MAM
Tokyo Olympics: Adani Group comes onboard as sponsor for IOA
Mumbai: There’s palpable excitement in the air as the mega global sporting event, Tokyo Olympics 2020, after a year’s delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic, finally kicks off on 23 July. Brands have also come out in full support of the Indian squad at the Olympics- some via curating Olympic-special campaigns, or by representing the Tokyo-bound athletes, to coming onboard as sponsors.
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Friday announced that it has roped in Adani Group as a sponsor for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the future.
“We are happy to inform you about one more sponsorship which is confirmed by Adani Group to IOA for the Olympics since our last update to you on 16th July. Adani Group has confirmed to us a good sponsorship association and support for the future also,” said IOA secretary-general Rajeev Mehta in an official statement.
Earlier, IOA had announced that SFA Pvt Ltd had joined as one of its sponsors for the multi-sport event.
“We are happy to inform you about one more sponsorship which is confirmed by SFA Pvt Ltd to IOA since our last update to you on 14th July,” said Rajeev Mehta. “SFA has confirmed to us a sponsorship of Rs one crore,” he added.
IOA had earlier entered sponsorship agreements with MPL Sports Foundation as the ‘Principal Sponsor’ covering the Tokyo Olympic Games, 2022 Asian Games, and Commonwealth Games.
The IOA then confirmed global nutrition company Herbalife as one of its sponsors.
As per the IOA, MPL will pay a total of Rs eight crore to IOA and in addition to this sports kit for the 2022 Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, the Indian contingent will also be supplied by them.
In June, JSW Group was also roped in as a sponsor for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. In a statement issued by IOA chief Narinder Batra and secretary Rajeev Mehta, the IOA had said that JSW’s CEO Parth Jindal had confirmed the sponsorship of Rs one crore to the governing body.
Additionally, Amul had also come forward to support IOA for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Amul’s sponsorship is for Rs one crore for a period till 31 December.
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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.
