Amidst All The Confusion, Willow TV Snags IPL Rights For Americas For 5 Years
By Nikhil Pahwa - Tue 15 Apr 2008 02:50 AM PST
The fog is clearing, and we now have some clarity on the Internet and Mobile rights for the IPL: As per a release, Willow TV Inc has acquired exclusive rights for five years, for distributing the Indian Premier League “on television, radio, broadband and internet” in North America (including the United States and Canada), Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean. A Willow TV spokesperson tells us that they’ve acquired mobile rights as well, and theirs will primarily be a broadband based pay-per-view service. More updates on this later.
For more than a week now, we’ve been working on verifying many conflicting inputs on how the IPL new media rights are being sold. Now we hear that the rights for the MENA region, the Americas and the UK are being sold separately. As per sources, all will be clear latest by tomorrow. An official announcement is expected soon, but I wonder if it’s a little too late - the rights are being sold just 2-3 days before the tournament begins.
