Even as India is known to be a cricket-obsessed nation, the fan following for tennis seems to be growing. Star Sports said the ongoing Wimbledon championship was watched by nearly 12.87 million people in its first week in the country, according to data provided by TAM, compared with 8.83 million last year.
Vijay Rajput, Chief Operating Officer, ESPN Software India, said the number of people who watched Wimbledon matches in the first week went up by 45 per cent over the last year. He said that the data excluded the 1.5 million high-definition (HD) subscriber base of the channel. “We believe a lot of tennis fans are watching Wimbledon on HD as well,” he added.
The broadcaster also said that the number of people who watched Wimbledon in its first week was also nearly 67 per cent higher than French Open in the first week. French Open was watched by 7.72 million people in its first week.
Rajput said for the first time, the broadcaster had introduced dual feed of Wimbledon across ESPN, Star Sports 2 and ESPN HD, bringing close to 150 hours of live tennis action to viewers in India. “The idea was to offer Indian tennis fans the maximum number of live matches,” he said.
The broadcaster has roped in 15 advertisers. While Rolex is the presenting sponsor, Thai Airways, Cadbury’s, Hyundai, IBM, Nokia and Micromax are associate sponsors for the grand slam.
It has also been using aggressive media plans to promote Wimbledon across the Star Network, besides special partnerships with Radio One across Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore.