Indiantelevision.com Team

(10 March 2011 10:45 am)

MUMBAI: Neo Sports has roped in a clutch of sponsors for the All England Badminton Championship.

The sponsors are Perfetti, Adidas, Vodafone and Tata DoCoMo e-connect, according to market sources. Neo will telecast the event from the quarterfinal stage from 10-13 March.

While not revealing any names, Neo Sports Broadcast EVP ad revenue Raju Udupa said that with the craze happening around Saina Nehwal over the past six months, viewership of the sport is growing. Advertisers are now more open to investing in other sports besides cricket.

"Earlier there was no viewership for badminton. Now that Indians are performing well, viewers are encouraged to tune in. There is a niche audience for this sport which will grow. To push this event, we have advertised online to push badminton. We also use syndicated columns in the press, SMS, mailers. We have seen that women also follow this sport. A lot of badminton viewing comes from the metros," Udupa added.

Sponsors, Udupa said, have exclusivity as there are no spot buys. Unlike cricket, the format of the sport is such that there is no room for it.

Neo plans to kick-off on-ground initiatives aimed at schools and badminton clubs in the near future. The channel airs 12 events of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) a year.