England cricket matches to be streamed online as part of Premium TV deal

by Joe Lepper, Brand Republic 10-May-06, 14:25

LONDON - The England and Wales Cricket Board is to launch its own broadband television channel called ECBtv for the start of England's first test match against Sri Lanka.

The new service will be available via the cricket body's website ecb.co.uk and will include coverage of the test, which gets under way this week, as well as one-day internationals and exclusive interviews.

The move is part of a three-year deal between the ECB and digital rights firm Premium TV, which says that coverage will be shown "as live", or delayed, in areas with existing TV deals, such as the UK, which has a contract with BSkyB.

A Premium TV spokesman said: "This is to ensure it doesn't conflict with any existing deals, such as the Sky one in the UK. But in those territories where there are no deals there will be live video streaming.

The channel will be available across Europe, south and central America, Japan and Africa and is part of a raft of newly created services on the ECB's website, including a "Freddiecam", which tracks England captain Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff as he prepares for matches.

The channel also offers a searchable video archive offering extended highlights of England performances on home soil dating back to the 1970s and an area called 'the active zone', covering community initiatives and tutorials from former and current England players.

Oliver Slipper, Premium TV chief executive officer, said: "ECBtv allows cricket fans to watch top cricket action and exclusive content when they want to watch it. It also demonstrates how digital rights deals complement rather than compromise TV deals."

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