Latest News
July 14th, 2021
Herbalife Nutrition becomes nutrition partner of Team India for Tokyo 2020
Global nutrition company Herbalife Nutrition announced that it has been signed as the official nutrition partner of Team India ahead of Tokyo Olympics, scheduled to start from 23 July. “As a company at the forefront of developing sports nutrition and working successfully with teams and athletes around the world, we are proud to be the nutrition partner in support of Team India. We look forward to bringing our knowledge and expertise in sports nutrition to the team and are confident they will achieve huge success in Tokyo 2021," said Ajay Khanna, vice president & India country head, Herbalife Nutrition. Over 100 Indian athletes and sportspersons, including Mary Kom and Manika Batra, are scheduled to represent India in Tokyo 2021 in an array of competitive sports such as boxing, table tennis, badminton, track and field athletics, wrestling, hockey, tennis, fencing, archery and shooting. “Herbalife Nutrition is an ideal partner for Team India as they have a key understanding of the specific nutritional needs of high-performance athletes. The synergy between Herbalife Nutrition and Indian Olympic Association creates a sporting platform that leverages science-based nutrition and expertise to optimise performance and well-being," said Rajeev Mehta, secretary-general, Indian Olympic Association (IOA).
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July 13th, 2021
Viacom 18 secures exclusive La Liga rights in Indian subcontinent
LaLiga has signed a broadcast deal with Viacom18’s flagship youth brand MTV teamed for the next 3 years. Enabled & supported by Rise Worldwide, LaLiga football tournament will now air exclusively on MTV in India, along with select national and regional network channels & live-streamed on Voot & Jio platforms. The agreement covers India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. According to a press release, the coverage will be ‘enabled and supported by’ Rise Worldwide, the sports marketing company that was formerly operated as a joint venture with the IMG agency. Commentary will be provided in English and Hindi, though high-profile games will be available on additional Viacom 18 channels with commentary in Bengali, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam. Viacom 18, a joint venture between US media giant ViacomCBS and Indian mass media company Network18, had in 2015 ruled out a move into the Indian sports rights market. Social media giant Facebook was the previous rights-holder of LaLiga in the Indian subcontinent after securing a three-season deal, from 2018-19 to 2020-21. All LaLiga matches were streamed live for free across the Indian subcontinent during the Facebook deal. Pay-television broadcaster Sony sublicensed rights from the social media platform during the first season of the deal. Sony held LaLiga rights across the region in the previous three-season cycle, from 2015-16 to 2017-18. LaLiga has had an office in India since 2016. LaLiga issued an invitation to tender earlier this year in the Indian subcontinent and set an had an initial deadline of February 8. Comparing the new agreement with the outgoing Facebook deal, Jose Antonio Cachaza, the managing director of La Liga India, told Reuters: “It’s quite an interesting time for media evolution and it’s part of LaLiga’s strategy to explore new ways and India is becoming kind of forefront of this. First it was our experience with Facebook that gave us a lot of learnings and it was also a different way to interact with the fans. And now we are sort of coming back to more traditional TV but in a totally different way. Learning is always positive. It’s usually we learn more from the bad experiences than for the good experience. What we do wrong is where we need to improve. I will never say that our experience with Facebook was a bad experience, it was a totally different experience. It is true that a small proportion of our fans never understood not having the matches accessible through the traditional channels. But if we had to do it again, we’ll do it again.”
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July 13th, 2021
TOYOTA TO SPONSOR INAUGURAL MINOR LEAGUE CRICKET
Minor League Cricket (MiLC) today announced a partnership with Toyota to sponsor its inaugural championship season in 2021. The most extensive competition in American cricket history will launch nationwide on July 31, with more than 200 games set to take place in 21 cities. Minor League Cricket (MiLC) today announced a partnership with Toyota to sponsor its inaugural championship season in 2021. The Toyota Minor League Cricket Championship will be presented by SLING TV, with games set to begin on July 31. More than $4,000,000 has been invested by Minor League Cricket and its 27 team owners into staging the tournament, the most extensive competition to ever take place in American cricket. The Toyota Minor League Cricket Championship will feature ten weekends of competitive play in the Twenty20 format loved by cricket fans around the world, culminating in a finals weekend on Oct. 2-3. Total prize money of $250,000 for the competition represents the largest purse in American cricket. “We’re honored to be part of the first-ever Minor League Cricket season and to help support the growth of the sport as it embarks on its most extensive competition to ever take place in the United States,” said Matt Ozawa, manager, asset management and activation, Toyota Motor North America. “We look forward to joining the league, its athletes, cricket lovers and Toyota fans across the country for a historic inaugural championship season.”
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July 7th, 2021
Thums Up announces worldwide partnership with Tokyo Olympic Games
With this partnership, Thums Up becomes first India origin beverage brand to partner with Olympics at the global level. As India enters its 100th year of participation at the global sporting games, Thumbs Up aims to celebrate the athletes who overcame tremendous odds to reach where they are today. Arnab Roy, vice president and head-marketing, Coca-Cola India and South-West Asia said, “In line with our long history of partnering with major sporting events globally, our strategic partnership with the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, not only reinforces our long-standing commitment to refresh sports fans and enhance our consumers’ experiences but is also our way of standing in solidarity and saluting the exemplary courage that the athletes have displayed." The Coca-Cola Company has an eight-decade long association, with Olympic Games. Other sporting partnerships include four decades with FIFA and nearly 25 years with World Cup Rugby.
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July 7th, 2021
ICC launches OTT cricket streaming service
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has launched its own OTT streaming service, ICC.tv. The service, which is free to access for web, iOS, Android, Chromecast and Airplay users, is being powered by Endeavor Streaming, the sports and entertainment conglomerate’s over-the-top (OTT) platform provider. Further details about ICC.tv at this stage are scarce, but Peter Bellamy, a senior vice president at Endeavor Streaming, said the platform will have the capabilities “to drive significant growth” of cricket’s international fanbase. It is the second brief handed to Endeavor Streaming in recent weeks after the company was selected by kickboxing organisation Glory to launch its new OTT platform.
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