Neo Sports ropes in record sponsors

Neo Sports has announced the largest-ever line-up of broadcast sponsors in the history of sports broadcasting in India, commencing with The Future Cup India vs Australia ODI series starting on September 29.

The event, which will consist of seven ODIs, has Hero Honda, Future Group, Reliance Mobile and Pidilite as the co-sponsors for the event.

The associate broadcast sponsors are LG, Intel, Perfetti and S Kumars. The line-up marks the re-entry of LG as a broadcast sponsor of cricket.

Sunil Manocha, senior vice-president, advertising revenue, Neo Sports, said, "The enormous fragmentation in the general entertainment space, combined with the massive surge in cricket ratings, has led to a new high in demand for advertising on both the international and domestic cricket leading Neo Sports to an unprecedented level of on-air deals well ahead of the commencement of the home season."

The Future Cup India vs Australia line-up has already been bettered with advertisers signing up for the November-December 2007 India vs Pakistan Test and ODI Series, where as many as 10 broadcast sponsors have already been signed with two more expected to join next month, creating a record high for televised cricket in India.