Viacom18 bags TV and digital rights for Abu Dhabi T10

Media and entertainment network Viacom18 has bagged the TV and digital rights for the Abu Dhabi T10 league.

The cricket tournament will be played for 90 minutes and with over 34 matches will premiere from November 19 on Colors Cineplex SD (Hindi), Colors Cineplex HD (English), Rishtey Cineplex (Hindi), over the top (OTT) platform Voot and Jio.

The cricketing property is sanctioned by International Cricket Council (ICC) and licensed for ten years by Emirates Cricket Board.

This deal has been facilitated by Rise Worldwide, a sports, lifestyle and entertainment company.

“Sporting events have always attracted a wide spectrum of audiences and we have been successfully experimenting with sports content on our network. The Abu Dhabi T10 collaboration is a bold step in further enhancing our sports content mix and we are hopeful it will help us expand our viewer and sponsor base,” said Nina Elavia Jaipuria, Head – Hindi Mass Entertainment and Kids TV Network, Viacom 18.

The Abu Dhabi T10 will have eight participating teams comprising of Delhi Bulls, Pune Devils, Bangla Tigers, Deccan Gladiators, Maratha Arabians, Qalandars, Northern Warriors and Team Abu Dhabi.

“The ADT10 has grown by leaps and bounds over the past four seasons and has generated keen interest globally and gained tremendous traction in India,” said Shaji Ul Mulk, Chairman T10 Sports Management.

With the addition of Abu Dhabi T10 league, Viacom18 now competes with networks like Star and Sony that have rights for premium cricketing properties.

Along with TV, OTTs like Disney+Hotstar, Sony LIV are seeing growth in number of subscribers on the back of sports properties.

Disney+ Hotstar which tops the subscription video on-demand market in India with 35.1 million subscribers, will continue to lead in paying customers with an estimated 46 million subs by end of this year, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA), an independent provider of research, advisory and consulting services across the media and telecoms sectors
in Asia Pacific.

One major factor that will boost the growth in number of subscribers is Disney+Hotstar’s sports heavy calendar, pointed out MPA in its recent report.

And now with Abu Dhabi T10, Voot has joined the likes of Sony LIV and Disney+Hotstar.

Voot’s SVOD service Voot Select, which was launched in March last year, onboarded a million subscribers in less than a year. Will a cricketing property like Abu Dhabi T10 boost subscriber growth for Voot? That only time will tell. Money Control