SBU Ep20: TCS expand their global sponsorship portfolio and Star Sports look at a busy period of onboarding advertising

Episode 20’s first update is about Star Sports and their outlay of sponsorships and estimated revenue from the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup.

Star Sports has roped in six sponsors for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup in UAE and Oman.

According to media sources, Star Sports has six confirmed sponsors including Byju’s, Dream11, Vimal, and Coca-Cola and others.

Star Sports is believed to have sold 45% of ad inventory even as the tournament is 2.5 months away. ICC T20 WC match has 2,700 seconds of commercial airtime.

Talking about sponsorships, Star Sports has out layed the co-presenting sponsorship at Rs 55-60 crore while associate sponsorship is estimated at Rs 30-40 crore. Star Sports estimated total ad revenue of Rs 1200-1250 crore from the tournament.

Further, the source noted that the broadcaster’s asking rate from sponsors is Rs 10.8 lakh per 10-second spot while spot buyers are being asked to fork out Rs 10.95-11.15 lakh per 10-second spot. The ad inventory will be equally split between sponsors and spot buyers.

Moving to our second update this week, it’s from FanCode and their surge in acquiring LIVE streams from International sports

Digital sports platform FanCode is on a roll with acquiring live streaming rights lately.  FanCode has secured exclusive rights in India to broadcast The Hundred, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) new 100-ball franchise competition. ECB’s four-year deal with Dream Sports also sees Dream11 become an official partner of the competition.

This news was followed up by FanCode acquiring streaming rights to show Pakistan’s tour of West Indies and later last week FanCode announced they have acquired the streaming rights for pre-season friendlies for Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona.

This week’s third update is about Indian software giants Tata Consultancy Services extending their global sports sponsorship portfolio

After signing a new title sponsorship deal with London Marathon, TCS has retained New York City Marathon title rights and plans to spend up to $40 million annually until 2029 on global race sponsorships.

Tata Consultancy Services plans to spend up to $280 million annually on global race sponsorships through 2029. 

The money spent on races, and other sporting events, is part of a larger plan to humanize TCS and get a global audience more familiar with the brand.

• It renewed its title sponsor agreement with the NYC Marathon last week in a deal that runs through 2029. TCS has been the event’s title sponsor since 2014.
• The firm became the title sponsor of the London Marathon in a six-year deal in June.

TCS has also invested in sponsorship beyond Marathons. TCS has inked a helmet sponsorship with the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers in January. This is a historic deal because TCS has become the first-ever sponsorship on the Flyers helmet. TCS has been a partner with the Flyers since 2018.

The final update from episode Twenty is about how Tokyo 2020 Olympic games have been better than Rio 2016 for the IOA when it comes to onboarding corporates as sponsors/partners? And how is the IOA utilising the monies as rewards for Indian athletes at Tokyo 2020 games? 

Let me start by summarising event v event commercial comparison, the IOA was successful in raising more sponsorship and adding more partners for the Tokyo 2020 games and it’s brilliant because they managed to do it during a pandemic.

According to sources in Indian media the IOA raised INR 20 crore from 18 corporates from their sponsorship marketing drive for Tokyo 2020 compared to  INR 15 crore raised in 2016 for the Rio Olympics and INR 2.5 crore during the London Olympics.  The growth from 2012 to 2016 is the best in terms of monetary raise but a 40% increase from 2016 to 2020 during the pandemic is nothing short of incredible.

So, how is the IOA utilising the sponsorship money?  A major chunk of the money will be given away to medal winners and I can confirm that the Indian medal winners are one of the highest rewarded athletes. To give you an idea – An Indian athlete that wins a Gold medal will get $100K but a US Gold medal-winning athlete will get $37K, compare that to an Indian Bronze medal winner who will get $34K. 

 It’s not just the athletes who win medals but their coaches will also get a cash reward. Along with the winners, the IOA will also give money to all the participating National Sports Federations and will give INR 1lakh to every athlete that represented India at @Tokyo2020.

For more details about the IOA’s incredible work, please visit my website sportsnexus.co to see the infographics on the topic.

This brings us to the end of the episode. I hope you all enjoyed listening to the updates.