Major League Cricket (MLC) has partnered with Viacom18’s sports network for exclusive broadcasting of its inaugural season in India. The multi-platform coverage will include live streaming on JioCinema and broadcast television coverage on Sports18, starting 13th July.
MLC will feature international talent playing alongside America’s best players for the Los Angeles Knight Riders, MI New York, San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings and Washington Freedom. The inaugural season will be played in a round-robin format with the four best performing teams competing in a multi-game playoff and final round to decide a champion, to be crowned on 30th July.
“JioCinema continues to change the landscape of sports consumption, and with Major League Cricket, fans will watch their favourite T20 cricketers and cheer for teams affiliated to their favourite franchisees,” said Viacom18 Sports Head of Strategy, Partnerships & Acquisitions Hursh Shrivastava. “Indian viewers love T20 cricket, and we expect them to enjoy the action from the inaugural edition of the league across JioCinema and Sports18,” he added.
“We are delighted to partner with Viacom18 and ensure that the world class T20 action Major League Cricket will feature is widely available in India, streamed on JioCinema and broadcast on Sports18,” said Vijay Srinivasan, co-Founder, Major League Cricket. “Our six teams feature T20 superstars fans in India love to watch, and there’s no better partner to showcase world class sports broadcasts in the world’s largest cricket market than Viacom18’s channels,” he added.
Four of the six teams in the league feature investors from owners of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises including MI New York (five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians), the LA Knight Riders (two-time IPL champions Kolkata Knight Riders), the Texas Super Kings (five-time IPL champions Chennai Super Kings) and the Seattle Orcas (Delhi Capitals). Fans will witness a slew of their favourite IPL stars featuring in MLC.
