The new five-year strategic partnership Tata Communications has inked with World Athletics will result in the upgrading of the coverage and broadcast of events hosted by the international sports federation based in Sweden. "World Athletics' senior management team has an ambition to overhaul the way the sport is being viewed and consumed, and are improving the reach and engagement with viewers,” Dhaval Ponda, global head of media and entertainment services at Tata Communications, told indianexpress.com. World Athletics, he said, is looking at the next decade, the next 100 million fans of sports, who are just entering the viewership age. Tata Communications is a prominent player delivering around 80,000 live events annually including MotoGP, Formula One, and even the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup. "We are the leader when it comes to global sports. And by that, I mean any sport that takes place in multiple countries, or any sport that is consumed by audiences in multiple countries," Ponda said. With these partnerships, Ponda said the company aims to leverage cutting-edge technology to offer superior broadcast products and improve viewer engagement. With viewers expecting high-quality video, immersive experiences, and personalised content, Ponda underlined the importance of delivering a seamless experience in present times. “We are working with World Athletics to deliver better quality content, we'll also be helping them deliver more content from the same events," he said. "The end objective is very clear… improve the reach of the sport, go to more geographies, and create content in regionalised and localised formats." Tata Communications has invested significantly in building a robust global infrastructure, including a 100Gbps global video backbone, a media-native cloud, and a media edge platform deployed in multiple countries, he said. Additionally, the company has developed its own cloud orchestration layer called Cloudlyte and continues to invest in emerging technologies like AI cloud in partnership with NVIDIA. “We have a single team, a single contract, single technology SLA, a commercial framework that is tied to the objectives of that particular organisation, which are increasing growth and engagement at a global level," Ponda explained. This, he said, offers the company a unique positioning, effectively replacing four different types of technology vendors — telecommunications providers, public hyperscalers, native media services providers, and system integrators. Ponda is optimistic about future of sports broadcasting as it is driven by increasing content consumption, the popularity of live sports, and the expanding sports rights market. "If you have a forward-looking team, the discussions are always around how we are driving a particular impact across the world. And it allows you to really be part of that transformation.”
