Wimbledon's rising viewership and steady ad rates attract marketers

Time of India

11-07-2025

Wimbledon
, traditionally a refined niche, now commands significant attention in cricket-loving India. 2024 saw a profound shift: Indian consumers are actively gravitating towards premium, scheduled sports on all screens, making it a crucial platform for brands targeting affluent customers.
According to BARC India data shared by
JioStar
, overall viewership across TV and digital platforms increased 3.5 times compared to 2023. This led to Wimbledon reaching 36.3 million viewers, which is a 176 percent increase from the previous year. Indian sports fans collectively spent 930 million minutes watching the tournament, indicating its rising popularity. Wimbledon's performance also highlights broader trends in Indian sports consumption. The FICCI EY report 2025 indicates that in 2024, 457 million viewers watched sports other than cricket on linear TV. Within this, Tennis ranked third, drawing 82 million viewers.
Brands flock to Wimbledon to elevate their image and court high-net-worth audiences. It's a strategic move, often seen as cost-effective for them. Despite strong viewership, ad rates aren't skyrocketing. This situation is, in fact, generally advantageous for brands and marketers, allowing them to reach a quality audience at a relatively decent price. Media planners attributed this to the evolving and fragmented media consumption landscape, where audiences are spread across traditional TV, Connected TV (CTV), and mobile streaming platforms.
A Grand Slam for brands
For many brands, particularly in the premium and luxury sectors, Wimbledon offers a unique strategic fit. In 2024, JioStar (formerly Disney Star) attracted a strong lineup of partners for both TV and digital platforms, including names like Jaquar, Hyundai, Amul, ICICI Mutual Funds, Glenfiddich, Natural Diamonds Council, HSBC, Haier, Castrol, Kohler, Disney Adventure, and One Plus.
The network has significantly expanded its brand presence for Wimbledon 2025. This year, 11 brands from 2024 have returned, joined by 17 new clients, showing rising interest across various industries. Advertisers include
Mahindra Electric
,
William Grant
, HPCL, Jaquar, ICICI Mutual Funds, Amul, Haier, Kohler, and Black and White.
Haier, a home appliance and consumer electronics company, is a returning partner for 2025.
Priyanka Sethi
, head of marketing, Haier Appliances India, stated, 'Tennis, as a focused sport in India, helps us connect with a premium audience segment that matches our brand's evolving direction.'
She added that Haier has been gradually shifting towards a high-end premium brand over the past three years. 'Our association with this tournament fits perfectly with our global strategy of partnering with major sporting events worldwide.' Haier is a global on-ground sponsor for all four Grand Slams and the ATP Tour. Their India strategy focuses on local efforts through Connected TV and mobile streaming for 'comprehensive, high-impact engagement in a rapidly changing media environment'. Haier is one of the digital sponsors for the tournament.
While JioHotstar continues its impressive growth, with advertiser count up over 50 percent from last year, some brands are embracing a dual strategy. Jaquar, a returning sponsor this year, stands out by partnering across both TV and digital platforms, unlike Haier, which has opted for a digital-only presence.
Sandeep Shukla
, vice president & head marketing communications at Jaquar & Company, explained that HD linear TV still reaches a substantial audience for the brand ensuring their presence across both HD television and digital.
As per JioStar, the 2024 Wimbledon edition on Star Sports Select 1 & 2 and Star Sports 2 attracted a demographic that was 57 percent from Urban India and 65 percent over 22 years of age.
Shukla highlighted their consistent strategy: 'We always seek to associate with properties that align with our aspirations and positioning. For tennis in India, Wimbledon is top-tier in terms of prestige and resonance. Our Wimbledon association has been very positive. It's one of those premium properties—like the IPL or 'Koffee with Karan' with which we've maintained steady involvement. In our category, we usually launch a new brand commercial every year or every alternate year.'
Cricket tournaments deliver broad reach and mass engagement for many brands. However, tennis events like Wimbledon offer a complementary, highly targeted, and premium platform, proving effective for reaching a more selective consumer segment.
'The precision of tennis audiences requires no filtering. Together, these sporting properties form a dual strategy, IPL drives volume and widespread brand presence, while tennis delivers exclusivity and affinity. This balanced approach is central to our ambition to penetrate diverse consumer strata across India's dynamic market,' mentioned Sethi.
Shukla on the other hand shared that as a brand with strong communication objectives, Jaquar has been very active in our ATL (Above-The-Line) efforts. This year, they have launched three brand films. 'These films are not traditional advertisements; they are beautifully crafted stories told from the brand's perspective. The tone, narrative structure, and visual treatment have been designed to appeal to the top strata of society—our HNIs, UHNIs, and premium audiences and if I have to tell a story via an audio-visual medium, then Wimbledon is a perfect fit in terms of both the audience and the contextual experience they are in.'
Measuring Impact
'We evaluate ROI by closely monitoring sales trends during the campaign period, with particular focus on premium product segments to gauge the impact of our messaging and communication efforts. Additionally, we measure the partnership's effectiveness through comprehensive reach analysis and brand impact metrics, ensuring alignment with our broader strategic goals,' shared Sethi.
While Shukla shared, at Jaquar, they regularly conduct brand audits, specifically, a baseline brand study that gives us a comprehensive view of brand scores. This is a periodic, third-party research effort that they undertake every six months. Additionally, they do extensive digital tracking.
'With connected TV and digital media, we're able to monitor backlinking, impressions, reach, and search spikes on our website, all of which are measurable. We also have psychographic and demographic data from these interactions. Our internal tools allow us to assess impact in numerical terms, which we cross-reference with third-party studies. Furthermore, we conduct programme-specific research.' For example, during properties like IPL or Wimbledon, the brand engages agencies like
Kantar
to carry out post-event studies. These help them measure brand lift—changes in message recall, awareness, and buying intent. It's all done using a robust sample size.
He also highlighted, ' feedback from our trade network—architects, designers, builders—also helps us gauge impact. So it's a combination of top-down research, bottom-up insights, and both qualitative and quantitative analysis that help us measure ROI, not just in terms of numbers, but also in brand imagery and reach.'
B Sridhar
, group director, Innocean Worldwide Communications, an expert in media planning and buying, highlighted that when it comes to ROI, brands are not necessarily tracking GRPs or TRPs for properties like Wimbledon. Instead, the goal is to reach a qualitatively superior audience, one with a stronger potential affinity toward premium brands. 'The KPI here is quality over quantity: audience exclusivity, brand alignment, and premium positioning take precedence over raw reach numbers,' said Sridhar.
Revenue Playbook
According to Sirdhar, sports like Tennis, Golf, and similar sports are typically considered niche and premium, particularly appealing to a male target audience. From an advertiser's perspective, these platforms offer high relevance—largely because they provide a space where one can reach an audience with minimal wastage. The viewers of such events are generally SEC A1+ audiences, making them a strong fit for premium or niche brands.
He said, 'some brands are present on Wimbledon by intent and design. They deliberately choose to be part of such premium content. Others may appear due to package deals done with the channel, often anchored around cricket properties. In such cases, Wimbledon comes bundled as an incremental addition at a marginal cost.'
Adding to the above some media buying experts shared that from the channel's perspective, this adds another brand partner. From the advertiser's perspective, it's not a mismatch, even if they are more mass-oriented. It's not detrimental to be seen on Wimbledon, and so even slightly more mass brands come on board. 'Some brands intentionally seek out Wimbledon; others land there via larger media deals,' said the expert.
According to the industry sources, ad rates on Wimbledon can vary widely depending on whether the brand is part of a packaged deal or if it's a standalone sponsorship. However, the average cost is approximately INR 30,000- INR 40,000 per 10 seconds whereas for any cricket tournament whether its IPL or World Cup, the average cost is around INR 10 lakh per seconds and can go up till 40 lakhs. This figure can fluctuate depending on the scale of investment and other negotiated variables. ROI and engagement metrics.
Some media planners also highlighted that when it comes to advertising rates, they've not significantly increased for Wimbledon. Television ad inflation overall is relatively muted, especially considering how fragmented media consumption has become. Audiences are now spread across platforms—TV, OTT, CTV, and others. 'For niche properties like Wimbledon, it's not always practical to increase rates, given their inherently limited but premium audience base,' said the expert.
The Indian TV landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, as highlighted by the FICCI-EY Report 2025. In 2024, TV segment revenues collectively fell by 4.5 percent, marking the second consecutive year of decline following a 2 percent drop in 2023. This downturn was largely driven by a 6 percent reduction in TV advertising revenue, accompanied by a similar decrease in ad volumes and a notable 12 percent fewer brands opting for television as a primary medium.
Furthermore, distribution revenue saw a 3 percent decrease due to a loss of six million pay TV subscribers, bringing the total down to 111 million. Conversely, the rise of CTV is a key trend, with active CTV sets reaching 50 million, and approximately 30 million of these connecting to the internet weekly, signaling a clear shift in audience consumption habits.
'TV is steadily losing audiences to OTT and CTV platforms, and there's an increase in cord cutters. Therefore, pricing for TV properties has to be realistic, based on what can be delivered. Even though Wimbledon isn't sold on GRPs or TRPs, the overall shift in audience behaviour restricts the possibility of significant price hikes. Fragmentation and audience migration are key reasons why ad rates for niche events like Wimbledon have remained relatively stable.'