ATN Acquires Exclusive Canadian Broadcast Rights for over 1000 days of Live Cricket

TORONTO, Sept. 10, 2013 /CNW/ - Asian Television Network International Limited (ATN) (TSX-SAT), Canada's largest South Asian Broadcaster, is pleased to announce that it has acquired exclusive Cricket rights for leading Cricket boards for next 5 years till 2018.

The rights consists of International Cricket series hosted by The World's largest Cricketing Board namely BCCI (India), South Africa, Australia, Zimbabwe, Cricket series like Hong Kong sixes, Big Bash league and all domestic series played in India i.e N K P Salve Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy & more…. All the series acquired will be aired primarily on ATN Cricket Plus & CBN channels, and occasionally as a special feature to complement our recently launched ATN Sports which features live sports programming sourced by ATN from Doordarshan Sports.

With this acquisition, ATN plans to broadcast a total of 1115 days of LIVE Cricket for next 5 years with approximately 76 Test matches, 135 ODIs, 150 T20s & 450 domestic games across Canada. Cricket is the 2^nd most watched sport in the World & the fastest growing in Canada and this announcement will make many sports & cricket lovers happy & excited.

Viewers will be able to watch some of the best bi-lateral Cricket series in the World i.e.. India vs. South Africa, India vs. Australia, South Africa vs. Australia, Australia vs. England, South Africa vs. West Indies, India vs. Sri Lanka, Australia vs. New Zealand, India vs. West Indies and more…

"ATN was the first to bring the World Cup of Cricket Live Via satellite to Canada, which we did in 1987 and since then we are pleased that we have played a pioneering role in bringing the best of live International Cricket to the viewers of our cricket channels" said Dr. Shan Chandrasekar, President and CEO of ATN.

All the games will also be repeated on both channels for viewers who cannot watch the games LIVE. ATN is pleased to continue its collaboration with Willow in terms of the acquisition of the above rights.

About ATN - Asian Television Network International Limited:

ATN serves Canada's diverse cultural communities with 44 specialty television channels. The Company offers its flagship ATN-HD general interest service, 4 Bollywood movie channels and a variety of channels that include 3 sports Channels, 3 news Channels, 3 music Channels, 3 lifestyle Channels, 3 Chinese Channels, 6 Punjabi channels, and several regional language channels. ATN operates a South Asian Radio Service on Satellite Radio across The United States and Canada. Some ATN content is also available on any Bell mobile phone that supports video. ATN has programming alliances with leading international broadcasters like Star Network (News Corp), Sony Entertainment Television, Viacom, Times Television Network, B4U Network, NDTV and many more. ATN channels are available on various Cable, Satellite and IPTV Platforms across Canada like Shaw Cable, Bell TV, Rogers Cable, Bell Fibe TV, TELUS Optic TV, Cogeco Cable, V Media and Others.

SOURCE: Asian Television Network International Limited