DD Sports to broadcast India’s tour of West Indies

NEW DELHI: DD Sports, the main public sports broadcaster in the country, will televise India's tour of the West Indies, scheduled to take place from July 22 to August 7, as part of an exclusive deal with live streaming and e-commerce platform FanCode.

This will be the first time in 15 years that DD Sports will exclusively host an away series involving India. In April 2021, FanCode became the first-ever digital platform to sign a four-year deal with Cricket West Indies (CWI), bagging exclusive broadcast rights for almost 150 international and 250 domestic cricket matches in the Caribbean till 2024.

The deal also includes the upcoming India men's tour of the West Indies, consisting of three ODIs and five T20Is, where the matches will be live-streamed on the FanCode app. To ensure that the television-only audiences do not miss out on India's tour of the West Indies, FanCode has offered TV rights to DD Sports to now be available on all Cable and DTH platforms, apart from DD FreeDish.

"Cricket is the undisputed leader in sports and entertainment in India. Even in the fast-growing digital age, there continues to be a significant market and audience for sports consumption on television, and we are glad to bring the upcoming India tour of the West Indies to the masses through DD Sports," said Mayank Kumar Agrawal, CEO, Prasar Bharati.

"While FanCode is building a unique digital experience for sports fans, their extension of rights to DD Sports will mean wider access to all sports fans for the series," he added.

The series will be played during prime-time slots in India, with ODIs starting at 7 pm IST and T20Is starting from 8 pm IST. While the ODIs will be played entirely in Port of Spain, Trinidad, the T20Is will be played at Trinidad, St Kitts & Nevis and Lauderhill, Florida.

Speaking further on the development, Prasana Krishnan, Co-Founder, FanCode said, "FanCode's single-most objective is to provide superlative user experience and solution for accessibility gaps fans to witness in sports consumption and experience, in line with the government's vision to transform India's adaptability for digital through initiatives like Digital India."

"DD Sports' reach in smaller cities and towns is unbeatable, making it the ideal platform to televise the India tour of West Indies, while we continue to build a superior digital experience for fans nationally."