Sky Sports to broadcast IPL in UK and Ireland

Sky Sports has acquired the rights of broadcasting the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the next couple of years in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The T20 extravaganza is all set to commence on April 7 after the mega-auction took place in Bengaluru in the last week. It will also enter in its new decade after successfully completing the 10 years in the last season. However, Sky Sports have retained the rights as they only held it for the territory.

Star India had won the IPL media rights last year for the next five years after Sony took the charge ever since its inception. They shelled out a whopping amount of Rs 16,347.5 crore to aquire the rights in India. They were also planning to use the cricketing festival in India and strengthen the presence of Hotstar in the countries like UK and Ireland. But the things doesn’t seem to have gone their way this time around.

What about digital rights?

Sky Sports would be delighted after aquiring the rights to broadcast the IPL as the league has a huge fan following and is watched by the cricket fans all over the world. The global media rights of the IPL are with 21st Century Fox which is owned by Star India itself. Even the Fox owns 39% stake in BSkyB and has also signed a deal to acquire the remaining 61% for a jawdropping amount of $15.6 billion.

Under this deal the Sky Sports will broadcast 60 IPL matches live for the next couple of years starting with the upcoming edition of 2018 in UK and Ireland. This deal also includes the digital rights which eventually means that the Video on Demand (VoD) feature of Star India on Hotstar will not be straming the cash-rich league in the respective countries.

Though the situation has worked into the hands of Sky Sports channel as they would be awaiting for the league to commence in April.

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