The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Sahara One to telecast cricket series

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Sunday, Feb 26, 2006

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Sport - Cricket

Sahara One to telecast cricket series

Special Correspondent

Mumbai: Sahara One will telecast live the home series featuring three Tests and seven ODIs against England. The first Test begins at Nagpur on March 1. Nimbus Communications, which bought the BCCI four-year global media rights for $612 million, said here on Saturday that it would provide pictures of the matches to Sahara One and produce wrap-around programmes involving features before and after the match and during the intervals.

Nimbus would also exclusively market the commercial airtime during the series for Sahara One without specified revenue thresholds, but sources in Nimbus said the deal is worth over $40 million. It will also market the commercial airtime for Doordarshan, but will retain 75 per cent of the revenue.

On Friday, Nimbus signed an agreement with Doordarshan to broadcast the Tests and ODIs. Doordarshan will telecast all the matches on its National network.

The tour itinerary:

Tests: 1st: Nagpur (March 1-5); 2nd: Mohali (March 9-13); 3rd: Mumbai (March 18-22).

ODIs: 1st: Delhi (March 28); 2nd: Faridabad (March 31), 3rd: Goa (April 3); 4th: Kochi (April 6); 5th: Guwahati (April 9); 6th: Jamshedpur (April 12); 7th: Indore (April 15).