The communications arm of Indian conglomerate Tata has entered into a five-year deal with the World Athletics governing body to provide host broadcasting services to its events.
Tata Communications will provide events across the World Athletics calendar with bespoke coverage and broadcast content which it will deliver across continents.
The events list includes the 2025 World Athletics Championships, which will take place in Tokyo, Japan, from September 13-21, as well as the World Athletics Indoor Championships (Nanjing, China), World Athletics Relays (Guangzhou, China), and the World Athletics Road Running Championships (San Diego, US), all of which will also take place next year.
World Athletics states that its showpiece biennial World Athletics Championships “regularly” draws a global audience of 1 billion-plus, indicating the importance of broadcast hosting.
Tata Communications global head of media and entertainment business Dhaval Ponda stated of the new deal: “It is an exciting time of new content and changing viewer demands. Tata Communications is ideally placed as a global connectivity provider to help World Athletics meet its ambition of bringing athletics and inspirational stories to fans around the world. We offer the global footprint and scalable, resilient solutions necessary to carry these stories from arenas directly to viewers.”
World Athletics will also collaborate with Tata to support charity initiatives in India, as well as on the leverage of technology innovations for future broadcast improvements.
The five-year deal will encompass the 2026 debut of World Athletics’ new biennial global championship event, the World Athletics Ultimate Championship, which will include a record $10 million prize fund for competing athletes.
Debuting in 2026 as the climax to the track and field season, it will pit world champions, Olympic champions, Diamond League winners, and the year’s best-performing athletes against each other, to crown an ultimate champion.
The inaugural edition will be held in Budapest, Hungary from September 11 to 13, 2026, and from then on the event will be staged every two years.
The Tata conglomerate has a strong presence in Indian sport already, though less so on the operational side as with this latest tie-up. Tata is the title sponsor of India’s elite cricket competition the IPL in a deal that was extended in January for a further five years.
