MAM
EssenceMediacom & GroupM ESP renew A23’s partnership with Celebrity Cricket League for season 10
Mumbai: EssenceMediacom, GroupM’s newest and largest media agency along with GroupM ESP, the entertainment, esports, and sports division of GroupM successfully facilitated the dynamic partnership renewal between A23, India’s leading skill-based gaming platform, and the Celebrity Cricket League (CCL) for its 10th season.
Marking another exciting chapter in this collaboration, A23 returns as the presenting sponsor, building upon the success of their partnership last year. This strategic alliance leverages the shared passion for entertainment and excitement inherent in both brands, promising an unparalleled experience for the audience.
GroupM South Asia head of sports, esports, and live entertainment Vinit Karnik emphasized the strategic importance of the partnership, stating, “Celebrity Cricket League sits at the crossroads on sports and entertainment bringing together the length and breadth of India’s entertainment industry. With a robust distribution plan spanning regional and national sports channels alongside JioCinema; CCL 2024 is poised to break all its previous records. We’re proud to facilitate the dynamic partnership between A23 and CCL for 2nd year in a row. Building on last seasons’ successes, we’re confident of a rewarding season of the league for A23 in the coming weeks.”
Celebrating its 10th year, CCL is the ultimate “sportainment” spectacle, seamlessly blending the worlds of cinema and cricket. As the only sports league in India uniting over 200 actors from eight different languages, it transcends regional boundaries and fosters a sense of national unity. The upcoming season, commencing on February 23rd in Sharjah and continuing with 20 action-packed matches across India, promises electrifying entertainment for a diverse audience.
A23 VP-marketing, head digital works Gunnidhi Singh Sareen expressed excitement about the renewed collaboration, stating, “We are thrilled to announce our renewed collaboration with Celebrity Cricket League (CCL), a partnership that seamlessly aligns with the essence of A23. CCL, with its massive and diverse fan base spanning across the nation, breaks all barriers and boundaries, creating an experience that fosters the feeling of ‘playing together.’”
Last season, CCL garnered an impressive cumulative TV and digital reach, captivating over 250 million viewers throughout the country. This year’s edition, CCL Season 10, promises to be even grander, bringing together the most beloved film celebrities under one platform for an unmatched entertainment extravaganza.
Celebrity Cricket League founder Vishnu Induri stated, “We are happy to have A23 as the presenting sponsor for the 10th season of CCL. A23 has been a committed partner for CCL since the last season sharing our passion towards talent and the spirit of cricket. With their continued support CCL is scaling and we are looking forward to our biggest season this year.
As EssenceMediacom and GroupM ESP facilitate this dynamic partnership between A23 and CCL for the second year in a row, all stakeholders anticipate a rewarding season filled with entertainment, engagement, and unforgettable moments both on and off the field.
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
