MUMBAI: The Indian cricket team will play with West Indies in an eight-match series comprising three ODIs and five Twenty20 Internationals. The series will run from 22 July – 7 August 2022. The matches will stream digitally on the Dream11-owned platform FanCode. The company, which has the rights for West Indies Cricket till 2024 has sub-licensed the broadcast rights to free-to-air (FTA) platform DD Sports, which is available in 210 million homes across the country. Sports-only digital platform FanCode has announced the exclusive partnership with DD Sports aims to build accessibility for the tour for television viewers across the country.

This marks the first time in over two decades that the pubcaster will exclusively telecast Indian cricket on the television. The matches will be on air during primetime. ODIs start at 7 p.m and T20Is start at 8 p.m.

Prasar Bharati CEO Mayank Kumar Agrawal said, “Cricket is the undisputed leader in sports & entertainment in India. Even in the fast-growing digital age, there continues to be a significant market and audience for sports consumption on television, and we are glad to bring the upcoming India tour of the West Indies to the masses through DD Sports. While FanCode is building a unique digital experience for sports fans, their extension of rights to DD Sports will mean wider access to all sports fans for the series.”

FanCode co-founder Prasana Krishnan said, ”FanCode’s single-most objective is to provide superlative user experience and solve for accessibility gaps fans to witness in sports consumption and experience, in line with the government’s vision to transform India’s adaptability for digital through initiatives like Digital India. DD Sports’ reach in smaller cities and towns is unbeatable, making it the ideal platform to televise the India tour of West Indies, while we continue to build a superior digital experience for fans nationally.”

The series for the record will be absent on private channels. Normally DD only airs India cricket on Freedish for which content sharing by the rights holder is mandatory. In this case, the rights holder is a subscription-based digital platform that does not have a TV channel. Last year, FanCode had inked a deal with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to air the series until 2024. During the rights period, India is also scheduled to make another visit to the West Indies besides the upcoming series.

Other teams who will visit the West Indies in the rights period for cricket series include England, Australia, South Africa and Pakistan. Earlier, WICB rights were with Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI).

FanCode decided to go after consolidated rights (TV+Digital) as it wants to grow its subscriber base. It has been learnt that the rates on DD Sports are Rs 3 lakh for a spot on ODIs and Rs 5 lakh for the Twenty20 Internationals. Vin Global Media is the sales agent that is selling the series on DD Sports to advertisers. Ad revenue is the norm and will be shared 75:25 in favour of the rights holder who in this case is FanCode.

Advertisers are said to be surprised that the series is on FTA. The last two Twenty20 Internationals will be played in Florida, America.

Lodestar UM VP Avinash Hegde said that the good news is that the matches are in primetime. At the same time, marketing and promotional activities will need to be done to inform consumers that the matches are going to be available on TV exclusively on DD Sports. "Consumers were used to watching West indies cricket matches on Sony. The need would be to see how Doordarshan manages to communicate to the cricket fans and promote the series effectively. The series not being on a private broadcaster could see a small amount of viewer disconnect. So the communication must be effective. This is where things will settle". FanCode will also need to do effective marketing to drive cricket fans to its subscription platform.