MAM
Volkswagen to sponsor intl Table Tennis Federation
SWITZERLAND: In what should prove to be a major boon to the sport of table tennis the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has concluded an agreement with automobile manufacturer Volkswagen AG. This is said to be the most extensive sponsor contract in table tennis ever.
In India, table tennis action on the Asian circuit can be seen on ESPN Star Sports. Volkswagen will be the title sponsor of four pro tour events to come in Asia this year and all pro tour events in the Asia Pacific region next year.. The first event included in the agreement will be the Volkswagen Korea Open which takes place from 4-7 September 2003.
The pro tour grand finals in 2003 and 2004 will also carry the name of Volkswagen – as well as the Volkswagen World Individual Table Tennis Championships in Shanghai, China in May 2005. At the Volkswagen Pro Tour Grand Finals the winners of the Men?s and the Women?s Singles will be able to drive back home. On top of the prize money (men’s singles $38.000 and women’s singles $26.000 ) the winners can take home a VW Beetle Convertible.
As a part of the agreement, Volkswagen has the right to be the official car at the above mentioned ITTF events. ITTF president Adham Sharara said, “Obviously we are extremely happy with this agreement. During the last years we have tried to make changes and improvements in order to make table tennis more attractive for spectators, television – and sponsors. This agreement tells us that we are on the right track.
“We are proud to work with Volkswagen and we will do everything possible to give Volkswagen value for money. With the position of our sport in Asia, both concerning spectators and TV coverage, I feel confident that we will succeed”
Volkswagen AG will also be the title sponsor of the Volkswagen German Open and the sponsor of the German National Team. However, the main target for Volkswagen is the Asian region, especially China, and to that end the Chinese interest in table tennis is seen as the perfect weapon.
China’s national television network CCTV has bought the rights to broadcast live from all pro tour events.
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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.
