Viacom18 to broadcast upcoming India-Australia ODI series in 11 languages for free

Viacom18 on Wednesday announced that it will broadcast the upcoming ODI series of India and Australia in 11 languages for free. Viacom18 recently acquired the media rights for BCCI’s international and domestic matches for next five years.

Viacom18 won the rights for both digital and television broadcast earlier this month for Rs 5,963 crore. The three-match ODI series is the first international match series under the new rights cycle.

The company will broadcast the matches digitally on Jio Cinema while on TV the matches will be available on channels - Colors Tamil (Tamil), Colors Bangla Cinema (Bengali), Colors Kannada Cinema (Kannada), Colors Cineplex Superhits (Hindi), Sports18 – 1 SD, Sports18 – 1 HD (English).

The Mukesh Ambani-owned channel also shared a list of names for its expert panel over the course of the series. The list includes Suresh Raina, Kedhar Jadhav, Aakash Chopra, Nikhil Chopra, Amit Mishra, Venkapathy Raju, Jatin Paranjpe and more.

“The 3-match ODI series between India and Australia will give viewers a peek into inarguably the new home of Indian cricket and with that responsibility, we will continue to bring the paradigm shift in the way sports is consumed,” said Viacom18 Sports CEO Anil Jayaraj.

“It is our constant endeavour to offer fans what they love the most in never-seen-before ways and digital allows us to continuously push the envelope and combined with linear/ offline TV, we will deliver BCCI events on an unparalleled scale,” he added.

Apart from the rights for BCCI matches, Viacom18 has a vast portfolio of media rights for worldwide sports events like Tata IPL, Tata WPL, Moto GP, La Liga, Major League Cricket (MLC), NBA, Serie A among many others.

Coming to the series, India and Australia will play three ODI matches in Mohali, Indore and Rajkot starting September 22. The series will be of great importance as both teams will look to gain momentum before the ICC Men’s World Cup starts on October 5.