Multi Screen Media’s (MSM) digital entertainment platform LIV Sports has acquired mobile and Internet broadcast rights for the Australian Open 2015, which started on the 19th of January and ends on the 1st of February.
LIV Sports will live stream and provide video-on-demand content for the tournament including highlights of the matches. This will include the Men’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Singles, Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles matches. The streaming services can be availed online on www.LIVSports.in and also on LIV Sports’ iOS and Android apps.
Previously, LIV Sports had acquired the mobile and Internet broadcast rights of South African RAM SLAM T20 challenge series for India held from 2nd November to 12th December last year. The platform had also secured the exclusive mobile and Internet broadcasting rights to the Champions Tennis League (CTL) to be held between November 17 and 26 and had inked an exclusive tie-up to secure the Internet and mobile broadcast rights for the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament for India, in October last year.
The same month, former HeadHonchos CEO Uday Sodhi joined MSM as its executive vice president and head of digital business. Sodhi is responsible for heading Sony Entertainment Television’s digital business, including its entertainment site Sony LIV and sports site LIV Sports, in addition to the company’s mobile apps and mobile games businesses.
MSM had previously launched LIV Sports just before the 2014 Fifa World Cup, featuring content football, cricket and basketball, with plans to add tennis, motor sports and wrestling (TNA) sections soon. A month later, the company filed a complaint with the Delhi High Court, following which as many as 472 websites including Google Docs, Google Video and Google’s URL shortener goo.gl were blocked in the country.
Similarly in January, MSM that had acquired exclusive rights to the India-New Zealand TV series, received an interim injunction from Delhi High Court, preventing cricket websites ESPNCricinfo, Cricbuzz and the online version of Radio One, from providing live commentary or updates online, following which the cricket sites delayed their live updates for the tournament by 5 overs.
Competition: It’s worth noting that Sony’s competitor Star India is also betting big on sports, especially on cricket. In December 2013, it won the sponsorship rights for the Indian Cricket Team and in the following month, the company had tied up with Times Internet to offer live streaming and video on demand content for IPL on its sports website Starsports.com, Star Sports app, and on mobile operator services powered by Star Sports.
The company had introduced subscription-based live streaming of Cricket and Football sporting events in September 2013 and had stated plans to invest Rs 20,000 crore on sports in India the same year, of which it is putting Rs 1500 crore into Hockey.
