localisation process as more than merely translating global football content, but rather as engaging the audience in an authentic way, to culturally transform your content and make it palatable for Indians, which means filling it with Indian masala. 

This blog aims to help you see why India is in desperate need for localised football content, the methods some localising agencies are using and their limitations, how we approach our localisation projects and place importance in quality checking our work at various stages and our vision for the future of football content in India. 

The Growing Appetite for Football in India 

Football in India 

While cricket might be the king of the Indian sporting landscape, football has a loyal and passionate army of ever growing fans as well. And in some corners of India, that army is actually leading the charge.

Take Kerala, for example. This state is absolutely buzzing with football fever! Their fan base, famously known as the Manjappada (Yellow Army), brings an energy to the stadiums that's simply electric.

Head over to Northeast India, and you'll find football holding a place of serious importance in people's hearts. The passion for the game runs deep in these states.

Then there's West Bengal, a historical powerhouse of Indian football. Clubs like the legendary Mohun Bagan garner a fan following that's truly jaw-dropping. We're talking average attendances of over 30,000 fans per game! That's more people packing the stands than what you see for ten different teams in the English Premier League! And when it's derby time (the football match between rivalries Mohun Bagan and East Bengal existing for more than a century)  the atmosphere goes through the roof, with crowds swelling up to a mind-blowing 80,000 fans! 

Now, let's talk about the Indian Super League (ISL). This league is still relatively young, formed in 2013, but it's been steadily growing its roots without the kind of massive financial support you see elsewhere. Despite this, the ISL pulls in an average attendance of 12,800 fans per game. Interestingly, that's actually higher than the average attendance in the Turkish Super League! 

Why Indian Localisation of Sports Matters

While generic content works okay for the most part since visuals are the dominating part of sports content, localisation helps bridge the gap of resonance by adding local flavor to the script and sound. For instance, after JioCinema introduced IPL results and commentary in multiple regional languages, the average time spent per viewer per match increased drastically compared to the previous season, bhojpuri being the star of the game. It is a simply acknowledgeable fact that people prefer to consume content in a language they are most comfortable with, one they can relate to with all its relevance and respective nuances.

Effective Indian Football Content Localisation 

Word-to-word conversion and painfully literal translation renders the point of localisation useless, making it bland and ineffective in eliciting genuine enthusiasm and interest from audiences. 

Localisation to us, means, taking a piece of content and transforming it into an accurate and culturally relevant one, with smooth and free-flowing vocal elements so the viewers forget that they are watching something dubbed.

India is a linguistically diverse nation, and surely there are specific regions more entangled in football’s love than others. We understand that spectrum clearly and the need to consider regional preferences in such cases. The key while taking on the job of localising is, understanding Indian culture and values, regional customs and traditions as well as current trends and social media slangs. There is so much more potential to incorporate cultural elements like music, art and storytelling styles, than meets the eye. 

The internet is filled with references. In order to understand one, you need to immerse yourself into the sea of particular niches. As passionate fans of football, we are thoroughly familiar with the Indian football landscape, from the ISL to the local rivalries to prominent Indian players. By referencing these local elements, along with creating a viewership we also aim to sustain it long term. 

Indian audiences engage with youtube largely, given its free and robust services. We are aware about the preferred platforms and content formats in India and tend to adapt our localisation techniques accordingly.

Brown Collab’s Experience Partnering With Football Creator: John Nellis

John Nellis is a youtube creator who makes videos centered around football stories and adventures, specifically, meeting footballers, surprising fans, football challenges and experiments, trivias and quizzes. 

Switch the audio track to Hindi and Bangla, to hear our work.

We’ve worked on a couple of videos with him, the latest being  “100 hours to meet Messi”. 

The maximum time we take to localise the video is a day or two, in this case at least. As soon as the video is out, the faster we get it done the better, because the most crucial time window for YouTube video views is immediately after publishing, with the first few hours and the subsequent 24 hours being particularly important. This is when notifications are sent to subscribers and when YouTube's algorithm begins to assess the video's performance.

Scripting

The first thing is scripting, we watch the video, generate the script and start working on converting it for the Indian audience. Our writers are well-versed with regional nuances and trends, and try to add as much fun and references as possible while keeping the core of the video intact. A quality check is done by the writers and the reviewers thereafter. 

Dubbing

The script then goes to the studio where dubbing artists are made to watch the video and given a brief about the tone and theme they have to maintain. Our team is present throughout the process where they try to spot mispronunciations, inaccuracies in voice acting, awkward pauses and dialogue mistranslations that can change the intended meaning. 

Dub QC

A quality check of the audio file is then performed by the reviewers, where they make sure the dub has correct pronunciation, natural dialogue flow, consistent voice acting and that no joke has been lost in localisation.

M&E

In the music and effects bit, we make sure there are no inaccuracies, mixing the audio and sounds impeccably. The background sound is retrieved from the original video intact, and if not possible, we recreate it ourselves as close to the original as possible. All in all, the post-production process is performed thoroughly and quality checked multiple times. 

Final QC

In this stage, all the departments are involved and see over all the aspects of the final product, nitpick the tiniest inaccuracies, and make it as similar and relevant to its target audience as the original one. 

Brown Collab : Helping You Connect With Indian Football Fans 

To engage with the Indian market, you want to find someone whose expertise in the localisation landscape and the niche of your content is unmatched. Many members of our team have been religiously watching football content for years. It is not just a business proposition for us, it is something that we personally believe in, enjoy doing and are passionate about. It takes time to build understanding and passion in something that is spread as vastly across the globe as football.

We also understand the need for rapidly produced content in this rapidly moving world, and as mentioned previously, are fully-equipped for delivering our services with the readiness that is required of us. 

With timeless marketing experience down our sleeves and all of our team being in their early 20s and 30s, we have the perfect blend of expertise and young adults who understand the nooks and crannies of social media and are devoted sports fanatics. 

The importance of viewer experience and comfort is nothing to take lightly here. We make sure to have rigorous and determined quality checks in every step of the localisation process and a final one in the end. Our team of reviewers are persistent in checking out all of the boxes, from script to audio-video timing, from subtitles to voice modulations and everything in between, so that no content of yours is put out without the tag of perfection. 

If you want to consider working with us, we highly recommend going through the formerly mentioned creators that we constantly collaborate with. We would like to work with creators who are just as passionate about football as us, and are looking to broaden their playfield by dipping their toes here in India.

We are potentially looking to work with creators all around the football sphere, be it @Futcrunch with fun challenges, gaming and gameplay highlights, @CelineDept who leans more towards football challenges and lifestyles and travel related to football, @Fiago with football content on analysis, tactics and in-depth discussions, @ChrisMD who is running all around the football content field and other football content creators who want to cater to Indian audiences, excitedly on the lookout for localised football content. 

Conclusion : Future of Football Content localisation In India 

Let’s recall the Indian football fans – a staggering 305 million people who are eager to watch their favorite sport’s content in the comfort of culturally and sophisticatedly adapted localisation. 

This requires people who understand football deeply and the ever-changing and ever-growing social media landscape. Brown Collab is dedicated to staying at the forefront of this game and constantly adopting and adapting the best-weathered localisation practices. 

Localisation has a huge potential for increased viewership turnout and massive sharing of content. This is a scarcely explored area for various football content creators, and is just waiting to be dived into. It has the potential of attracting hindi-speaking sponsors and advertisers, as well as opportunities for localised merchandise and partnerships. 

To survive in the content creating terrain, one has to come up with all the ways they can to enhance their viewership, crossing linguistic bounds is one such way that promises far-fetched results.