ATN Presents IPL 2009

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[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\nTORONTO, March 26 /CNW/ - Asian Television Network International Limited\n(ATN) (TSX-SAT) announced today that it has secured the exclusive Canadian\nBroadcast rights for the second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).\n\n\n"IPL is the most exciting new phenomena in World Cricket and we are\ndelighted to acquire the exclusive Canadian broadcast rights," said Shan\nChandrasekar, President and CEO of ATN, Canada's pioneer South Asian\nBroadcaster. ATN is Canada's largest distributor of World Class Cricket\nincluding the 2007 ICC World Cup and the Twenty-20 World Cup.\n\n\nThe IPL will start on April 18, 2009. It is a tournament of elite\ninternational players in a league of cricket games on par with North America's\nNational Hockey League (NHL) or National Football League (NFL). Multinational\ncorporations, entrepreneurs and top Bollywood stars are lending their support\nto the league's eight teams. The international broadcasting rights for the IPL\n2009 were sold for almost a billon US dollars.\n\n\nATN will broadcast the 2009 games live on Pay Per View across Canada on\nBell TV (Bell ExpressVu), on Rogers Cable in parts of Ontario, and on Shaw\nCable in Western Canada.\n\n\n"We expect that the extraordinary combination of Cricket, big business\nand Bollywood stars will again make a massive impact on our television\nviewers," Mr. Chandrasekar said.\n\n\nThe 2nd season of IPL will be held in South Africa and the opening\nCeremony will be held in Cape Town, where the defending champions Rajasthan\nRoyals will play the first game. Johannesburg, Durban, Centurion, Port\nElizabeth, East London and Cape Town will also be host venues.\n\n\nThe new league continues to attract high profile investors. Shilpa Shetty\n(former Big Brother winner from British Television and Bollywood actress) and\na UK businessman have bought a 12 per cent stake in Rajasthan Royals, last\nyear's winning team which is captained and coached by Shane Warne. They paid\n$15.4 million USD for their stake, which puts the value of the Rajasthan\nfranchise at around $140 million USD, a significant increase on the $67\nmillion USD that its owners, Emerging Media, paid for it a year ago. Shetty\nthus becomes the third Bollywood star after Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta to\nbuy a stake in IPL teams.\n\n\nNew players to watch out this yea...

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