ITV Bags IPL Rights in the UK

[mcgillianaire]

Just the perfect news to wake up to. Lalit Modi has made up for last year's disappointment when the IPL went without a UK broadcaster following the collapse of Setanta. This time he has moved one-step closer to emulating his Aussie predecessor Kerry Packer, in successfully marketing his self-designed one-man crusade cricket package to a global audience. The deal with ITV follows closely on the heels with securing YouTube in January. The world's most popular video channel will webcast all sixty IPL matches live (12 March - 25 April). So too will ITV4, a free-to-air digital channel, and the British broadcaster even has the right to webcast live on its website. This is great news. Even when away from the flat, I should be able to tune into the action. It's a pity English cricket is not broadcasting live on terrestrial telly, though I ain't complainin' too much. I support Indian cricket more than anything else and it's a mouthwatering prospect on offer. I don't know how many die-hard Test fans in this country will tune in, but who cares? I certainly will and so will many Indians. Well done Lalit Modi.

Comments

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

I'll certainly give it a go. What have I got to lose, after all? The last live cricket on free-to-air telly here was, I think, the Scotland v Australia ODI last year. I don't think it matters much that it's not "terrestrial": with digital switchover gathering pace that's going to be an irrelevant term soon anyway. What matters is "non-subscription". Anyone with a digital TV/set-top box can drop in for a few minutes and see whether they like what they see. That's what's been missing since 2005.

It's very interesting that ITV have bought the rights, given that I don't think they've broadcast any sort of cricket since the Hong Kong single-wicket contests in the 1980s. The Cricinfo piece says that they'll take the direct feed but have their own experts, so it'll depend a lot on who they can get to do that job. Just as long as it isn't a football commentator on his day off!

I'm not sure what time the games will be on in the UK, or whether there'll be any sort of highlights/round-up show. If ITV get this right it could be a bit of a hit, as live Serie A football was for Channel 4 in the early 1990s - actually that's the closest parallel I can think of. If ITV get it wrong, Sky will be even more secure in its current monopoly. So the stakes are quite high for the broadcaster!

All this said, I wouldn't mind a "UK dub" button that bleeps out every mention of the term "DLF maximum", surely the most inane piece of commercialism (against strong competition!) in any sport. =:P