Doordarshan strikes India cricket deal with Nimbus

Looks like the jigsaw puzzle that is the India cricket telecast rights fiasco is finally piecing together nicely.

After yesterday’s announcement on Biz Asia, that Sky Sports had won all India matches played over the next four years, today Nimbus has awarded India’s TV network Doordarshan terrestrial rights for the same period.

All matches on Doordarshan will be shown on the DD National network. The world feed will be provided to DD by Nimbus Sport, the BCCI appointed producer.

All commercial airtime on the India-England Series 2006 will be exclusively marketed by Nimbus through its ad sales arm Nimbus Media Solutions. Commenting on the deal, Raju Udupa-VP Media Solutions said, “We are pleased to extend our association with DD with this landmark deal. This 10 match series is perhaps the biggest cricket series to be staged in India in a very long time. We believe it will break new ratings records.”

The development today now means that only India cable and satellite TV rights remain to be awarded. An announcement on this is expected imminently.