The Caribbean Premier League T20 cricket tournament has agreed media-rights deals with 14 broadcasters and several streaming platforms for its 2020 season, which starts today in Trinidad and Tobago.
The CPL has agreed television rights deals with leading sports broadcasters in major cricket markets, including Fox Sports in Australia, Sky and the BBC in the UK, Sky New Zealand, Star India, Supersport in South Africa, and SportsMax in the Caribbean. North American cricket platform Willow TV has got the rights in the US and Canada. And deals have been agreed with a host of free-to-air broadcasters in the Caribbean.
Sky New Zealand has acquired the rights until 2025.
The league has agreed streaming rights deals in India with online sports platform FanCode, in the UAE with telco Etisalat, in Southeast Asia with 1 Play Sports, and in Bangladesh with three platforms – My Sports, GameOn and GP Sports.
In 81 markets around the world, viewers will be able to watch live streams of the league on Facebook, YouTube and Twitch.
Coverage of the tournament is being produced by production firm Sunset+Vine.
Unveiling the broadcaster line-up, CPL chief operating officer Pete Russell said: “Each year we grow our broadcast and digital footprint, and with us being the first major cricket league to return we are confident that we will see an increase on last year’s record viewership figures. Hero CPL is now the second most watched T20 league in the world and we are delighted that fans from around the globe are going to be watching in record numbers thanks to our broadcast and streaming partners.”
The CPL is the first major T20 franchise league to get back underway after Covid-19 shutdowns. Star players competing in this year’s tournament include Rashid Khan, Dwayne Bravo, Daren Sammy, Colin Munro, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell and Ross Taylor. The 2020 season runs from August 18 to September 10.