Bangladesh Premier League lines up international broadcasters

MUMBAI: The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) has lined up a host of international broadcasters, showing that the T20 league format is gaining currency with the popularity of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Delhi-based sports events licensing company Sporty Solutionz, which has the international media distribution mandate for the newly launched BPL, has tied in broadcasters in key cricket following markets.

The company, which had recently roped in ESPN Star Sports as the India broadcast rights holder for a period of three years, has also signed up Geo TV as the broadcast partner in Pakistan for three years, Maharaja TV in Sri Lanka, SuperSport in South Africa, and CricOne in West Asia, who have come on board only for the first season of the tournament.

The company also has an arrangement with NTV UK, which will carry the Bengali feed of the tournament to tap the Bangladeshi expat population in that country. In Australia, the company was in talks with Setanta but things did not materialise.

Channel 9 Bangladesh, which has the international broadcast rights for the tournament, appointed Sporty Solutionz as global distribution partner excluding Bangladesh, where the broadcaster will televise the matches on its platform.

Says Sporty Solutionz CEO Ashish Chadha, ?We have a three year deal with Channel 9, which is the broadcast rights holder for this league. They have given the licensing rights to us. We have picked the overseas broadcast rights excluding Bangladesh and subsequently we are distributing the event.?

Chadha reveals that the ad sales for telecast on ESS will be handled by Aidem Ventures on behalf of Sporty Solutions.Without disclosing the financials of any of these deals, he admits that he is looking at the tournament from a long-term perspective.

Modeled on the lines of IPL, the BPL, which is currently underway, features six teams - Barisal Burners, Chittagong Kings, Khulna Royal Bengals, Sylhet Royals, Dhaka Gladiators and Duronto Rajshahi, who will play each other twice in a round-robin format over 33 matches held in Chittagong and Dhaka.

The tournament features big names like Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Herschelle Gibbs, Muttiah Muralitharan and Shahid Afridi, who is not featuring in this year?s tournament due to clash with national duties.

Sporty Solutionz also handles the digital rights of several celebrities both cricket and Bollywood.