MUMBAI: Star India, with 12 sports channels in its bouquet, plans to reach out to a larger audience by telecasting Vivo Pro-Kabaddi Season 5 live in five languages.
PKL season 5 will be aired on Star’s first FTA sports channel Star Sports First in Hindi, Star Sports 2 and 2HD in English, regional channels Star Sports 1 Tamil, Star Suvarna Plus in Karnataka, Star Maa Movies for Telugu.
Starting 28 July (and going up to 28 October), PKL will also be aired on its digital platform Hotstar.
The captains of all 12 VIVO Pro Kabaddi teams came together to launch the Season 5 of the league in Hyderabad. The first match, on July 28, 2017, will see new team Tamil Thalaivas, led by Ajay Thakur take on Rahul Chaudhari-led Telugu Titans in Hyderabad.
The inaugural ceremony of Season 5 is likely to be a star-studded affair, with eminent sports icons and film personalities expected to attend. Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar will sing a glorious rendition of the National Anthem before the start of the first match of the season.
Gearing up for the 138 exhilarating matches across 13 weeks, the teams have been training fastidiously to prepare for a competitive season. The battle for the league got even more intense with the announcement of a consolidated sum of Rs 80 million as the coveted prize money.
Star India MD Sanjay Gupta said, “As we stand hours away from the 5th season of Vivo Pro Kabaddi, I am transported back to the day we decided to launch the league. I am filled with immense pride to see how the league has made tremendous impact and grown continuously. It's now constituted as the biggest domestic sports league with twelve new teams and expanding to new geographies. I look forward to a thrilling season of three months and I am confident that it will make history all over again.’’
Vivo Pro-Kabaddi league commissioner Anupam Goswami said, "I am excited and, at the same time, grateful to the fans, franchises, Star and the federations for supporting us at every step of this journey. I look forward to an engaging season of kabaddi."
International Kabaddi Federation president, Janardan Singh Gehlot, said, "At the federation, we are eagerly waiting to see how Season 5 of VIVO Pro Kabaddi unfolds. The players and their coaches have invested grueling hours of training to put up a competitive front and give fans an action-packed sport to cheer on for 3 months. We are confident that Kabaddi will continue its upward rise in the days and years to come."
The season will culminate with the finals slated for 28 October, 2017, in Chennai.
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