Pay-television broadcaster Star India has said it will live stream the Indian Premier League for the first time as it prepares for its first season as the rights-holder of the Twenty20 cricket competition.
In September, Star ousted Sony Pictures Network India as the main rights-holder to the IPL after securing the global television and digital rights to the annual tournament.
Under an agreement with the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Star has paid Rs164.375bn (€2.17bn/$2.56bn) for all rights packages on offer across the five editions of the IPL, from 2018 to 2022.
Star has now spelled out its coverage plans for the IPL, saying technology and localisation are a key focus. Star will use its digital and mobile entertainment platform Hotstar to provide full live streaming of the IPL.
The league has previously been streamed, but with a five-minute delay to the live television broadcast. The pricing strategy for the service is yet to be determined, but Star managing director Sanjay Gupta told the Economic Times newspaper that talks are being held with telecommunications providers to provide the service free-of-charge.
“We are trying to reinvent the entire experience on Hotstar,” Ajit Mohan, chief executive of Hotstar, said. “We will use technology which has never been used anywhere. IPL will be streamed live, have fastest commentary and live score updates, even on the lock screen. People can also check-in and share updates with friends and express emotions.”
Star will have six language feeds for the tournament on television, including Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Bengali. The event will broadcast on 10 Star Sports channels and will also have an English-language ‘Super Fan Feed’ on Star Sports Select.
Gupta said: “Sony never saw the power of localisation. We believe there is the biggest opportunity. We are going to localise IPL in six different languages.”
He added: “We built a regional entertainment business over 10 years, which made the company one of the largest players. We are looking at the same expansion in sports, but in one year on the back of IPL. I know it's a humongous task and the whole company has to chip in.”