Mumbai: IPL 2020 is one of the most awaited IPL editions as it’s going to be amid the Covid-19 pandemic. With no respite in the number of cases in India, the tournament as we all know is going to be played in UAE. The official broadcaster for IPL, Star India has left no stone unturned for the mega-tournament.
Uday Shankar, Chairman, Disney Star India in a conversation with TOI shared their preparedness for the tournament. He said, “The protocol we’ve designed for this IPL can become a global benchmark for any tournament to be held safely. We’ll be doing it at three stadiums with 700+ crew and around 90 commentators working across UAE, India, and globally to operate under COVID-related SOPs for 60-75 days.”
Continuing Shankar said, “There’ll be a bio-secure bubble in Mumbai to entail 400-plus staffers across six floors of the production facility. Rigorous testing protocols for all staffers entailing pre-screening, testing before entry, and periodic testing during stay. Stringent sanitization and social distancing protocols at production facilities and multiple zones are being set up to keep teams separated”
Understandably, Shankar expects IPL TV viewership to break all records as most cricket fans are still working from home and cricket being a sport every member of a family loves. Shankar said, “Viewership has never been an issue with IPL. I can only hope it’s bigger than ever. There will be seven fully customized broadcast feeds across languages and 18 hours of live and special programming. We expect TV viewership of 550 million+ in India across live broadcast and beyond live programming and the broadcast to be distributed in over 100 countries.”
