This will also mean that cricket coverage in the UK will return to free-to-air after a long time as ITV4 can be seen free by almost 80 percent of the UK and around 20 million households in the UK should be able to view the matches. The only match that will not be shown, because of a commitment to show British Touring Car Championship racing from Thruxton, is between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils on April 4. It is also a landmark event as live cricket will be shown for the first time since 1970s. The feed will be provided by Sony and will be fronted by presenter Matt Smith and Bollywood actress Mandira Bedi.

As per reports, the IPL Management has also set tougher conditions for applying for the two new teams. One of the major conditions is that the bidder has to have at least $1 billion (Rs.4,580 crores) and if a group makes a bid, it must contain an individual or a single party with that amount of money. As per the IPL’s tender condition, the bidders should submit a Rs 460-crore bank guarantee to participate in the bidding process. The IPL has set a base price of US $ 225 million per franchise. Many are also speculating that Ahmedabad might be one of the strongest contenders for an IPL team. The Ahmedabad based billionaire Gautam Adani-owned Adani Group has also submitted its bid for a new franchisee.

Videocon Industries-led team called P Sports Vision is supposed to have placed bid for Pune franchisee. There are also reports that the guardians of the laws of cricket, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is also supposed to be running for the Pune franchisee. The other prominent bidders might include Sahara Group, Jaypee Group and ICICI Ventures. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel is also speculated to have placed bid for either Pune or Nagpur franchisee. Bollywood stars like Salman Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Ajay Devgn had also showed interest though there is no confirmation if any film stars have bid for any team this time round. There have been 11 bids supposed to have been submitted till now for the two new teams.

The winning bids for the two new franchisees would be revealed on Sunday, March 7 at 1200 IST. Many are speculating that Pune and Ahmedabad might have good chances of hosting the two new teams though everything would be revealed only this Sunday.

DLF Indian Premier League season 3 will be broadcast live on the world most’s popular video streaming website Youtube after IPL and Google who own Youtube signed up a deal. Under the agreemement, all the matches of IPL wil be broadcast live on all countries except United States which will have re-broacast options. One of the most significant benefits of this deal for the viewers is that the viewers can choose between different camera angles. The viewers will also be able to pause and rewind the live feed. The viewers will also be able to watch live replays at any time during the day. The deal is for 2 years as of now and will give Google exclusive online rights for IPL content for two years, with both parties sharing revenues from sponsorships and advertising. The IPL commissioner Lalit Modi said that he is hopeful to take IPL to international markets beyond the cricketing nations with this new move.

The official IPL channel on Youtube is also mentioning the same and it might be possible that the official channel itself shows the live feed. The link to the official IPL channel on youtube is:

http://www.youtube.com/ipl

All the tickets for the IPL T20 season 2 opener in Newlands, Cape Town has supposedly been sold out within two hours today. Most people were quite critical of how the South African people would react to the Indian Premier League after the venue had to be shifted to South Africa due to clash with general elections in India. But if the occupancy of the IPL opener is any hint for the rest of the tournament then it might turn out to be a huge success in SA too. The IPL opener on April 18 would include a grand opening ceremony and two matches back to back. In addition to that there will be the mix of Bollywood and Hollywood in the IPL season 2 opener. IPL has been aggressively promoted amongst the masses and most of the matches has also been organized on cities with huge Indian population. The ticket prices has also been kept quite affordable so that all the South African people can enjoy this extravaganza of cricket and entertainment without burning a hole in their pocket. And this hard work by BCCI and South African Cricket seems to have already shown the results. It was expected that ticket sales in SA might take a few weeks to catch up but the sell out of the tickets in the IPL opener has ended all the negative presumptions. And there has been booking of tickets not only from South Africa but from other countries like England, Middle East and South Africa. IPL commissioner Lalit Modi said that IPL T20 season 2 might help them in gaining a global fan base.

Although the full occupancy in the IPL opener cannot guarantee full occupancy for the rest of the matches but it is surely a definite trend that cannot be denied. Let us wish that the occupancy is full in most of the match and IPL T20 season 2 turns out to be a grand success. And whatever we say it seems Lalit Modi always has the laugh laugh.

IPL T20 seems to be developing into the single biggest event in cricket with big bucks following into the game. IPL was a huge success in its first season and it was expected to become even bigger this year in terms of monetary gains. However, IPL T20 season 2 had to change the venue from India to South Africa as it clashed with the Indian General Elections. And IPL has been trying different methods to increase the cash flow so that the tournament remains a huge success like last year or even more.

This has led to a five-minute ‘strategy break’ twice in every match to boost TV advertising revenues. If sources are to be believed, there might be a five minute ‘strategy break’ in the middle of every innings after 10 overs are bowled. This five-minute break might help increasing the IPL television advertising revenues in each game by 30 percent according to estimates. It is notable that Sony Entertainment Television (nowadays renamed to Multi Screen Media) had clinched the domestic telecast rights of IPL T20 season 2 for a staggering Rs. 8200 crore for the next nine years. It is supposed that this five-minute strategy break might have been one of the points in negotiating the deal.

Hope that this new formula works out. Though it is not sure as of now if the five-minute strategy break will really come into effect but only time will tell how efficient will it be if it is introduced when IPL 2 starts later this month.