Warner Bros. Discovery Signs Five-Year Indian Cricket Rights Deal for U.K., Ireland – Global Bulletin

Naman Ramachandran
·4 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

CRICKET RIGHTS

Warner Bros. Discovery, the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Pitch International have signed a package of rights that will see them broadcast live international cricket hosted in India on its linear and digital platforms, TNT Sports and Discovery+, for the next five years. The deal, which is for the U.K. and Ireland territory, kicks off with the England-India men’s test series, which commences Jan. 25 and continues through February.

The deal, a value for which was not disclosed, covers every red ball (test matches) and white ball (One Day Internationals and T20s) series played in India for the next five years. Besides the England series, they include:

More from Variety

September 2024: Bangladesh tour of India – 2 x Tests, 3 x T20s
October 2024: New Zealand tour of India – 3 x Tests
January 2025: England tour of India – 3 x ODIs, 5 x T20s
October 2025: West Indies tour of India – 2 x Tests
November-December 2025: South Africa tour of India – 2 x Tests, 3 x ODIs, 5 x T20s
February 2026: New Zealand tour of India – 3 x ODIs, 5 x T20s
June 2026: Afghanistan tour of India – 1 x Test, 3 x ODIs
September 2026: West Indies tour of India – 3 x ODIs, 5 x T20s
December 2026: Sri Lanka tour of India – 3 x ODIs, 3 x T20s
January 2027: Australia tour of India – 5 x Tests
November-December 2027: Australia tour of India – 3 x ODIs, 5 x ODIs
January-February 2028: England tour of India – 5 x Tests

FILMING

Epic series “Gandhi,” depicting the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi, has commenced filming in Gujarat, western India, where he was born. The multi-season series will be shot across Indian and international locations. Directed by Hansal Mehta (“Scoop”) and starring Pratik Gandhi (“Scam 1992”), is produced by Applause Entertainment in association with Applause Productions.

HIP-HOP

Indian hip-cop stars DIVINE and Karan Aujla have collaborated for the first time on single “100 Million.” Aujla is known for chartbusters “Softly,” “White Brown Black,” “Mexico” and “Players,” while DIVINE, a driving force on the soundtrack of 2019 Berlinale selection “Gully Boy,” has hits including “Mirchi,” “359 AM,” “Baazigar” and “Chal Bombay.”

Watch the video directed by Rupan Bal, Dilpreetvfx and Anmol Raina.

TIME TRAVEL

Netflix has licensed award-winning time loop drama series “Rebooting” from Japan’s Nippon Television, for streaming in APAC countries starting Friday.

“Rebooting” aired on Nippon TV from January to March 2023 and went on to receive Nippon TV’s record-making number of views on VOD all throughout the year. Due to popular demand, in December 2023 Nippon TV re-aired the full 10-episode series for viewers to binge-watch over the holidays as well as making the series available on the national VOD platform, TVer, for a limited time.

Netflix also started airing the show in Japan in December. The expanded coverage extends now to include Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia.

The show’s awards haul includes prizes from ContentAsia, Content Innovation, Asian Academy Creative Awards and most recently the Asian Television Awards 2024 recognition for best scriptwriting.

UPWARDS TRAJECTORY

Korea’s Kakao Entertainment has appointed the current chief operations officer Kisu Kweon and global strategy officer Joseph Chang as its new co-CEOs. The appointments will be formalized after both a board meeting and a general shareholders’ meeting.

Kweon previously served as chief finance officer of Daum Communications in 2013, and later headed management support at Kakao M. Kweon is currently COO and the head of the music content business at Kakao Entertainment. Notably, Kweon served as the CFO during the merger of Daum Communications and Kakao in 2014.

Chang joined the company in 2021 having previously been the CEO of Sony Music Entertainment Korea. He is currently the Global Strategy Officer at Kakao Entertainment, CEO of the integrated corporation in North America, and chief business officer of SM Entertainment, which Kakao bought into last year after a tussle with rival Hybe Corp.

Part of the Kakao Corp. tech group, Kakao Entertainment was formed in 2021 through the merger of webtoon firm Kakao Page, Kakao M, and Melon, Korea’s leading music streaming platform.

Best of Variety

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.