Viacom18, the Indian media and entertainment heavyweight, has secured exclusive multi-platform rights to the inaugural season of Major League Cricket (MLC), the US men’s Twenty20 league.
Coverage will be available on the streaming platform JioCinema, as well as on the Sports18 linear channel.
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Although no Indian players will be involved due to restrictions by the country’s cricketing authorities in terms of where its stars can play, four of the six teams are owned by investors of sides in the iconic Indian Premier League. Those sides represent New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Texas.
The deal comes ahead of a domestic broadcast partner being announced by MLC.
Hursh Shrivastava, head of strategy, partnerships, and acquisitions at Viacom18 Sports, said: “JioCinema continues to change the landscape of sports consumption, and with Major League Cricket, fans will watch their favorite T20 cricketers and cheer for teams affiliated to their favorite franchises.
“Indian viewers love T20 cricket, and we expect them to enjoy the action from the inaugural edition of the league across JioCinema and Sports18.”
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By GlobalDataViacom18 adds the rights to its strong cricketing portfolio, which includes both domestic digital rights and some overseas rights to the Indian Premier League until 2027.
Vijay Srinivasan, a Major League Cricket co-founder, added: “We are delighted to partner with Viacom18 and ensure that the world-class T20 action MLC will feature is widely available in India, streamed on JioCinema and broadcast on Sports18. Our six teams feature T20 superstars fans in India love to watch, and there’s no better partner to showcase world-class sports broadcasts in the world’s largest cricket market than Viacom18’s channels.”
The first MLC season gets underway on July 13, as the Texas Super Kings take on the Los Angles Knight Riders at the Grand Prairie Stadium in the Dallas region of Texas.
The season only runs until a final on July 30, with a round-robin format preceding a multi-game playoff campaign between the four best sides. Grand Prairie will be the competition’s primary venue.
MLC is owned by American Cricket Enterprises, a group that is backed by the founders of Willow TV, the largest cricket broadcaster in North America. The company won a competitive tender in May 2019 to fund and develop a professional T20 league in the US.
MLC plans to deploy more than $120 million to launch this year, with sides from Washington and San Francisco added to the teams listed above to make up the six inaugural competitors.
Details about the timing of the US’ first-ever professional franchise T20 competition were confirmed last November.
In early April, the league brought in creative agency JDA Worldwide as its brand identity partner.
