ESPN STAR Sports (ESS), and The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have announced a seven year contract for exclusive multi-platform rights to broadcast its domestic and home international matches. The deal will run from 2013 to 2019 and incorporates exclusive rights for television, online, mobile and radio, covering major cricket markets of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh among others across Asia. It will also include broadcasting in territories in North Africa.
ESPN STAR Sports claims that it will broadcast more than 300 days of live International cricket action, including 47 Test Matches, 63 One Day Internationals and 15 Twenty20 games. In addition to this, ESS will also broadcast 60 days of ECB’s domestic cricket every year, including the Friends Life t20 competition, the CB40 tournament, the LV=County Championship, as well as England Lions, England Under 19s and England Women’s cricket. The broadcast of these matches will be available to Indian audiences during prime time. The deal will also enable it to broadcast India’s next two tours to England in 2014 and 2018 as well as three Ashes series in 2013, 2015 and 2019.
Star India had won the broadcast, internet and mobile rights for all Indian cricket matches for the period 2012-2018, for an amount of Rs 3851 crore, covering 96 matches. Apart from that, Wisden India, had inked a strategic partnership with NDTV across multiple platforms including TV, web, and mobile to offer cricket related content and for offline events including the Indian edition of the Wisden Cricket Awards.
ESPN STAR Sports is a 50:50 joint venture between Walt Disney (ESPN, Inc.) and News Corporation Limited (STAR).It features multimedia assets including its television networks (ESPN, STAR Sports, STAR Cricket, ESPNEWS, ESPN HD, STAR Cricket HD), broadband network (ESPN Player), digital content services (espnstar.com, mobileESPN), and its on-ground Event Management Group. The company claims that its channels have a reach over 300 million viewers in Asia through its 25 television networks and 3 broadband networks.
