PKL Ad: Star Sports denies Rediffusion's claims

Star Sports has denied all the assertions made by the ad agency Rediffusion. According to the broadcaster, Pro Kabaddi League Season 10 (PKL) ad featuring Tiger Shroff is a concept developed by the ad agency Wunderman Thompson (WT) on Star Sports’ instructions. Star Sports reached out to multiple ad (creative) agencies, to potentially assist with different facets of its overall integrated marketing plan for PKL. While the scope of WT was to create the campaign for PKL including TVC, the scope of Rediffusion was to come up with digital ideas to amplify the campaign on social media platforms.

"On August 22, 2023, Rediffusion was approached by Star Sports for digital ideas specifically for the amplification of the PKL campaign on social media platforms. Rediffusion for the first time shared its concept note with Star Sports on September 1, 2023, and Star Sports provided its feedback on September 5, 2023, by which time (August 28), the concept developed by WT which included various looks for the celebrities, potential music, and concept, that culminated into the final campaign promo had already been finalised," said Star in statement.

Therefore, the broadcaster said, any "claim by Rediffusion on infringement of their IP rights is baseless and without merit."

"Star Sports has documents for all the above and a claim by Rediffusion to the contrary is incorrect. The question of attributing any credit to Rediffusion does not arise, since Star Sports did not use their concept. Despite communicating the above to Rediffusion on multiple occasions, it has persisted in making frivolous and unsubstantiated allegations against Star Sports," said the statement.