Abhishek Ranade, who heads the sports and media business in EMEA for Tata Communications, highlighted how there is a growing interest in tier two and emerging sports such as pickleball and slam ball, with significant monetisation potential as their popularity increases.
Tata’s focus is on enabling sports organisations to deliver content to fans.
“Our job is to basically be the enabler and deliver that content in the best possible and most engaging manner, so that the person on that couch feels that yes, he needs to switch on and watch that sport,” said Ranade, who describes himself as a “crazy motor sports fan”.
“Any new sport like slam ball starts like tier two or tier three, non-mainstream... but as the popularity skyrockets, the entire value chain changes,” he commented.
Ranade highlighted how Tata’s investment in cloud infrastructure and content origin is central to its ability to offer flexible, cost-effective production and distribution.
Moreover, talent acquisition and fostering a culture of innovation are seen as critical.
“We have actually stolen a concept from Lockheed Martin called Skunk Works. So I have created a Skunk Works team that is… the best, brilliant engineers in the industry,” he said. “People are my best assets, not tech. Tech comes second. I can build tech, but without these people, I can’t.”
Stand Number: 14.C40
Company: Tata
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