Broadcast production and manufacturing company Sony is likely to acquire Board of Control for Cricket in India worldwide rights ahead of launching a new sports channel, according to Indian newspaper the Mail Today.
The rights include all India national team Test, one-day international and Twenty20 matches held in the country as well as some domestic tournaments. The new channel would be launched shortly in high definition.
Unnamed sources said that Sony would pay more for the rights than the Nimbus Communications agency, which had its worldwide deal, from 2010 to 2014, cancelled by the BCCI in December. The board accused Nimbus of failing to pay rights fees on time.
“Sony also has a clean record when it has come to payments,” a source said.
All of Sony’s cricket coverage, including its coverage of the Indian Premier League Twenty 20 cricket tournament, would be shifted onto the new channel. Sony holds rights for the league in a nine-year deal covering the Indian sub-continent, from 2009 to 2017.