Sony bats for tennis, ropes in Sania Mirza as its ambassador

With media rights to three out of the four tennis grand slams —the Australian Open, French Open, and US Open, along with the Davis Cup— Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) wants to promote its sports network as the ‘Home of Tennis’ in India.

The broadcaster has roped in Sania Mirza as tennis ambassador, to not just promote the game and the Sony Sports Network but also be seen as an expert panellist on the network’s show Extraaa Serve across the tournaments, starting in Roland-Garros on 28 May.

“Considering that we now have three out of the four grand slams, we are the home of premium tennis in India,” Rajesh Kaul, chief revenue officer – distribution & international business and head – sports business, SPNI, told Mint. “We have managed to grow the viewership of all the tennis properties with our coverage across multiple channels, and commentary in multiple languages. Now we wanted to take it one notch higher and decided to get Sania, who has been an Indian legend, as the face of our campaign for the game.”

Recipient of Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri, the Arjuna Award and Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, Mirza is a household name in India. She has won six Grand Slam titles across Australian Open (2), US Open (2), Roland Garros (1) and Wimbledon (1), including three women’s doubles titles and three mixed doubles titles, making her one of the most successful tennis players in Indian history.

“I am very excited to be a part of tennis broadcast with Sony Sports Network post my recent retirement,” said Mirza. “It feels great to be part of the network’s commitment to bringing best tennis content to viewers in India.”

Talking about the growth of tennis in India, Kaul said it has a sizable following, with close to 100 million viewers watching the sport on TV in 2022.

In terms of viewership, North East, Maharashtra/Goa, Tamil Nadu/ Pondicherry and Andhra Pradesh/Telangana are the top four markets for tennis in India contributing 2/3rd of tennis ratings in India.

“We want to take tennis deeper into the markets, which is why we started offering commentary first in Hindi in addition to English and later in Tamil and Telugu too. We plan to continue with the four languages,” Kaul added.

While the Australian Open has consistently been among the top-watched grand slams in India, with the 2023 edition clocking close to 20 million viewers, the cumulative reach of Roland Garros and the US Open have also jumped significantly last year, after the two properties moved to Sony Sports.

For instance, Roland Garros’ reach went up by 303% to 20 million last season, compared to 5 million in 2021, while that of the US Open saw a 579% jump, from 1.7 million to 11.6 million.

“Despite being at an unfavourable time for the Indian viewers, we have managed to grow the US Open,” Kaul said. “Hindi, Tamil and Telugu commentary contributed close to 35% of the viewership of AO 2022, Roland Garros 2022 and US Open 2022.”

Talking about advertisers’ interest in tennis in a cricket-crazy nation, Kaul said that due to its premium audiences, and increasing viewership, tennis Grand Slams have seen increased interest from advertisers.

Incidentally, categories like automobiles, mobile handsets, BFSI and lifestyle are looking at tennis with a lot of interest. Also, all these tournaments have strong on-ground associations with global brands such as Renault and Rolex, amongst others. And for them, it becomes a logical proposition to partner with the local rights holder.