KOLKATA: Sony Pictures Sports Network (SPSN) is all set to broadcast the highly anticipated India tour of Australia 2020 series starting 27 November, which will feature 3 T20Is, 3 ODIs and 4 Tests. The matches will be aired live on Sony Ten 1, Sony Ten 3 and Sony Six channels in India from 8.00 am IST and will be livestreamed on its on-demand OTT platform SonyLIV.
SPSN will broadcast the series on Sony Ten 1 channels in English, Sony Ten 3 channels in Hindi and Sony Six channels in English, Tamil and Telugu. The ODIs and T20Is will be telecast across all three channels, while the Test matches will be aired on Sony Six & Sony Ten 3.
To further enhance the fan experience, SPSN will return with its flagship studio show Extraaa Innings. The programme will feature a star-studded line-up of legends and former cricketers like Glenn McGrath, Sanjay Manjrekar, Ajay Jadeja, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Nick Knight, Mohammad Kaif, Murali Karthik, Vivek Razdan, Ajit Agarkar and Vijay Dahiya, who will share their insights with viewers through the course of the series. Harsha Bhogle and Arjun Pandit have been roped in as English and Hindi presenters respectively along with Erin Holland who will be the on-ground presenter for the series.
Viewers in India will get to experience both world feed commentary from Australia with Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist as well as customised English and Hindi commentary from SPSN’s band of panellists. SPSN has also tied up with Fox Sports Australia and will feature their eminent panellists like Allan Border, Isa Guha and Brendan Julian on Extraaa Innings and viewers in Australia will also get to enjoy SPSN’s Hindi commentary on Fox Sport Australia’s digital platform. The commentators for the Tamil feed will feature Arasu, Sheshadri Srinivasan, Vidhyut Sivaramakrishnan, R Sathish and Naveen Shauri while the commentators for the Telugu feed will feature RJ Hemant, Vijay Mahavadi, Gnaneshwar Rao, C Venkatesh and Illendula Ramprasad.
The network has brought on board sponsors and co-presenters like Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, My11Circle, Byju’s, Payments on Amazon.in and Vimal Pan Masala, while the associate sponsors include Mondelez, Pernod Ricard, MRF, SBI Mutual Fund, Netflix, Car24, MP Birla Cement, PharmEasy and Ather Energy. In addition to this, Dettol has been roped in as the presenting sponsor for the studio show, Dettol Extraaa Innings. The broadcaster is in the process of closing more sponsors in the next few days.
“Cricket in India is not just a sport; it is an emotion and Sony Sports is excited to showcase all live action from Team India’s first endeavour after nine months against Indian cricket’s biggest rival, Australia. This will also be the first time that fans will be allowed to attend an international match as all the recent international series since March were played behind closed doors. We know how significant this series is for Indian fans and will be airing the series with four language feeds -English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu to reach out to a wider set of viewers, ” Sony Pictures Networks India chief revenue officer, sports business distribution and head Rajesh Kaul said.
With the aim of maximising engagement from Indian cricket fans, SPSN has launched the #CricketKaAsliRang campaign that pays an ode to the undying true-blue love for the game of cricket. The campaign is a clarion call to all the Indian cricket fans, across the globe, invoking them to show support and cheer for their home team. The campaign is based on a simple insight that for every Indian cricket fan, no matter who the opponent or the player, the heart beats only for Team India, the voice cheers only for Team India and the true colour of cricket for India is BLUE.
