After global live sports lead, Tata Communications eyes regional markets

Tata Communications plans to expand its dominance in global live sports broadcasting into regional markets, leveraging tech and grassroots partnerships across India

Tata Communications, which is considered as a technology provider leader  in recording and broadcasting live sports events, is looking to take its leadership in the global sports environment to regional sports, a top executive of the company told Business Standard.

 

“Today, we are considered to be a leader when it comes to global live sports,” said Dhaval Ponda, global head, media and entertainment, Tata Communications, on the sidelines of the ongoing World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES).

 

“If you look at all the global sports that are consumed anywhere in the world, approximately two out of three events would have something to do with us. That's a very disproportionate impact, with close to 67-70 per cent of all global live sports we would enable in some form or manner. That is the kind of impact that we have today,” he said.

 

Ponda added that the company now has a very strong regional presence in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia.

 

“They know us because we bring in the most expensive and the most sought-after tournaments. If you go to Mexico, we will probably bring in the FIFA tournament live for them (people in Mexico) as they already know that we are bringing in a very top-tier tournament,” he explained.

 

In India, the company has had a strong history of enabling cricket and using technology to provide remote production to broadcasters in the country.

 

“Our presence has always been in enabling cricket consumption at scale all over the Indian subcontinent and then bringing that content to the world as well. We have also had sustained growth when it comes to other forms of sport. We have done kabaddi for a long time and other forms of sports as well,” he noted.

 

The company is also working with the World Atheletics to have a better grass roots presence for a lot of athletics competitions in the country. He added that the company has a strong interest in javelin due to the sport's presence in the Olympics, with India having won two major Olympic medals in it recently.

 

“We are looking to see how we can use technology and the presence of Tata group to go deeper at a grass roots level and to televise events that were not televised before; we want to further improve our broadcast facilities available on ground,” he said.

 

Generally, the live sports segment continues to be a very strong driver for revenue growth for the company, because people spend a lot of money to acquire sports rights. Globally, the sports rights market value is about $80 billion to $100 billion.

 

 

  Key Figures and Highlights

• Media revenue in FY25: ₹1,285 crore
• Share of total revenue: 5.56%
• YoY growth from FY24: 4.1%
• India’s share of media revenue: 42%; global: 58%
• Key clients: NFL, PGA (North America); Formula One, Formula E, MotoGP; football federations; BCCI and ICC (cricket); South Korean baseball leagues
• Victory Studios (Los Angeles): Known for cutting-edge engineering and tech capability
• Current projects: Supporting Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football and filming original formats for Netflix