Tag: Cricbuzz

News Republic – Cricbuzz partner to bring cricket scores on mobile

NEW DELHI: Global mobile media group News Republic has entered into a strategic partnership with Cricbuzz, which will allow its app users to access the latest cricket news and scores of all matches.

News Republic India country director Radhika Shukla said, “We want to ensure that our users have access to the news from all genres. Bringing the excitement of sports news to our readers is something we are delighted to do.”

Cricbuzz.com CEO Pankaj Chhaparwal added, “Being a part of digital media, we understand the importance of expanding our user base continuously and with News Republic coming to India, we are excited to get on board and offer cricket updates to its growing audience.”

News Republic app users can now read the Cricbuzz content that is, “news” and “latest scores” side by side with one easy tap, share it and save it to view later while travelling even when they are offline. They can also receive notifications every time there is a new article from Cricbuzz.

The app provides a variety of content to its readers across all genres ranging from politics, business, sports, entertainment, technology etc.

With 1,500 licensed news feeds worldwide, News Republic shares 50,000 unique articles every day from news organisations like Reuters, BBC, AFP, Bloomberg, Guardian, HuffingtonPost and Mashable amongst others.

In India, News Republic has partnered with Hindustan Times, India Today, Aaj Tak, Business Today, Cricbuzz, New Indian Express, Oneindia, BBC, India.com and others. The apps also incorporate RSS feeds to cover specialized reader interests.

August 13, 2015
Sony Six and Kix rope in multiple brands for India VS Sri Lanka series

MUMBAI: As Team India under the leadership of Virat Kohli is set to take on Sri Lanka tomorrow (12 August, 2015),Multi Screen Media’s sports expertise Sony Six and Kix have roped in multiple sponsors for the series, which comprise three Test matches.

Sony Six, which acquired the series’ rights for a speculated $3.2 million, has brought on board Cricbuzz as the title sponsor along with other brands such as Idea, Apple, Royal Stag, Cycle Pure Agarbathies and Think and Learn Pvt Ltd. Additionally, the channel’s ad sales team is also in last stages of formalities with a few more brands.

While the India – Sri Lanka series will be Lanka legend Kumar Sangakkara’s last encounter with international cricket, it will also be the first real test of Kohli’s leadership skills.

Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, MSM president Rohit Gupta said, “The series is highly awaited as this becomes the first real test of Virat Kohli. Also this is the final outing for Kumar Sangakkara. Test matches have its own flare and audience and we are sure that it will garner good viewership. We have sold the slots at normal rates and are happy with the reaction from advertisers so far.”

Sony Six and Sony Kix business head Prasana Krishnan had earlier said, “We are delighted to partner Sri Lanka Cricket Board as the official broadcaster of the series. The fixture between the two Asian giants is one of the most sought after and keenly followed contests in cricket and we are proud to be bringing it live to our viewers. And it will be interesting to watch how the Indian squad fares under Virat’s aggressive style of leadership.”

MSM’s new launch Sony Kix will be telecasting the Hindi feed, while Sony Six will air the English version of the coverage. Krishnan is of the opinion that the India VS Sri Lanka series will play a pivotal role is enhancing the reach of the channel. “The three month old channel has already created a huge demand and the series will certainly enhance its presence,” he said.

A cricket expert on condition of anonymity asserted, “The test will not only be of two teams but of the Test format. Test cricket is still the real test of skill; we saw that in Ashes recently but at the same time the format is losing it commercial value, which poses a threat over it in the long run. As a cricket fan, I am waiting for the series to unfold. I feel Harbajjan Singh will come out of the series with flying colours. Also a great of the game will be hanging his boots, which makes it all the more interesting. Overall, I would like to see quality cricket, packed stadium and overwhelming viewership statistics.”

According to sources in the media planning fraternity, MSM is selling a 10 second ad slot for the India – Sri Lanka series between Rs 50,000 – 75,000.

August 11, 2015
Cricbuzz hops on as title sponsor for 2015 Sri Lanka Vs India Test series

MUMBAI: Times Internet’s mobile cricket news and information venture Cricbuzz has hopped on board as the title sponsor for the Sri Lanka vs India 2015 Test Series.

This sponsorship marks a major investment by the cricket information platform as it looks to build its association with the sport through the test series, which will take place between 12 August – 1 September, 2015.

The 20-day tour includes three Test matches. The English feed will be shown live on Sony Six and Sony Six HD, while Sony Kix will be relaying the Hindi feed.

Cricbuzz CEO Pankaj Chhaparwal said, “We are thrilled with the association, which represents a great opportunity towards scaling up our user base and operations. Cricket is the defining sport in capturing consumer interest and through this engagement, we will look to exponentially increase our global visibility and footprint. Through the years, we have built a sizeable, strong and loyal user base, and with Cricbuzz being the top cricket app in the world, we will look to consolidate our position as the preferred destination for cricket.”

August 3, 2015
Cricket tweets on Cricbuzz

MUMBAI: Cricbuzz, a Cricket app, has now partnered with Twitter, the social soundtrack for cricket fans across the world, to create a whole new experience of following a live match. With live opinion through Tweets, photographs and videos shared by Twitter users, the new version of Cricbuzz is a treat for cricket fans who can now feel the pulse of every ongoing match. The most popular and relevant Tweets, curated by editors at Cricbuzz.com, will now reach each and every device with the Cricbuzz app.

With a special Twitter Timeline on Cricbuzz, the app followers can now read real time Tweets from Cricket experts, players and fans, to know what the world is talking about with just a few clicks. The thoughts and views of people who share the same passion for the game, can be read and replied to on Cricbuzz, thereby creating a whole new level of user engagement.

The Twitter Timeline in the match centre of the Cricbuzz App allows users to retweet, favourite and reply to Tweets. It even gives the opportunity to interact with people having the same zeal for the game of Cricket anywhere across the world. Cricbuzz’s Twitter Timeline also has hashtag counters indicating the number of people talking about the cricket match. It also gives a fair indication of which team is more popular among the two on the field.

People without data connectivity need not fret. Cricbuzz and Twitter have launched a missed-call service. All that one needs to do is give a missed call to 011 6657 5665, a Cricbuzz dedicated number, and the user will begin to receive four of the best Tweets of the day. This is an exciting service that will ensure that the fans don’t miss out on the best Tweets from Cricbuzz even if they are unable to get online.

Ravi Bhaskaran, Head, Business Development, Twitter India & South Asia, comments, “We are delighted with the way Cricbuzz has used Twitter to deliver a comprehensive Cricket experience for its users across its properties on iOS, Android & web. Supplementing live commentary on Cricbuzz with Tweets is clearly a compelling experience for sports fans. This underlines Twitter’s importance as an indispensable companion to live sport viewing. It also helps highlight how easily Twitter can be used by third party apps & portals to integrate seamlessly within their native product experience.”

Pankaj Chhaparwal, CEO, Cricbuzz.com said, “Cricbuzz is always looking for newer ways to deliver compelling cricket content to its users. A curated timeline of the most interesting and relevant tweets from players, experts and fans alike is an exciting addition which will provide an engaging experience to users while following a live game.”

April 23, 2015
India Vs Pakistan: A match ‘Not to be missed’

MUMBAI: Whether it is Kashmir, Baluchistan, football, hockey or cricket; India vs Pakistan is always big news. This time the battlefield is the Adelaide Oval in Australia and war is ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.

The war of bat and ball, of mental strength and temperament, will start at 9.00 am Indian Standard Time (IST) with the national anthems of the respective countries followed by 100 overs of nail biting cricketing action. It will be pride for some and agony for others, but whatever the result may be, it will end with handshakes and hugs. That’s what makes this battle so exciting and one of the most watched rivalries in sports history.

Commenting on the magnitude of India vs Pakistan match, Colors CEO Raj Nayak said, “It’s indeed a big match and I will obviously cheer for India. But we have to understand the fact that it’s just a match and the team that plays better cricket will win. The timing is very good and hence I will obviously watch the match.”

Multi Screen Media president Rohit Gupta opined, “Though I don’t get to follow the 50 overs format, I will certainly try to watch the India – Pakistan bout. My support is always with India but may the best team win.”

“India vs Pakistan is a big match and it’s great that India is starting their campaign against Pakistan. It will decide the tone of the tournament and build immense interest in the country,” added NDTV executive vice-chairperson K. V. L. Narayan Rao.

Madison Communications COO Kartik Lakshminarayan said, “I am surely going to watch the match and have already made my plans. Around 150 of us will book a place and watch the match live. It is indeed a time to celebrate and obviously India’s victory is what we will be cheering for.”

Maxus managing partner head of the north and east regions, Navin Khemka asserted, “It’s a big day for India, and I would say it’s a super Sunday. The match starts at 9.30 in the morning and it can’t be any better. And as an advertiser I must say this match is very important in context to the tournament. Fans and spectators in India will be looking forward to this match and a good start here can make the tournament a very special one.”

Hats Off Productions founder J D Majhetia said, “India – Pakistan match is a never miss game for me, since the time I started understanding cricket I don’t think I have missed an Indo – Pak match. Last time I flew to Chandigarh with my family when the two teams met in the semifinal of 2011 edition. This time we are planning a mass gathering in one of the studios. I have already announced that there will be no shoots on 15 February because of the match.”

The match is also big in terms of commercial aspect. If sources are to be believed then Star, the official broadcaster of World Cup in India, has hiked its ad rate by around 200 per cent for the India – Pakistan match. However, if an advertiser wants to buy a slot only for this particular match, then the hike is around 350 to 400 per cent. During a normal league match, the ad rate fluctuates between Rs 5 to 10 lakh for a 10 second spot depending on the magnitude of the match. For the India vs Pakistan match, Star is selling a slot for Rs 20 to 25 lakh.

Any cricket lover would not like to miss a single minute of a match of such substance. And this season there are a number of options for a cricket fan to catch the action.

Television: One can sit with a hot cup of tea and breakfast in front of the TV and enjoy every moment of the match. Star has already roped in a number of innovations to make the broadcasting a worthy treat. One can opt for high quality pictures by tuning to HD channels. Amitabh Bachchan will also be there as a commentator to entertain viewers in Hindi. Panel of experts and legends of the game will be in the commentary box to bring detailed analysis of the live action. Additionally, as a never before treat, Star gives viewer choices of opting for regional languages too. But what if one is not subscribed to Star? Not to worry, thank to the Supreme Court of India, DD will telecast the India vs Pakistan match and will be available on cable and DTH platforms.

But what if one has to travel? Will he or she have to miss the match? That brings the digital platforms in the game.

Starsports.com: Gone are the days when television was the only source of audio visual entertainment. One can log in to starsports.com and catch ball by ball action live. Star India’s sports VOD platform will stream all the World Cup matches live and India vs Pakistan is certainly one of them.

But India is a country with a lot of VOD platforms and less bandwidth, 3G is expensive and can take a hefty chunk out of one’s pocket. In case a user does not have access to 3G services to stream the matches live, there are various apps available that can give updates about the match.

Cricbuzz: Times Internet’s sports venture Cricbuzz gives the opportunity to relive the nostalgia. One can opt for audio commentary through that app and it works fine in 2G too. It is quite similar to how radio is, one can plug in earphones and enjoy the audio commentary.

EspnCricinfo: The cricket dedicated app does ball by ball text commentary, updates scores and statistics. The app also enables the opportunity to tune into pre match and post match video analysis.

ICC Cricket World Cup App: The Official ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 app for the first time one can access to live scores, in-match clips, fixtures, exclusive videos, real-time statistical updates and more – all in the palm of their hand.

Besides these apps, one can also log in to any news website to know the score of the match.

This world cup International Cricket Council (ICC) gives fans exclusive opportunity to connect with the marquee tournament. One can easily become a commentator or expert and share their views and opinions in the social media platforms through the following mediums:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ICC & www.facebook.com/CricketWorldCup

Twitter: www.twitter.com/ICC & www.twitter.com/CricketWorldCup

Instagram: www.instagram.com/ICC & www.instagram.com/CricketWorldCup

Google+: www.google.com/+ICC & www.google.com/+CricketWorldCup

YouTube: www.youtube.com/ICC

February 14, 2015
Cricbuzz targets 75 million users with new World Cup section

MUMBAI: Cricbuzz, a division of Times Internet, is launching a new World Cup section across web and mobile, to capitalise on the major cricket wave with the World Cup and IPL over the next four months.

Cricbuzz is a mobile app for cricket news and scores in India. During IPL 2014, Cricbuzz was used by over 50 million people, with more than 80 per cent of users on their mobile devices. In January, Cricbuzz users spent over 2.5 billion minutes on the Cricbuzz app (just under 5000 years), generating 2.6 billion page views.

The new World Cup release features a number of major new features, including:

– ‘Timelines’: go through well-crafted timelines of each tournament since 1975, to relive epic moments.

– ‘Records’: the most interesting cricket stats and figures, with a log of past WC matches

– ‘Captains and Kits’: a collection of caricatures of team captains for the last 30 years

– ‘Your Team’: sections dedicated to each team, with history, stats, and easy access

– ‘The Venue’: information on the cities & venues of matches

Cricbuzz will feature editorial content and the scores and alerts. With live reporting straight from the tournament, Cricbuzz will make sure users have the insights at their fingertips.

Last week, the Cricbuzz app crossed 10 million downloads, making it the first sports app in India to do so, and 4x the size of its nearest competition. Cricbuzz is now in the top 5 sports apps globally, behind ESPNScoreCenter and the official apps of FIFA and the NFL.

February 13, 2015
MSM moves to court over exclusive media rights for IND-NZ cric series

MUMBAI: Multi Screen Media’s (MSM) sports arm Sony Six bagged the exclusive broadcast rights for the highly anticipated India’s tour of New Zealand just 10 days prior to the first match.

However, after the first One Day International (ODI) which was played at Napier on 19 January where the Kiwis decimated the boys in blue by a margin of 24 runs, MSM discovered that few website operators and a radio operator were providing live and contemporaneous text and audio commentary and detailed ball-by-ball update of the match without obtaining any authorisation from MSM.

While ESPNCricinfo was providing live and simultaneous text commentary over the internet, Cricbuzz was providing audio and text commentary online, and RadioOne was providing audio commentary through internet and mobile. Since the Network has exclusive copyright over the content, MSM moved the Delhi High Court (HC) against these three entities seeking inter alia for permanent injunction restraining violation of its exclusive media rights, damages and rendition of accounts.

The New Zealand Cricket Board had granted exclusive media rights including television, internet, mobile and data rights pertaining to the India tour of New Zealand cricket matches series being played in January/February 2014 to Multi Screen Media along with its affiliates (MSM) for telecast in the Indian subcontinent.

MSM general counsel Ashok Nambissan says, “We are happy that the Hon’ble High Court has granted us an injunction preventing the flagrant violation of the exclusivity of our rights in the ongoing cricket series between India and New Zealand. These rights are acquired at great cost in our efforts to bring international sports events live to our viewers. We will continue to be vigilant and take action as per law to protect our rights.”

The above-mentioned matter came up before Justice GS Sistani of the Delhi High Court on 21 January, 2014. Upon hearing the submissions made on behalf of MSM, the Judge – plaintiff – issued a notice to the operators (ESPNCricinfo, Cricbuzz and RadioOne) – defendants – and passed an ex-parte ad-interim orders.

The relevant portion of the aforementioned order reads as below:-

“Accordingly, defendant, its agents, servants, employees are restrained from:

* Making available, through any medium whatsoever, live/contemporaneous audio commentary of the matches played in the cricket series between India-New Zealand;

* Exploiting or authorising the exploitation of cricket match-related material/information/details including but not limited to current cricket score, ball-by-ball updates, score cards, score updates, alerts etc, contemporaneous with match situations/events, as they happen in relation to the matches played in the cricket series between India- New Zealand.”

The Delhi High Court has directed these websites and radio channel to obtain licenses from MSM if they wish to provide live commentary on their websites and apps and/or provide score updates, scorecards or any other match information.

January 22, 2014
Idea, CricBuzz & OnMobile see ‘Stars’

MUMBAI: Looks like Star India is having the last laugh in an ongoing legal battle with mobile service operators and MVAS providers – Idea Cellular, Akuate Internet (Cricbuzz) and OnMobile Global.

In a significant ruling yesterday, the Supreme Court upheld Star India’s claim to mobile and digital rights for cricket matches and asked the defendants to maintain status quo as on 13 March. The apex court directed Idea Cellular, Cricbuzz and OnMobile Global to deposit Rs 10 lakh per cricket match in the court, before disseminating live scores, while clarifying that a match would include a test match, a one-day match as well as a T-20 match. This money won’t flow to Star India but will go to the court until the matter is decided.

The Supreme Court also directed the firms disseminating live alerts to maintain true and lawful accounts of the receipts in respect of the SMS alerts they provide to their subscribers, with the same to be made available to the court on a monthly basis.

The Supreme Court didn’t take into consideration an earlier order of a divisional bench of the Delhi High Court that ruled against Star India’s stand. The apex court on 30 September saw merit in Star India’s argument and asked the parties to maintain status quo as on 13 March, when a single bench of the Delhi High Court had ruled in favour of Star India.

It all began last year when Star India filed a case against CricBuzz and OnMobile Global over the reporting of cricket scores. Initially, the Delhi High Court ordered CricBuzz and OnMobile Global to deposit Rs 15 lakh per match, apart from maintaining statements of accounts and filing them in court. Earlier this month though, a division bench of the High Court ruled that mobile operators, content aggregators and other entities were free to provide SMS alerts and ball-by-ball commentary.

The HC bench arrived at this decision after taking into consideration the right to freedom of speech as also the concept of ‘hot news’ which means that Star’s rights to report information (read: scores) via mobile – licensed from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) – are ‘exclusive’ only till such time as the news (read: scores) is ‘hot’ or in other words ‘fresh’.

A critical statement in the Delhi HC judgment read: “Neither Star nor BCCI can be permitted to say that mentioning ‘mobile’ rights and auctioning them, would ipso facto legitimise the parceling away of right to disseminate information, without first establishing that the right or exclusive domain over such rights existed in the first instance.”

In the wake of the HC decision, Star was left with little option but to appeal to the Supreme Court.

And now that the apex body has upheld Star’s position on mobile and digital rights, Star India president – sports Nitin Kukreja says: “The interim order is a testament to the fact that the honourable Supreme Court sees merit in Star India’s argument on mobile and digital rights. We have always maintained that lack of clarity on digital rights has been severely compromising the ability of rights/event owners to invest in creating great experiences for sports fans. This clarity is essential for event owners, who put in all the effort and investment in creating/setting up these exclusive properties to monetise untapped/new revenue streams, which but for the lack of clarity/legislation, would have accrued to them in the natural course of matters.”

As things stand, Star is the clear winner but only time will tell if all the back and forth was worth it.

October 4, 2013