MUMBAI: Online video service iStream.com has acquired the exclusive live streaming and video on demand rights for India for the Micromax Cup India-Sri Lanka series starting 21 July.
The Indian team swings back into action after four months and will be pitted against the Lankans in 5 ODIs and 1 T20. Sri Lanka is one of India’s favourite hunting grounds with a record of 67 wins out of the total 76 played.
The deal was signed with Sporty Solutionz, which has got the Internet and mobile rights for this series from Ten Sports. All the 6 day-night matches starting at 2:30 pm will be streamed live on iStream.com, and will also be available on demand for a month after the tournament.
iStream founder, CEO Radhakrishnan Ramachandran said, “After a relatively long lay off, Indian cricket fans will be delighted to see their heroes back in action. We saw tremendous response to Uefa Euro 2012, which we streamed exclusively in India. This series will further strengthen our sports vertical on iStream.com. We plan to bring in more such exclusive partnerships in the online video space".
Apart from the matches, iStream viewers can catch special programming around the event, including pre and post-match highlights, team statistics, player profiles, trivia and other related clips.
Integrating social features, iStream will allow Facebook users to live-chat on the site while the matches are played and “like” or “tweet” any clip or statistics.
Sporty Solutionz CEO Ashish Chadha said, "iStream is the pioneer in the internet streaming space and I am sure with their unique technology delivery platform live-streaming of the matches will be altogether a great experience for the Indian cricket fans.”
iStream.com adds hundreds of new videos every day to its library of over a 100,000 clips of premium News Bulletins, TV Shows & Movies in five Indian languages from over 50 channels. It also streams 26 news channels – in English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam – live 24/7.
Last year iStream.com raised $ 5 million from global private equity fund SAIF Partners. It was SAIF’s first investment in the online video space. The $1.25 billion fund counts online travel services from MakeMyTrip and local search company Just Dial among its top portfolio companies.
