iStream acquires exclusive internet rights of India-SL cricket series from Sporty Solutionz

Online video service iStream.com has acquired the exclusive live streaming and video on demand rights for India for the Micromax Cup India-Sri Lanka series starting July 21 in Sri Lanka.

The deal was signed with Sporty Solutionz, which has got exclusive Internet and mobile rights for this series, from Ten Sports. All the six day-night matches starting at 2:30 pm (IST) will be streamed live on iStream.com. The matches will also be available on demand for a month after the tournament.

Apart from the matches, iStream viewers will be able to watch special programming around the tournament, including pre and post-match highlights, team statistics, player profiles, trivia and other related clips. By integrating social features, iStream will allow Facebook users to live-chat on the site while the matches are played and 'like' or 'tweet' any clip or statistics.

Radhakrishnan Ramachandran, founder and CEO, iStream said, "We saw tremendous response to UEFA Euro 2012, which we streamed exclusively in India. This series will further strengthen our sports vertical on iStream.com. We plan to bring in more such exclusive partnerships in the online video space".

Talking about the partnership,  Ashish Chadha , chief executive officer of Sporty Solutionz, said, "iStream with its unique technology delivery platform, live-streaming of the matches will be altogether a great experience for the Indian cricket fans."

In November, 2011, iStream.com raised $ 5 million from PE firm Saif Partners.  In March, iStream launched a  free video app for Windows 8 that enables users to get access to videos across news, TV and movies in English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu. iStream is India's first and only video app to be featured in the Windows 8 app store, according to the company.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)