Telecommunications company Columbus International, which operates Caribbean cable-television broadcaster Flow, has announced a new programming partnership that will lead to the introduction in the region of Ten Cricket, the pay-television channel owned by Indian media group Zee Entertainment.
The Jamaica Observer newspaper said that Columbus and Zee Americas have agreed a three-year deal, from 2013-14 to 2015-16, under which Ten Cricket will be broadcast exclusively on Flow in Jamaica, Trinidad, Grenada, Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua and St Vincent.
The agreement provides Caribbean sports fans with the region’s first all-cricket television channel.
Ten Cricket will provide broadcasts of all home and away matches played by teams representing the West Indies, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and South Africa on Flow's digital cable-television network.
The announcement coincides with the ongoing tri-nation one-day international series featuring the West Indies, Sri Lanka and India. To tie in with the series, Columbus said it would provide a special freeview period of one month for Ten Cricket.
Zee Americas’ director of content distribution Akhilesh Gupta, said: “There is a definite need for a quality 24/7 cricket channel in the Caribbean. This launch fills that void and extends our long term association with Columbus.”