Outlook Exclusive | Rajiv Mehra Explains KPS Studios’ ISL Broadcast, Fix Commentary Issues, And The Derby Promise

When the Indian Super League (ISL) was founded in 2013, it was supposed to be the next big thing in Asian football. However, that extravagant dream of ours came crashing down last year. A protracted contract issue between the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and its commercial partner Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) left the fate of India’s top professional league in limbo.

In stepped FanCode, who won the streaming rights to show the ISL for 2025-26, ensuring that India’s footballing calendar did not suffer a blank season. But the real story is behind the lens, where one Kolkata-based production house – KPS Studios – is attempting what is surely one of the most ambitious technological pivots seen in Indian sports.

Operating from a single location in the quiet suburb of Jodhpur Park, KPS – led by industry veteran Rajiv Mehra – won the world-feed rights with a frugal bid just north of five crores. Today, they are the driving force behind the 91 ISL matches beamed to our screens.

KPS Studios might not be a household name – yet – but they are no spring chickens either. Having produced Bengali TV shows and launched the OTT platform Addatimes, Rajiv’s focus is now squarely on football, winning the bid for ISL for a reported INR 5.22 crores, a fraction of the previous era’s outlay.

Despite this drastic reduction in budget, in an exclusive conversation with Outlook India, Rajiv is quick to stress his team has not only upheld the standards of yesteryear, but improved upon them.

“There is no compromise on equipment. What FSDL was doing was fantastic, and we learned a lot from them,” Rajiv says. “We are using higher-end cameras. Earlier, FSDL used HD cameras, and ours are all 4K, though we take the output in HD. The only compromise is we are using fewer cameras. FSDL used 13 or 14; we use a minimum of 10, but in big matches, we use 12 or 14.”

Technology Key in KPS Model

The sceptics among us will wonder: if indeed there are no cutbacks, how did a Kolkata-based company outbid established production giants? For Rajiv, the answer is simple, and to be fair, quite obvious: technology.

“Our remote production is very cost-effective,” explains Rajiv. “We purchased the hardware to convert baseband to IP – that’s a one-time cost... You’ve seen the quality on Sony or FanCode – it’s the same."

By owning outright everything that makes the production tick, KPS bypasses the rental markets – inflated as they are – that other broadcasters rely on.

“Other broadcasters hire equipment from outside vendors daily for lakhs of rupees. I don’t pay anything outside,” he says. “The technical guys are on our payroll. For the last three years we planned (and) taught our operators. Now they take a monthly salary, which is quite less than per-day operator charges.”

This ‘in-house’ philosophy extends to the crew also, with everyone from EVS slow-motion operators to graphics directors being on the KPS payroll, earning monthly salaries rather than expensive per-day charges. The only inherited element is the on-ground camera crew, and that was a deliberate choice.

“The cameramen are the main guys who give the perfect shots, so we selected those guys who did earlier ISLs,” he explains. “We are paying the same amount they used to get because there should not be any difference in production value.”

The Process, And Problems, Of Remote Production

There’s a saying that a writer needs to read a thousand books before he can write one. For every 90 minutes of football, there’s at least a day-and-a-half of hidden effort behind its production.

There’s a fascinating aspect in seeing football – the sport that Arsene Wenger described as “art” – detailed in such technical terms. Rajiv is eager to do it, if only to put into perspective the sheer scale of what it takes to stream a match from one single point of production, thousands of kilometres away from the actual action.

"Our team reaches one day before,” Rajiv explains. “By 10 o'clock they switch on all the cameras, and we do the colour corrections, audio checks, and communication checks between the cameramen and our Master Control Room (MCR).”

Following these technical sweeps, the 75-person daily operation shifts to live preparation. The MCR coordinates with the 15-member travelling ground team to set camera angles and correct audio sync delays. For a 5:30 PM match, the feed is live by 4:45 PM.

This already laborious task becomes more complex once you factor in the real-time coordination between multiple broadcast partners.

“For Sony, one panel producer talks with them to understand break times and give bumpers accordingly. Another panel producer talks directly with FanCode. If they want to see a replay, they tell us, and our replay operators sitting here will show it.”

This marriage of sports and technology is emblematic of the man himself. Hailing from Uttarpara, Rajiv grew up playing football, something that he maintained even after joining the Air Force.

However, his “passion is technology”. After dabbling in television and OTT, KPS entered football production in 2017 with the Calcutta Football League (CFL), eventually scaling up to the Durand Cup and the 132-match I-League season in 2022-23.

That I-League stint was a trial by fire. It was also when Rajiv realised the necessity of moving to remote production because, in football, “there are no sponsors, there is no big money”.

Sensing the brewing friction between FSDL and AIFF, Rajiv used the Bengal Super League (BSL) as a rehearsal for any future ISL bid. The KPS team mapped out the exact time required to shift satellite feeds between stadiums, bringing it down to a “maximum of 10 minutes”.

This meticulous preparation gave Rajiv and his team the confidence to go straight for the big fish – the ISL. Still, there was a lot to learn on the job. When some ground engineers couldn’t execute proper colour correction early on, KPS quickly introduced a system in the MCR to handle retouching straight from the studios.

While production quality improved rapidly, one pain point – flagged by almost everyone watching – has been the commentary.

The sound quality of the English commentary was, especially in the first few weeks, terrible. Audio compression issues ruined one of the most vital experiences for a fan watching on TV. Rajiv puts that down to the rushed nature of their deal with the AIFF.

“Everything happened at the last moment,” Rajiv admits. “Initially, two commentators were supposed to sit in our Calcutta studio. Then suddenly, clubs, AIFF, and FanCode wanted the best commentators sitting in Chennai, Goa, Bombay, London, etc.”

This rushed, decentralised setup caused hardware nightmares, with commentators using basic headphone microphones for their job, something that no studio mixer can conceal. However, “once things settled”, Rajiv and his team sent proper equipment to the talent and imported the remote commentary system ‘QuickLink’.

“Now the audios are fantastic,” Rajiv claims, adding that his team is acquiring sync systems to eliminate the remaining “slight 20-40 millisecond inherent delay”.

While on the subject of remote production challenges, I asked Rajiv what it would take for Indian sports production to catch up to international standards, particularly Australia.

“The equipment is the same, but in Australia, they broadcast in 4K,” he says. “Broadcasters here need to be able to take a 4K signal. We offered Sony a 4K feed in the Durand Cup, but their system could only take HD. Only Jio(Star) currently has the capacity for 4K broadcasting in India.”

A Glimpse of the Future

With cheap internet available everywhere, people are consuming a lot of sports, and not just cricket. And courtesy of the success that Indian teams have enjoyed in age-group and women’s football, the beautiful game is experiencing a viewership renaissance of its own.

Covering so many matches across so many stadiums, Rajiv is absolutely sure that “remote production is the only solution”. Doing his part, the KPS chief has already prepared the Football Video System (FVS), also known as VAR-LIGHT. This simplified version of VAR, similar to cricket’s DRS, debuted to considerable success in the U20 World Cup in Chile.

“That system is ready with us, and we are training on that,” Rajiv says. “Whenever AIFF wants, we can introduce that in India.”

His immediate priority, however, is bettering the viewing experience for the Kolkata Derby between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal on May 3. “It will be a different experience,” he promises. “We will have six or eight super slow-motion cameras, more camera angles for replays – like they do in Europe.”

With such ambitions, I asked Rajiv if he plans to branch outside of football. “Yes”, he says, but acknowledges that the risk-averse nature of Indian broadcasters is currently prohibiting the entry of newcomers.

“But we want to enter other sports and introduce these technologies,” Rajiv adds. “People are bound to look at us, I’m confident.” Given what KPS Studios has already achieved with the ISL, there is plenty of reason to share that confidence.