ESPN STAR Sports, Asia’s No. 1 sports broadcaster, announced on Monday the broadcast rights partnerships for the first edition of the Champions League Twenty20, scheduled to start on December 3rd in India. Covering television and new media platforms including internet and mobile, these distribution partnerships will make the tournament available to viewers across Australia, Middle East, North Africa, and the North American markets, thus extending the popularity and reach of this new and exciting tournament to millions of fans.
In the short span of time since being awarded the exclusive 10-year Global Commercial Rights to the Champions League Twenty20 in September, ESPN STAR Sports has secured coverage for the tournament with leading broadcasters in Network Ten, one of Australia's major commercial free-to-air television networks, Willow TV, the world’s leading portal for live Internet streaming of all Cricket events worldwide, for USA and Canada and Arab Digital Distribution (ADD), the largest pay TV platform management company in the Middle East and North Africa. ADD will broadcast the Champions League Twenty20 across UAE, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan and Libya. All three deals cover the first three editions of Champions League Twenty20 from 2008 to 2010.
Said Mr. Manu Sawhney, Managing Director, ESPN STAR Sports: “We are extremely pleased with the enthusiastic response from our broadcast partners for the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 and are happy to be working with them to serve cricket fans around the world. Matching the prestige of the tournament, we are committed to produce, present and distribute this global property in the most entertaining and engaging manner to audiences around the world setting new benchmarks for cricket broadcasting. In addition to these partnerships, we will be announcing deals in other principle markets in the next few days.”
ESPN STAR Sports was recently appointed as the long-term global television production partner for the Champions League Twenty20 and has lined up the most technologically advanced production set-up ever to create the most memorable, unique and engaging experience for viewers through a series of ground-breaking production features and enhancements such as the High-Definition production of the championship, 34 cameras to cover all matches including Fly cams, boundary side field camera, new dugout and crowd cameras and Super Slo Motion cameras at each venue to capture every moment of this fast-paced action.
ESPN STAR Sports, the exclusive Global Commercial Rights holder of the Champions League Twenty20, has a multitude of rights across various platforms, including television, internet, mobile and radio. In addition, ESS also has all title rights, event sponsorship, ground rights and merchandizing rights around the property for next ten years till 2017.
