Bennet, Coleman & Co Ltd, publisher of the Times of India, have acquired a small stake in Nimbus Communications and its associate company Neo Sports, reports group publication Times of India. BCCL CEO Ravi Dhariwal confirmed to MediaNama that this is a Times Private Treaties deal, wherein the group takes equity in Nimbus and Neo Sports in exchange for advertising inventory across its media properties. Nimbus and Neo Sports own the rights to Cricket matches in India and abroad, particularly rights owned by Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), the Bangladesh Cricket Board, Cricket Kenya and the Asian Cricket Council, which hosts the Afro-Asian Cup and Asia Cup. They also live stream Cricket matches online through CricketNirvana (more on that here). They've also recently announced a multi-event deal with the Asian Tour Golf, and broadcast events like US PGA Tour Golf, Bundesliga (German league) and Seria A (Italian league) football in India. The private treaty model was pioneered by the Times of India Group, and was subsequently adopted by many other media houses, including HT Media, Network18 (Synergy18), among others. Nimbus intends to leverage the Times Groups media vehicles to advertise its sports and broadcasting businesses. Details on how the private treaty model works, here.
