Sports Flashes gets audio rights for Indian cricket

MUMBAI: For the first time in the history of Indian cricket, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has given away global audio rights for the matches played in India to expand its reach to a global cricket audience.

Sports Flashes, the multi-sports app, which runs a 24-hour sports radio channel, has picked up the rights for the next five years as part of a tripartite agreement with the BCCI and Star India. The audio rights — both analogue and digital — are for the rest of the world except India.

“The rights are routed through the global media rights holder Star India, which doesn’t have an audio platform,” Raman Raheja, founder, Sports Flashes, told ET. While he refused to divulge the payout, he said the company is targeting to earn $20 million in the next five years from the audio play.


“We see this as a unique opportunity that Indian cricket has never seen. Our focus is on maximising the reach of Indian cricket. We will expand our footprint in 35 new countries through cricket and intend to reach to 350 million cricket fans around the world over the next five years,” said Raheja.

Sports Flashes will start with West Indies’ India tour, which will kick off from Thursday. “We are offering audio broadcast and wrap-around programming in 15 Caribbean countries. We are signing up local partnerships with analogue radio community,” he said.

Sports Flashes has brought on board commentators like Carl Hooper, Ricardo Powell, Syed Kirmani, Mohammad Kaif, Atul Wassan, Rohan Gavaskar, Lisa Sthalekar, Reetinder Singh Sodhi and Ashok Malhotra.

Sports Flashes’ internet radio service, which was launched in January 2018, broadcast sports content such as live chat commentaries, talk shows, special sports programs, experts comments, sports news and updates, audio documentaries, university sports and sportainment content.