INDIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Aarushi Jain, Pooja Kapadia and Maya Venkiteswaran, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas
the Sun Group won a bid to purchase 100% shares of the Northern Superchargers. Cross-border deals come with their own set of structuring, legal and tax nuances, vis-à-vis ownership, rights, compliance, governance, repatriation of funds and the like. We should continue to see more outbound activity as well as deal-making in the sports space. The Disney-Viacom18 merger Two media broadcasting giants, Viacom18 Media Private Limited (Viacom18) and Star India Private Limited (Star India), the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company (Disney) merged to form India’s largest media and entertainment company. The merged entity now holds a domi - nant position in sports broadcasting, controlling approximately 80% of the Indian sports market across both linear television and over the top (OTT) platforms. With the fruition of this merger, the Competition Commission of India (the “CCI” ) raised concerns about its effect on the sports broadcasting mar - ket which were addressed by Viacom18 and Star India resulting in the CCI approving the merger. It will be interesting to see the offering of the merged entity and its effect on competition and Monetisation of sports rights is no longer limited to broadcasting, digital and media rights. Recent trends suggest that sports leagues and teams have been investing in/granting rights for: • setting up fan parks for community viewing; • offering fans loyalty programmes with spe - cial lounge access, merchandise and tickets, social media recognition, etc at a premium; rights. Rights
• gamification: these rights are creatively being exploited to allow the right-holders to create a game based on the league, with the use of the league and team trade marks, player attributes, etc and offer fun activities like quizzes and polls during the match, for better brand visibility and fan engagement; • enabling viewers to use new-age technol - ogy to view the match from different angles thereby enhancing viewership experience; • digital technologies like NFTs, AR/VR experi - ences for watching matches, etc; and • creating documentary and short-form content depicting the teams, the players, and/or the matches, etc. Increasing awareness of rights and the value attached to them necessitates a hawk-eye review of agreements and rights to monetise them well and advantageously. Sponsorship rights India has seen a spike in sponsorship deals, for old and new leagues, with large as well as new businesses supporting various events of this kind. For example: • the Indian contingent for the Paris Olympic Games secured sponsorship deals worth approximately USD5.77 million from various prominent brands like the Adani Group, the Reliance Foundation, Jindal Steel Works, Adi - tya Birla Capital, Yes Bank, Amul, etc; • the Kho Kho World Cup 2025 secured spon - sorships to the tune of approximately USD9 million from several brands like EaseMyTrip, GMR Aero, Zomato, Blackberrys and Tata; and • the World Pickleball League saw sponsor - ships to the tune of approximately USD10 million from brands such as Barclays Private Bank, Apollo, Skullcandy and EKA.
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