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MUMBAI:
Set India CEO Kunal Dasgupta is back to doing what he loves
even more than the movies - playing the cricket broadcast
game. The man who blindsided ESS in 2002 with an audacious
$ 208 million sweep on seven-year ICC rights for the Indian
subcontinent, that too when News Corp owned the global rights,
has made a fresh cricket play.
Set
India has secured New Zealand cricket telecast rights for
the next four years. Sony's winning bid: $ 50 million.
 Speaking
exclusively to Indiantelevision.com, Set India CEO Kunal Dasgupta,
while refusing comment on the price paid, confirmed the acquisition.
That
makes three boards - England, Australia (both with ESPN Star
Sports) and New Zealand - where telecast rights have been
secured for the next four-five years. Which leaves Pakistan,
Sri Lanka, West Indies, South Africa and Zimbabwe that remain
to be locked into long term deals.
Queried
as to whether Sony would be bidding for any of these boards
as and when they opened up, Dasgupta replied in the affirmative.
That's not all. The way the ongoing Twenty20 World Cup has
caught the fancy of viewers has got the portly Set India CEO
more than interested. "We will also be bidding for the
BCCI's Indian Premier League and the Champions Twenty20 League,"
Dasgupta asserts.
The
Indian Premier League (IPL), structured as a franchisee-based
Twenty20 Series, is scheduled to kick off in April 2008. The
final leg of the competition, which will be run by the four
cricket boards of India, England, Australia and South Africa,
is called 'Champions Twenty20 League' and will be held in
October 2008.
Sony's
acquisition of the New Zealand cricket rights harks back to
what the broadcaster did in the late '90s, wherein it had
the rights to Sri Lanka cricket. It may also be recalled that
when Max launched as a cricket and movies channel in 1999,
it had the Sharjah rights as its key cricketing property.
Also
Read:
BCCI
announces formation of Twenty20 league
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