BWI: ESPN STAR Sports Unveils Amitabh Bachchan as the Brand Ambassador of Airtel Champions League Twenty20

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: ESPN STAR Sports
Friday, August 06, 2010 06:26 PM IST (12:56 PM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest, Entertainment, Sports; Business: Advertising, PR & marketing, Business services, Media & entertainment, Sports, Telecommunications
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ESPN STAR Sports Unveils Amitabh Bachchan as the Brand Ambassador of Airtel Champions League Twenty20


Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Friday, August 06, 2010 -- (Business Wire India) -- -- Sourav Ganguly joins as an expert analyst with Andrew Symonds

-- ESPN STAR Sports announces big budget promotional campaign to build up the league

ESPN STAR Sports, the official broadcaster and commercial partner of Airtel Champions League Twenty20, has signed Bollywood legend and cultural icon, Amitabh Bachchan, as the brand ambassador for this edition of the tournament. Mr. Bachchan will feature prominently in a high decibel, multi-dimensional marketing campaign which has been launched across all forms of media - electronic, print, digital & outdoors. Former India captain and illustrious southpaw Sourav Ganguly was also present on the occasion. The sports broadcaster has signed Sourav Ganguly and Andrew Symonds as expert analysts for ACL T20. The tournament will be held from September 10-26, 2010 in South Africa across 4 venues - Johannesburg, Centurion, Durban and Port Elizabeth. All matches will be telecast live and exclusive on STAR Cricket.

Speaking on the occasion, Manu Sawhney, Managing Director, ESPN STAR Sports, said, "Airtel Champions League T20 is the world championship of the top T20 teams from various cricket playing nations. It marks the grand finale of T20 cricket where champion teams battle for the ultimate honour - Champion of Champions - which leads to the theme of our marketing campaign - Ab Hoga Asli Muqabla. The brand ambassador of such a prestigious property had to be someone who represented all such critical values - Competitiveness, Excellence, Class and Lineage. It is intense, premium and aspirational - and Mr. Bachchan fitted the bill perfectly for us to take this association to the next level."

Speaking on the promotional campaign, Manu Sawhney, added, "An aggressive marketing campaign to build traction on ground has been launched across all forms of media. We have committed a lot of resources this year to building the property and I believe that our association with Mr. Bachchan will help take the entire event into a different dimension."

Talking about the association, Amitabh Bachchan, said, "I am delighted to be associated with Airtel Champions League Twenty20. It is an interesting format - an international T20 tournament where only champion teams compete for the top prize. I am a huge cricket fan and always want to see Indian teams win laurels on the international stage. I am confident that the 3 IPL teams from India participating in this tournament will put-up a good show and get us the coveted trophy. I wish the very best to the three Captains - MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar & Anil Kumble for this event and hope that their teams do their best in this prestigious T20 event."

The Airtel Champions League Twenty20, starting from September 10, 2010, will see an impressive line-up of more than 100 elite international players. The biggest names in cricket including Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Mahela Jayawardene, Dale Steyn, Rahul Dravid, Shaun Tait, Jean-Paul Duminy, Ajantha Mendis, Anil Kumble, Matthew Hayden, Ross Taylor, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Jacob Oram, Malinga Bandara, Doug Bollinger, Dwayne Bravo, Michael Hussey, David Hussey and Sanath Jayasuriya will battle for the ultimate honour. The three Indian teams - Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore will lock horns with champion T20 club teams from Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and West Indies.

2010 Airtel Champions League Twenty20 - Competing Teams

-- Chennai Super Kings (DLF Indian Premier League - India)

-- Mumbai Indians (DLF Indian Premier League - India)

-- Royal Challengers Bangalore (DLF Indian Premier League - India)

-- Victorian Bushrangers (KFC Twenty20 Big Bash - Australia)

-- South Australian Redbacks (KFC Twenty20 Big Bash - Australia)

-- Warriors (Standard Bank Pro 20 Series - South Africa)

-- Highveld Lions (Standard Bank Pro 20 Series - South Africa)

-- Central Stags (HRV Cup Twenty20 - New Zealand)

-- Wayamba Elevens (Inter-Provincial Twenty20 Cup - Sri Lanka)

-- Guyana(West Indies Domestic Twenty20 Champions)

About the Airtel Champions League Twenty20

An initiative of three founding members - the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa - the Airtel Champions League Twenty20 is a platform where the world's best domestic teams get the opportunity to pit their cricketing skills against each other. ESPN STAR Sports is the commercial rights holders for Champions League Twenty20 for a period of 10 years. The 2010 edition of the tournament will take place in South Africa from 10th - 26th September.

About ESPN STAR Sports

ESPN STAR Sports is a 50:50 joint venture between two of the world's leading cable and satellite broadcasters. As Asia's definitive and complete sports broadcaster and content provider, ESPN STAR Sports combines the strengths and resources of its ultimate parent companies - Walt Disney (ESPN, Inc.) and News Corporation Limited (STAR) - to deliver a diverse array of international and regional sports to viewers via its encrypted pay-TV services.

ESPN STAR Sports showcases an unparalleled variety of premier live sports from around the globe 24 hours a day to a cumulative reach of over 300 million viewers in Asia. ESPN STAR Sports has 19 networks covering 24 countries, each localised to deliver differentiated world-class premier sports programming to Asian viewers. This includes ESPN SEA, ESPN China, ESPN Hong Kong, ESPN India, ESPN Malaysia, ESPN Philippines, ESPN SEA 2, ESPN Taiwan, MBC-ESPN (Korea), STAR Sports Asia, STAR Sports Hong Kong, STAR Sports India, STAR Sports Malaysia, STAR Sports SEA, STAR Sports SEA 2, STAR Sports Taiwan, STAR Cricket, ESPNEWS and ESPN HD.

On the ground, the ESPN STAR Sports Event Management Group manages and promotes premier sporting events around Asia. ESPN STAR Sports aims to reach consumers at any time, any place and through all new media platforms, both internet and mobile. The multi-lingual, online platforms, espnstar.com, espnstar.com.cn and espnstar.com.tw interact with millions of users providing them with in-depth sports news, results and competitions. Developed for the sports fan that is constantly on the move, mobileESPN enables the serious sports fan to follow their favourite sports more closely than ever before with a combination of specially produced video news clips, in-depth news coverage and analysis.

To view the photograph, please click the link given below:

(Left to Right) Harsha Bhogle, Cricket Commentator, Amitabh Bachchan, Brand Ambassador, Airtel Champions League T20, Manu Sawhney, Managing Director, ESPN STAR Sports and Saurav Ganguly, Former Indian Captain & Commentator, Airtel Champions League T20 at a press conference in Mumbai
For picture(s)/data to illustrate this release click below:

http://www.BusinessWireIndia.com/attachments/Pic 1(50).jpg
Pic 1(50).jpg


CONTACT DETAILS
Sameer Bajaj, Sr. Manager - Corporate Communications, ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd, +91 9811222700, sameerb@espnstar.co.in
Aparna Srivastava, IPAN Hill & Knowlton, +91 9811234594, asrivastava@ipanhillandknowlton.com

KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS, MARKETING, BUSINESS SERVICES, MEDIA, TELECOMMUNICATIONS

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