New five year deal sees British public broadcaster team up with global live streaming service DAZN
Free-to-air public broadcaster ITV has secured the rights to 16 matches from each Indian Premier League cricket season for the next five years. A new agreement with the league will see global streaming giant DAZN pick up the other 58 games of the season, including the semi-finals and final of the competition.
The 2023 edition of the world's gold standard T20 cricket tournament will run between 31 March 2023 and 28 May 2023, and this five-year broadcast deal will cover every edition up to and including the 2027 version.
British cricket fans will be overjoyed to learn that the IPL, the home of some of the world's very best T20 players, is making a return to free-to-air terrestrial television in the UK, after previously being on ITV back in 2014.
DAZN takes lions share of IPL rights
London based global streaming force DAZN, owned by Sir Len Blatvanik, is said to have funded the vast majority of this joint venture, and agreed to sub-contract 16 matches per season to ITV, meaning roughly 1/5 of games will be free-to-air in the UK.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is without doubt the number one domestic T20 cricket competition in the world, boasting many of the biggest names in the sport. It could be compared to the English Premier League in football terms. Acquiring a decent number of regular season games from the tournament represents a real coup for ITV.
ITV and DAZN will take over coverage of the IPL from current rights holder Sky Sports, as the latter makes it first foray into cricket rights in the UK. DAZN already hold IPL rights in Australia and South Africa, but this will be a first move into the world of cricket in the UK, which they consider to be a key market.
ITV, on the other hand, are no strangers to covering cricket or the IPL in particular, having provided coverage for the competition between 2010 until 2014.
To put into perspective the sheer height of its popularity, the most recent domestic TV rights deal for the IPL in India, with Star Sports, is reportedly worth roughly £5bn, making it more valuable than the EPL is in the UK.
DAZN will hope that by offering some matches up for free on ITV, they can drive further interest in the competition among UK audiences and ultimately boost their subscriber base in the country.
First judgements on the validity of this approach will be available later this month when the next IPL season gets underway on March 31st.
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