This is rather unusual: Reliance Communications, which holds the global rights for distributing mobile content related to International Cricket Council events, has issued a press release calling for partners to "distribute the ICC mobile rights & content to various Telecom Service Providers and Content Aggregators across the world", offering a partnership period for 1 month from the date of commencement of each event in 2013 covering prior and post duration of each tournament. RCOM holds ICC mobile content rights till 2015, and this is a call for content related to two events: the ICC Women World Cup 2013 and ICC Champions Trophy 2013. The rights on offer: Why Is This Unusual? As far as I remember, I haven't come across a licensee of a Cricket body make a public call for partners; typically, it's the Cricket body that puts out a note that it's rights are on offer for licensing, then a company like RCOM, or another like Times Internet Ltd (in case of the Indian Premier League), which then quietly partner with other companies for distribution. Typically, there is a rush for this kind of content, and RCOM itself has previously partnered with VAS companies for distribution of video clips, wallpapers, score updates, animations etc., and as far as I remember, never actively sought partners. So, if you're from the VAS industry, tell us what has changed: not enough takers in the VAS industry for Cricket content? Also, do look at this recent Delhi High Court judgment which significantly…
