DD Sports will broadcast the upcoming India tour of the West Indies series “to build accessibility for the tour for television viewers across the country,” as part of a deal with live streaming and e-commerce platform FanCode.
The tour, scheduled between July 22 and August 7, will be the first India-away series to be hosted exclusively on DD Sports in the last 15 years.
In April 2021, FanCode became the first-ever digital platform to sign a historic four-year deal with Cricket West Indies, giving exclusive broadcast rights to FanCode for almost 150 international and 250 domestic cricket matches of the Caribbean until 2024.
Rohit Sharma (C), I Kishan, KL Rahul*, Suryakumar Yadav, D Hooda, S Iyer, D Karthik, R Pant, H Pandya, R Jadeja, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, R Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav*, B Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
*Inclusion of KL Rahul & Kuldeep Yadav is subject to fitness
– Windies Cricket (@windiescricket) July 14, 2022
The deal includes upcoming India’s tour of the West Indies consisting 3 ODIs and 5 T20Is, which will be exclusively live-streamed on the FanCode app and website with a “user-first digital experience.”
“To ensure that the television-only audiences do not miss out on the tour and to make it easily accessible to all such sports fans, FanCode has offered TV rights to DD Sports to now be available on all Cable and DTH platforms, apart from DD FreeDish,” FanCode said in a statement.
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The series will be played during prime-time slots in India, with ODIs starting at 7 pm IST and T20Is starting from 8 pm IST. While the ODIs will be played entirely in Port of Spain, Trinidad, the T20Is will be played at Trinidad, St Kitts & Nevis and Lauderhill, Florida.
Speaking on the partnership, Mayank Kumar Agrawal, CEO, of Prasar Bharati said, “Cricket is the undisputed leader in sports and entertainment in India. Even in the fast-growing digital age, there continues to be a significant market and audience for sports consumption on television, and we are glad to bring the upcoming India tour of the West Indies to the masses through DD Sports. While FanCode is building a unique digital experience for sports fans, their extension of rights to DD Sports will mean wider access to all sports fans for the series.”
Commenting on this, Prasana Krishnan, Co-Founder, FanCode said, ”FanCode’s single-most objective is to provide superlative user experience and solve for accessibility gaps fans to witness in sports consumption and experience, in line with the government’s vision to transform India’s adaptability for digital through initiatives like Digital India. DD Sports’ reach in smaller cities and towns is unbeatable, making it the ideal platform to televise the India tour of West Indies, while we continue to build a superior digital experience for fans nationally.”
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