Mumbai: Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) has acquired the exclusive media rights for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.

This deal will give SPNI rights to broadcast the upcoming edition of the World Athletics Championships on its sports channels across India and the subcontinent, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The association will also allow SPN to showcase all video-on-demand content for its viewers.

The series, scheduled from 15 July to 24 July 2022 in Eugene, Oregon and United States, will be live telecast across Sony Ten  channels in India as well as livestreamed on SPN’s premium OTT platform, SonyLIV.

The 2022 World Athletics Championships will be the 18th edition of the World Athletics Championships and will mark the first time the US hosts the most prestigious event in the sport. The ten-day grand sporting competition will host 2000 athletes representing more than 200 nations, who will aim to give their best performance across 49 track and field disciplines & realize their lifelong dream.

For India, Olympic javelin champion Neeraj Chopra will lead the country's charge, heading a strong contingent that will include: Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Men's Shot Put), Kamalpreet Kaur (Women's Discus Throw), Priyanka Goswami (Women's 20km Race Walk), Rahul Rohilla (Men's 20km Race Walk), Sandeep Kumar (Men's 20km Race Walk), Murali Sreeshankar (Men's Long Jump), Jeswin Aldrin (Men's Long Jump), Abdulla Aboobacker (Men's Triple Jump), Avinash Sable (Men's 3000m Steeplechase), Praveen Chitravel (Men's Triple Jump), Seema Punia (Women's discus throw) along with a team for the men's 4x400 relay and more.

Currently, former long jumper Anju Bobby George's bronze in Paris in 2003 is the only medal won by an Indian athlete at the World Championships. The nation will be rooting strongly for the contingent and hope to extend the medal tally in this outing.

Speaking on the partnership, SPNI chief revenue officer, distribution & head of sports business Rajesh Kaul said, “We are pleased to have acquired the media rights of World Athletics Championships Oregon22 for India and the subcontinent. The World Athletics Championships Oregon22 is anticipated to be a gathering of the world’s best athletes and we are proud to see a strong Indian contingent qualify for the competition, backed by their exceptional performance at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. With the broadcast of World Athletics Championship, our viewers will get an opportunity to watch India’s finest at this prestigious sporting event and cheer for the athletes to finish at the podium.”  

World Athletics CEO Jon Ridgeon said, “We are delighted that Sony Pictures Networks India has come on board to provide such extensive coverage of our most prestigious championships to our Indian and subcontinental fans. India is an important and growing market for athletics, partly as a consequence of the rising performance level of Indian athletes at our major championships. As a global organization we want our sport to be available to athletics fans in every country in the world and this agreement with Sony Pictures Networks India will help us achieve that.”