After bagging the exclusive live streaming rights to the International Cricket Council yesterday, Star India has now acquired the global media rights for Asia Cup from 2016 to 2023, reports TelevisionPost. The events include Asia Cup, Women’s Asia Cup, Emerging Asia Cup and U19 Asia Cup, and Star’s cricket rights include ICC, BCCI, Cricket Australia, and the England Cricket Board.
The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) expects increased promotion and marketing of ACC events globally. The report quoted ACC president Sidath Weetimuny as saying that, “The value offered by Star India is significantly higher than any of ACC’s previous commercial contracts and it will provide much needed funds for the development of games in Asia.” The media rights package will include TV, audio, internet and mobile rights for all territories globally.
Star India also secured the digital rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL), the T20 tournament organized by the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017.
In 2014, Star had acquired the TV and sponsorship rights of the Asia Cup 2014 held in Bangladesh, after ACC terminated its agreement with Nimbus Sports, which had acquired the media and sponsorship rights of the tournament for $50 million for 2011-2014. Nimbus had sub-licensed the rights for the Asia Cup 2014 to Neo Sports, its subsidiary arm in India.
The Asia Cup 2016 will be held in Bangladesh and be played in the T20 format for the first time, considering the ICC’s Twenty20 World Cup. The Asia Cup 2018 will revert to its 50 over format, preceding the ICC’s Cricket World Cup in 2019.
Related read: What Star India’s acquisition of IPL 2015 digital rights mean for Cricket online
Hockey India league: In June this year, Star Sports extended its broadcasting rights for Hockey India league matches and international hockey matches hosted by the sports body for another three years. The rights included streaming on its mobile and Internet platform Hotstar. Star India bet big on its sports coverage in India and said it would invest Rs 20,000 crore and earmarked Rs 1,500 crore for hockey.
Developments in the cricket and online space:
– Earlier this month, Electronics manufacturer Intex bagged the rights to own the Rajkot franchise for the Indian Premier League (IPL) series. The yet to be introduced Pune team would also be owned by Kolkata-based New Rising.
– Last month, online payment platform FreeCharge announced that it would be the on-ground partner for the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the next two years. FreeCharge’s chief operating office Govind Rajan said that the company would spend over Rs 100 crore in the sponsorship, alliances and promotions during the cricket tournament.
– In July this year, One97 Communications owned Paytm purchased the rights for title sponsorship from the BCCI for all home series to be played in India till 2019. It paid Rs 2.42 crore per international match hosted in the country, of which 84 matches were already scheduled.
(Also read: BCCI invites bids for Internet & Mobile rights for IPL 2015-2017)
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