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NEW DELHI: The Badminton Association of India (BAI) on Friday announced Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) as its broadcast partner for the Yonex-Sunrise India Open 2022, which kicked off on 14 January in the national capital and will go on till 16 January.
The 11th edition of the tournament will see reigning world champion Singapore's Loh Kean Yew and bronze medallist Lakshya Sen as well as two-time Olympics medallist PV Sindhu and the 2015 India Open champion Saina Nehwal, headlining the draws.
The tournament is being telecast live on Sony Ten 1 channel and is being streamed live on SonyLIV, its OTT platform, starting from the quarter-finals.
BAI general secretary Ajay Singhania said, "Unfortunately, this year we don't have spectators or media covering the event, but now they can see the action from their home and watch world-class badminton action played in India after a long time."
With close to 22 hours of badminton action, badminton enthusiasts will be able to see the top shuttlers including the three-time world champion duo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan along with other top ranked players including World No. 12 Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand, Singapore’s Jia Min Yeo and the pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and HS Prannoy among the Indians as the tournament completes a decade of hosting the sport.
Rajesh Kaul, chief revenue officer, distribution and head of the sports business at Sony Pictures Networks India, said, “Badminton has a passionate following in the country. Close to 70 million viewers followed the sport on TV in 2021 due to the strong performances of Indian players like PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen, who won medals at global marquee tournaments last year. Badminton was also one of the top watched sports disciplines in the recently held 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games on our network, with PV Sindhu’s semi-final match achieving the highest ratings on TV among all the Olympic events that were telecasted."
The event, which also kickstarted the BWF World Tour calendar, made a return after a gap of two years due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is being played at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall at India Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi for the next two days.
Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corp., Japan.
SPNI has several channels including Sony Entertainment Television (SET and SET HD), MAX and MAX 2, for Hindi films.
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