Global firms bid for cricket streaming
Amazon, Facebook and Twitter join the bidding war for the rights to stream Indian Premier League cricket matches
Bangalore — Amazon, Facebook and Twitter are among companies that have joined a bidding war for rights to stream Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches, seeking to tap into the country’s growing mobile internet audience. The IPL had received an "overwhelming response" from as many as 18 Indian and global media and technology companies, the Board of Control for Cricket in India said on Tuesday. Other bidders include BT Group and Sky, as well as 21st-Century-Fox-owned Star India, Sony Pictures Networks India and ESPN Digital Media (India). Twitter had experienced a 56% jump in tweets related to the IPL in 2016 from 2015, a spokesman for Twitter in India said, adding that 90% of users were fans of the game. The world’s second-most populous country is on the brink of a digital-streaming boom. India will have 730-million internet users by 2020, according to a report in August by India’s information technology industry body Nasscom and Akamai Technologies. "The hunger for cricket and...
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