BWI: ESPN STAR Sports Announces ICC Events Syndication Deals for Pakistan and North American Markets

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: ESPN STAR Sports
Thursday, December 11, 2008 04:53 PM IST (11:23 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest, Entertainment, Sports; Business: Advertising, PR & marketing, Business services, Information technology, Media & entertainment, Sports, Telecommunications
Release no: 18719
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ESPN STAR Sports Announces ICC Events Syndication Deals for Pakistan and North American Markets
Multi-year Deals with PTV, ATN-Canada and Willow TV Comprise Premium ICC Tournaments Leading up to ICC Cricket World Cup 2011

Singapore, Thursday, December 11, 2008 -- (Business Wire India) -- Asia's No. 1 sports broadcaster ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) announced its partnerships with three major broadcasters to make International Cricket Council (ICC) events exclusively available to cricket fans across Pakistan, Canada and the USA from 2009-2011, extending its broadcast distribution of the ICC events to more than 116 countries across the globe.

Under these agreements, Pakistan Television Network (PTV), the biggest network in Pakistan has acquired the terrestrial television rights for the ICC events while ATN, Canada's largest South Asian Broadcaster, and Willow TV, the world's leading portal for live internet streaming of international cricket events, have acquired multi-platform rights for television, internet and mobile to showcase all ICC events to include premium world-class cricket events such as the ICC Champions Trophy 2009, ICC Women's World Cup 2009, ICC World Twenty20 2009 and 2010, the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup 2010 and the global showpiece event of the cricket calendar, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in South Asia.

Manu Sawhney, Managing Director, ESPN STAR Sports, said "These are some very significant distribution partnerships for the ICC events and we are delighted to cement our relationship with PTV, ATN and Willow TV. The sport's popularity continues to grow at an immense rate across the globe, and we look forward to working closely with them to serve cricket fans. These partnerships reinforce our commitment to set new benchmarks in the distribution of ICC events, and solidify our leadership position in the cricket broadcast industry."

Mr Haroon Lorgat, ICC Chief Executive Officer, said, "This is good news for cricket. The ICC is delighted to have such a strong and committed partner in ESPN STAR Sports and it's great to know that cricket fans in Canada, the US and Pakistan will be so well served by these deals. We are confident that the game will greatly benefit from these partnerships and fans across the globe will continue to enjoy the highest quality of production and presentation."

ESPN STAR Sports was awarded the exclusive global telecast and marketing rights from the ICC in 2006 for all of their events from 2007 to 2015, and has been receiving an overwhelming response from a diverse pool of leading broadcast and telecommunication media organizations since announcing the invitation to tender for the ICC broadcast rights in December 2007. These include multi-year and multi-platform deals with Supersport in Southern Africa, PMG in Australia, Sky NZ in New Zealand, CMC in the Caribbean, SLRC for Sri Lanka, Fiji TV for the Pacific Islands and Arab Digital Distribution (ADD), in the Middle East and North Africa.

About ESPN STAR Sports

ESPN STAR Sports is a 50:50 joint venture between two of the world's leading cable and satellite broadcasters. As Asia's definitive and complete sports broadcaster and content provider, ESPN STAR Sports combines the strengths and resources of its ultimate parent companies - Walt Disney (ESPN, Inc.) and News Corporation Limited (STAR) - to deliver a diverse array of international and regional sports to viewers via its encrypted pay and free-to-air services.

ESPN STAR Sports showcases an unparalleled variety of premier live sports from around the globe 24 hours a day to a cumulative reach of more than 310 million viewers in Asia. ESPN STAR Sports has 17 networks covering 24 countries, each localised to deliver differentiated world-class premier sports programming to Asian viewers. This includes ESPN SEA, ESPN China, ESPN Hong Kong, ESPN India, ESPN Malaysia, ESPN Philippines, ESPN SEA 2, ESPN Taiwan, MBC-ESPN (Korea), STAR Sports Asia, STAR Sports Hong Kong, STAR Sports India, STAR Sports Malaysia, STAR Sports SEA, STAR Sports SEA 2, STAR Sports Taiwan, and STAR Cricket.

On the ground, the ESPN STAR Sports Event Management Group manages and promotes premier sporting events around Asia. ESPN STAR Sports aims to reach consumers at any time, any place and through all new media platforms, both internet and mobile. The multi-lingual, online platforms, espnstar.com, espnstar.com.cn and espnstar.com.tw and footballcrazy.tv interact with millions of users providing them with in-depth sports news, results and competitions. Developed for the sports fan that is constantly on the move, mobileESPN and STAR Sports Mobile delivers differentiated mobile content targeted at its various audiences. mobileESPN enables the serious sports fan to follow their favourite sports more closely than ever before with a combination of specially produced video news clips, in-depth news coverage and analysis. STAR Sports Mobile aims to provide interactive and entertaining opportunities to engage with sports, delivering exclusive video excerpts from leading football clubs Arsenal and Liverpool as well as highlights from STAR Sports original programmes covering opinions, instructional tips and the latest online game reviews.

To view the photograph and List of ICC Events 2009-2011, please click on the links given below:

Manu Sawhney (ESS Managing Director)

List of ICC Events 2009-2011.

For picture(s)/data to illustrate this release click below:

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CONTACT DETAILS
Paras Sharma, ESPN STAR Sports, +65 6216 6031 , parass@espnstar.com

KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS, MARKETING, BUSINESS SERVICES, IT, MEDIA, TELECOMMUNICATIONS

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