India top revenue contributor, WC hugely successful: FIH

New Delhi: India contributed a major chunk of revenue earned by the International Hockey Federation and

the ongoing World Cup here is commercially a huge success, the FIH said on Wednesday. At the FIH media summit here, Marketing Manager of the world body Steven Morris revealed that India has been the top revenue contributor, mainly from television, while top hockey countries like Germany, Australia and Pakistan fared very poorly in this aspect. "Most of FIH revenue come from very few countries. India`s contribution in revenue is more than 50 per cent than second-placed the Netherlands. Malaysia, Argentina and USA also contribute," Morris said. "In countries like Pakistan, Spain, China, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, South Africa, Singapore and Middle East, it is difficult to sale hockey on television," he said. He said looking at the commercial success of the tournament, India would be an integral part of FIH`s effort to lift the profile of hockey in the world. "It is a challenge to administrators how to market hockey in India. Commercially, India is a huge market for hockey and the World Cup a huge success. India will have to be an integral part of any future FIH plans to lift the profile of the game," he said. "The India-Pakistan match on the first day equalled the TV viewership of the India-Sri Lanka cricket one-day international matches (last year). We did not expect a hockey match to equal a cricket match in India. The India-Pakistan game is expected to be the most-watched hockey event in history after the data from Pakistan came in," said Morris. "The main sponsors Hero Honda had also USD five million ad-spend from the World Cup," he added. FIH Director General Christophe Troendle said the world body is aiming to treble its revenue in 2010-2016 and India is the main market. "We are looking to treble the revenue by focusing on three things -- increasing FIH events, ours rights and expectations, and raising the profile of FIH and the game. In India, wee are working as joint venture with Hockey India. That is what we want in future," he said. Troendle said Hockey India was eager to market the game in the country with FIH`s joint partnership. "India is eager to raise the profile of hockey by marketing the game in partnership with FIH," he said. FIH Communication officer Arjen Meijer said it was natural that top FIH events are held more in countries where the game is sold most. "It is natural that the top FIH events are held more in those countries where the game is marketable," he said. FIH Executive member Aaron Sher said the world body was working to reformulate the calendar which would give some top events a fixed time slot like in other sports. "We did not have any top FIH event between the Beijing Olympics (August 2008) and Champions Trophy in Australia (in December 2009). We need to have more FIH events and at the same time need to give a fixed time slot, like the Wimbledon Championships which is held every August," he said. Aaron, who is also the FIH Communication and Information Technology Committee chairman, said nothing has been finalised yet regarding the proposed World Hockey Series. "It is just in the discussion stage and nothing has been finalised. It will be discussed in the Executive Board meeting on March 14-15," he said. If materialised, the World Hockey Series (stage 3 and 4) will be among the top FIH events besides the World Cup, Champions Trophy and Indoor World Cup. The FIH second tier events are World Cup and Olympic qualifiers, Champions Challenge I and II and World Hockey Series 1 and 2. PTI