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ESPN STAR Sports bags T20 cricket rights

Indian broadcaster ESPN STAR Sportsv (ESS) has acquired the ten-year rights for the Champions League Twenty20 with a bid of $900 million

DIC came second with a close bid of $751.3 million, marginally higher than the floor price fixed at $750 million. Abu Dhabi Sports Club’s was disqualified for being a conditional one.

ESS’ global rights until 2017 are all-inclusive including TV telecast, sponsorship, mobile and new media.

ESS will in the next few days confirm who it will assign as its UK TV partner to telecast these matches.

The inaugural Champions T20 event takes place from 3rd – 10th December 2008. The rescheduling was because of the Champions Trophy, which was subsequently postponed.

Indian Premier League chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi said: “We are absolutely delighted that after a fair and transparent process, we have what we believe to be the best commercial deal for the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 season and for cricket fans across the world. All the bids received were of a very high standard.”

Earlier ESS had lost out the ten-year IPL TV rights to Sony Entertainment Television Asia. This time around, ESS decided to go that extra mile to snap up these covetted rights. During his recent visit to India, News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch said that it was a “miscalculation” in not getting the IPL rights.

“We’re extremely pleased at having won the Global Commercial Rights to the new and exciting Champions League Twenty20. This is a testament to our commitment to the game of cricket and fans as we cement our relationship with the BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa. Through our television channels (ESPN, Star Sports and Star Cricket), our website MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from “61.246.165.11” claiming to be www.espnstar.com, and our wireless platforms mobileESPN and Star Sports Mobile, we are confident of taking the Champions League Twenty20 to new heights,” said ESS managing director Manu Sawhney.