MUMBAI: News channels in India have been barred from carrying live footage of the matches to be played as part of the ICC World Twenty20 2012 in Sri Lanka, including warm-up matches.

The News Access Regulations, issued on Thursday by ICC Development (International) Ltd (IDI), the commercial arm of International Cricket Council, also restrict broadcast of fresh footage per "news day" to a maximum of 5.5 minutes during news programmes. News day is defined as the period of 24 hours from the commencement of the match concerned.

The world T20 matches will be played at Colombo, Hambantota and Pallekele from 12 September to 7 October 2012.

The broadcast of fresh footage is further subject to a maximum of two minutes per hour of broadcasting and it can be repeated for a maximum of two exhibitions per hour of broadcasting.

News broadcasters have been allowed to use fresh footage only after a minimum of 30-minute delay following the live broadcast of the footage by the official/host broadcaster. A senior official of the News Broadcasters Association told Indiantelevision.com that the matter would be taken up by the NBA over the next ?three to four days?.

Further, a news broadcaster can broadcast a maximum of six minutes of archival footage per news day during its news programmes. The use of archival footage is subject to a maximum of two minutes per hour of broadcasting and a maximum of four exhibitions per news day with not less than a two-hour interval between each exhibition.

Archival footage means any footage from a match that forms part of the World Twenty20 2012 (or previous editions of the Event) 24 hours after the completion of the match concerned and all match footage from previous cricket events owned by the ICC.

Any archival footage merged with fresh footage will be treated as fresh footage and count towards the overall permissible limits of use of footage permitted under the regulations. All fresh footage and archival footage must be used "as is", without alterations or modifications.

The use of fresh footage and archival footage is also strictly limited to use within news programmes. Use of any footage on sports segments, bulletins or features not forming part of the news programmes is not permitted.

News broadcasters are not permitted to use any footage to make their own compilation or ?mix? the footage with footage from other television events and sports events except in respect of archival footage.

No use of any footage is permitted in any circumstances for any commercial purposes. A news broadcaster can commercially exploit a news programme within which fresh footage and/or archival footage is broadcast as a whole, in the regular course, through normal advertising breaks usual in programming of news channels.

No advertising, sting, logo, graphic and/or any other commercial (morphing) activity can occur immediately before, immediately after or during the broadcast of fresh footage and/or archival footage and no association is created, suggested or implied between the use of fresh footage or archival footage and any third party brand or product.

No news programme that uses fresh footage and/or archival footage may have a ?title? or other sponsor and no advertisement may be used or repeated in the regular ad breaks during the programme in such a manner as to create, suggest or imply an association between the advertiser and the Footage or the Event.

News broadcasters may not include any advertising, sting, logo, graphic or any other commercial (morphing) activity carried out immediately before, immediately after or during any regular or real-time score updates in relation to any match, and no association may be created between such score update and any third party brand or product.

News broadcasters cannot also include any advertising, sting, logo, graphic or any other commercial (morphing) activity immediately before, immediately after or during any ?player-of-the-day?, ?event-of-the-day?, ?image-of-the-day? or similar feature relating to the event.

Courtesy bugs acknowledging IDI and ESPN Star Sports will have to be pasted by the news broadcasters, with due prominence, throughout the broadcast of any fresh and/or archival footage.

News broadcasters will also have to use the correct name of the event (being either ?ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012? or the shorter title ?ICC World Twenty20?) and the event logo in any and all broadcasts in which the event is mentioned or referred to, whether or not including the broadcast of any clips of fresh and/or archival footage.

News broadcasters will have to pay $800 for up to every 60 seconds of footage of the ICC world Twenty20 2012 matches and $1000 for every 60 seconds of archival footage.

MUMBAI: ESPN International has entered into a cricket distribution agreement with ESPN Star Sports (ESS) for International Cricket Council (ICC) events and the Champions League Twenty20 for the Caribbean market, ESPN Caribbean and Maritime Media vice president Bernard Stewart announced.

The development comes in the wake of ESPN exiting the Asian market after selling its stake to News Corp in the Asian sports broadcasting joint venture ESPN Star Sports. Post the clearance of the stake sale, ESPN will be present in Asia through its digital media products.

The ICC agreement is a four-year deal from 2012 to 2015 and covers several ICC events, including the global showpiece of the cricket calendar, the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

The distribution agreement covers terrestrial, cable, satellite and new media platform rights. ICC programming will be presented on two ESPN Caribbean television networks--ESPN Caribbean and ESPN 2 Caribbean-- and on ESPNPlay.com, the region?s recently launched broadband network for live sports programming.

The Champions League Twenty20 agreement extends ESPN?s current three-year deal by three more years covering 2013-2015. The agreement covers all of ESPN Caribbean?s media platforms including the two networks, ESPN Caribbean and ESPN 2 Caribbean, and ESPNPlay.com.

?We are delighted to again showcase talented cricketers from the West Indies who will play in the ICC World Twenty20 and the Champions League Twenty20 later this year, as well as the crown jewel of cricket ? the ICC Cricket World Cup ? in 2015,? Stewart said. ?Cricket is essential to our programming in the West Indies and has a dynamic following there. This long-term agreement reinforces our commitment to providing world-class cricket to Caribbean fans.?

ESPN Caribbean?s upcoming cricket coverage includes the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup in Tony Ireland Stadium, Townsville, Australia from 10-25 August; the ICC World Twenty 20 in Sri Lanka from 18 September-7 October; and the Champions League Twenty20 in October.

The Champions League Twenty20 brings the best club teams from top cricket playing nations, including the West Indies, Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa, together in one of the major cricket competitions worldwide. Organisers have announced that Pakistan and other nations will be added this year.

The winner of the Caribbean Twenty20 ? to which ESPN Caribbean holds the rights through 2013 ? will represent the West Indies in the CLT20. Trinidad and Tobago, the 2011 representative, will return this year.

?We have succeeded in securing some very significant long-term broadcast partnerships for the ICC events and we are very pleased to be working with ESPN to showcase an exciting calendar of ICC cricket events in this cricket market,? said ESS SVP corporate development & cricket rights Anurag Dahiya.

MUMBAI: Sri Lankan Cricket (SLC), the governing body of cricket in the country, has signed a fresh deal with Singapore-based Somerset Entertainment Ventures for its ambitious franchise based T20 league that had failed to take off last year.

As per the new deal, the tournament will be held between 10-31 August ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka in September, according to ESPNCricinfo.

SEV had entered into a five-year deal with SLC to acquire the commercial rights of SLPL, but the deal became void as the interim committee of SLC that had signed the deal was replaced.

The new deal also addresses concerns raised by a Committee on Public Enterprises report regarding some of the clauses in the contract. The agreement has been cleared by the office of the Sri Lankan attorney general.

The inaugural edition of the SLPL was supposed to be held from 19 July to 4 August but it did not take-off due to Indian cricket board?s reluctance to grant NoC to its players to participate in the league.

The BCCI had at that time contended that the contract with SEV does not safeguard the financial interests of the Indian players. The BCCI also suspected that former IPL chairman Lalit Modi had interests in SLPL, a charge that was vehemently denied by both SEV and SLC.

As for the format of the event, the SLPL will have seven teams who will play each other in a round-robin format followed by semi-finals and finals. The games are expected to be played at Colombo and Kandy.

MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced that the last three days of the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE 2012 will be shown live by ESPN Star Sports. This is the first time that there will be live broadcast of an ICC Development event online and on television to a global audience.

Six matches from 22-24 March will be shown live from the Dubai International Cricket Stadium online at www.espnstar.com/live. The ICC has also secured live television coverage of these games into key territories via ESPN Star Sports and its licensees around the globe. A full broadcast list will be circulated at a later date.

This will be the first time that an ICC Development event, featuring only the Associate and Affiliate Members, will be shown on a live global television broadcast.

The ICC said this represents a breakthrough to expose cricket outside the traditional Test playing countries and, aligned with the ICC?s Strategic Plan, is an important step in promoting cricket to become a bigger, better global game.

The ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE 2012 is a 16-team global event that will be played in the UAE from 13-24 March. The top two sides will progress to the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012, to be staged in Colombo, Hambantota and Pallekele from 18 September to 7 October, where they will have the potential opportunity to face Australia, England, India and West Indies.

Among the six live matches that will be broadcast from the Dubai International Cricket Stadium are the first qualifying final, the preliminary final, the second qualifying final and the overall event final.

ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat said, "We are delighted that the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE 2012 can be watched live on television and online broadcast. We would like to thank our broadcast partner, ESPN STAR Sports, and our licensees for their splendid commitment to help us grow the game across the world and for their recognition of the growing interest in the sport outside of the Test playing world. This is an important part of our global strategy."

ESS senior VP, corporate development and cricket rights Anurag Dahiya said, "We are pleased to be working with the ICC to ensure that six matches from this important qualification tournament are shown across the world via our digital platform espnstar.com. We have already seen through our broadcast of recent ICC events, how well the likes of Afghanistan and Ireland have competed against some of the best players in the world, so it will be exciting to see these teams battle it out with some of the other leading Associate and Affiliate teams and allow our viewers to watch matches between nations that they may have never seen play cricket before."

MUMBAI: The Bangladesh Premier League, a format borrowed from the cash-rich Indian Premier League, has roped in ESPN Star Sports as the official broadcaster of the tourney.

The Asian sports network has acquired the telecast rights of BPL for a period of three years, starting 2012 running through to 2014.

ESS will showcase the tournament across Asia, along with Channel 9 which will broadcast the tournament domestically in Bangladesh.

The matches will be telecast live on Star Cricket and Star Sports.

The BPL will feature six teams - Barisal Burners, Chittagong Kings, Khulna Royal Bengals, Sylhet Royals, Dhaka Gladiators and Duronto Rajshahi.

The six teams will play each other twice in a round-robin format over 33 matches held in Chittagong and Dhaka.

As the biggest cricketing event of Bangladesh, BPL will feature some of the top names in cricket from around the globe with 21 days of non-stop world class cricket action and entertainment.

ESS director-programming Joyee Biswas said, ?We are delighted to support the expansion of T20 to Bangladesh by bringing this exciting new tournament to cricket fans in Asia.

?As the rights holder for some of the globe?s best cricket events including ICC World T20, CL T20, India-Australia test matches, ODI tri-series between Australia, India and Sri Lanka, and England-Australia ODIs, we are pleased to add Bangladesh Premier League to our portfolio of top cricket coverage.?

Channel 9 MD Enayetur Rahman said, ?As the first GEC channel of Bangladesh with a mix of Sports and Entertainment, and the producer of BPL T20, we are pleased to partner with ESPN STAR Sports to bring BPL to cricket lovers and look forward to a long term relationship.?

Running from 9-29 February, the tournament will feature a mix of 1-2 matches per day. On days when two games are played, the first match will begin at 2 pm local time followed by the second match at 6.30 pm.

In addition to the Icon player from Bangladesh, each team is allowed nine foreign players, five of whom can play per match per team. The opening ceremony of BPL will commence at 5 pm local time today.