| MUMBAI:
Nimbus has sub-licensed the rights for the upcoming offshore six one-dayers to
Sun Group and SET India, marking for the first time a six channel and five language
live cricket TV broadcast in India. The
matches, including the three ODI series between India and South Africa and one
with Pakistan, will be telecast on Sab TV with commentary in Hindi, Sun News (Tamil),
Gemini News (Telugu) and Udaya Varthalugu (Kannada). Neo Sports will show it with
commentary in English. In
addition, as per the Sports Act 2007, the five India matches of the series will
also be broadcast live on Doordarshan.
Says
Nimbus Sport senior VP Yannick Colaco, "We have done
a syndicated deal across the country. This will maximise the
reach for the event. The multi channel, multi language broadcast
on this scale is a first for cricket in India and provides
viewers with live cricket at an extraordinary level of customisation."
The
Summer Series, including the Future Cup and the Future Friendship
Cup, features five India matches (3 against South Africa and
one each against Pakistan and Ireland). The ODIs will kick
off on 23 June with India playing Ireland at 3:15 pm.
Nimbus had earlier agreed to pay $ 6.05 million per match for the series after
Zee cancelled the deal for offshore matches that it had with the BCCI (Board of
Control for Cricket in India). The price that Nimbus and BCCI agreed upon was
a significant reduction from the average of $ 8.77 million per match that Zee
had committed to pay for the same property. Nimbus
had acquired media rights for the four India matches in the Summer Series from
the BCCI and the two Ireland matches from the Irish cricket Union. The
ad sales may be handled by Nimbus, sources say. The event is expected to boost
subscription for Sab TV and the Sun language channels. For
Kalanithi Maran, this is a victory of sorts. In the India-Bangladesh cricket series,
the telecast was on rival channels Raj TV (Tamil) and Vissa TV (Telugu). And Sun
is not going to telecast the matches on its entertainment channels.
Meanwhile,
Nimbus has withdrawn the contract it had with Star for distributing
Neo Sports' channels.
Also
Read
Nimbus
to telecast Ireland ODIs
Zee
scraps offshore cricket deal with BCCI; India-SA series in
doubt
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