Former Indian Grand Slam champion Sania Mirza has been on-boarded by Sony Sports Network India as its “Tennis Ambassador”, a role that will see her serve as a skilled panellist.
The Australian Open, Roland-Garros and US Open are three of the four Grand Slams that are broadcast on Sony Sports Network. Starting with Roland-Garros on May 28, 2023, Mirza will be seen providing expert commentary off the court on Sony Sports Network’s tennis show Extraaa Serve.
“Home of Tennis” is a special promotional effort that Sony Sports Network has started. The advertisement highlights Mirza’s journey as she dons the hat of an expert after retiring from tennis earlier this year.
Rajesh Kaul, Chief Revenue Officer, Distribution & International Business and Head, Sports Business, Sony Pictures Networks India, said:
“Considering that we now have three out of the four grand slams, we are the home of premium tennis in India. 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.“
Sania Mirza commented:
“I am very excited to be a part of tennis broadcast with Sony Sports Network post my recent retirement. It feels great to be part of the network’s commitment to bringing best tennis content to viewers in India.“
In terms of viewership, Rajesh Kaul added:
“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. Despite being at an unfavourable time for the Indian viewers, we have managed to grow the US Open. Hindi, Tamil and Telugu commentary contributed close to 35% of the viewership of AO 2022, Roland Garros 2022 and US Open 2022.“
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