Update 3: Geodesic MD Kiran Kulkarni informs MediaNama that Mundu TV has IPL rights for USA, Canada, UK, Australia and Malaysia.
Update 2: Apalya CEO Vamshi Reddy has clarified to MediaNama that they have rights for India and Sri Lanka, and not ‘Global rights’. There was apparently a mistake in the press note.
Update 1: There’s a Geodesic Mundu TV application for IPL for the US. We’ve written to Apalya, Geodesic and Indiatimes* (from whom the rights would have been sub-licensed) for a geographical split. Either Apalya’s claim of ‘global’ is incorrect, or we should expect a face-off between Apalya and Geodesic over territory. Stay tuned, as they say.
Earlier (9:27 am): So it’s confirmed, albeit rather late, and almost a full month after we had reported it: Apalya, the mobile and broadband video streaming platform, which has the widest distribution with telecom operators in the country, has announced the acquisition of exclusive mobile and video streaming rights for all matches from the Indian Premier League, for two years including the current 2011 season. Apalya was also the Mobile TV partner for IPL’s 2009 & 10 season. Meanwhile, vRock Mobile was in court yesterday, trying to protect its IPL4 SMS and IVR rights.
Other companies delivering TV content over mobile include Percept Knorigin with BSNL, and Geodesic’s joint venture with the Zee group for Mundu TV. Also note that ZengaTV, which had acquired live streaming rights for the first season of the Indian Premier League, recently inked a mobile streaming partnership with (still) UTV owned Indiagames.
Apalya also recently tied up with Bharti Airtel for broadband services, delivering TV and video on demand content over wireline broadband at Rs 99 per month; not a net-neutral service. The company also had partnerships with Vodafone for the mobile broadcast of Cricket World Cup 2011, claims to have partnerships with more than 150 televison channels in India.
* Disclosure: Indiatimes is an advertiser with MediaNama
Related:
– Updated: Indiatimes’ IPL 4 Partnerships: YouTube, vRock, Apalya, Indiagames Say Sources
– Apalya Raises $7.5 M From IndoUS, Qualcomm, IDG; Why It Needs Money
