Unlike IPL, Star Sports to broadcast Asia Cup 2018 in just 3 languages

Although it’s multi-language broadcasting during the Indian Premier League (IPL) this season was a massive hit, Star Sports has decided against doing the same in the Asia Cup 2018. The broadcaster will host commentary in only three languages – English, Hindi and Tamil – during the six-nation tournament to be played in the UAE from September 15-28.

Bangladesh, the runners-up of the 2016 edition, will take on former champions Sri Lanka in the opening game of the tournament while holders India will take on Pakistan on September 19 and unless any miracle strikes, the match will be repeated on September 23. The final will be played on September 28. Five Test playing nations – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan will be joined by a qualifier for the 14th edition of the tournament.

Short tournament

Star Sports CEO Gautam Thakar at the launch of the Asia Cup campaign in Mumbai confirmed the same, according to an InsideSport report. Star has also decided to limit the Asia Cup broadcast only to its sports channels and not disrupt the Fix Point Chart of other genre screens for the competition.

Explaining the reasons for limiting the broadcast to only three languages, Thakar said Asia Cup is a tournament with a short duration and also since Star doesn’t possess other regional sports channels, the move to have more regional feeds makes little sense.

Star’s initiative for Bengali and Kannada sports channels is also awaiting approval from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, it was learnt.

All 13 ODIs played during the tournament will be broadcast live by Star Sports on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 HD, Star Sports 1 Hindi, Star Sports 1 Hindi HD, Star Sports Select, Star Sports Select HD, Star Sports 2, Star Sports 2 HD besides Star Sports Tamil. Star Sports-owned OTT platform Hotstar will also live-stream the matches.

Star Sports broadcast the IPL’s initial games in six languages – English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali – on 10 channels. The final, which was played between eventual champions Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad, was broadcast on 17 channels with the live-feed in eight languages.

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