Indian pay-television distribution company TheOneAlliance terminated its agreement to distribute the Neo Sports pay-television channels, citing the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s cancellation last month of its worldwide rights deal with Neo’s parent company, the Nimbus Communications agency.
The agreement with Neo was terminated on January 3. TheOneAlliance president Rajesh Kaul said the contract was void due to Neo losing the BCCI rights. BCCI scrapped its rights partnership with Nimbus after accusing the company of failing to pay rights fees on time. Nimbus exploited the rights on its multi-national pay-television channel Neo Cricket and also had sublicensing agreements in place with overseas broadcasters.
The IndianTelevision website said that Neo’s deal with TheOneAlliance was worth a minimum of Rs2.7 billion (€41 million/$52 million) to the broadcaster over three years, from 2010-11 to 2012-13.
TheOneAlliance is reportedly considering a bid for the BCCI rights – which include all India national team Test, one-day international and Twenty20 matches held in the country as well as some domestic tournaments – in order to launch its own sports channel. The BCCI is expected to launch a rights tender early this year.
TheOneAlliance already has rights for New Zealand Cricket matches, English FA Cup football and NBA basketball games.