Sports
Eurosport bags UK rights for Champions League Twenty20
MUMBAI: British Eurosport has bagged the rights to broadcast the inaugural edition of the Airtel Champions League Twenty20 tournament in the UK.
ESPN Star Sports (ESS) is the global rights holder of the property that will be played in India from 8 to 23 October.
The bipartite agreement is part of a pan-European deal which will also see the event broadcast on Eurosport 2 throughout the continent.
Under the agreement, British Eurosport will have access to the TV, internet, VoD and mobile rights of the event and will also broadcast matches exclusively live on its online service.
British Eurosport director David Kerr says, “Following the acquisition of the US PGA Tour, Golden League Athletics and GP2 series, our UK offer gets stronger and stronger for British audiences and we look forward to welcoming yet more new viewers to the channel.”
ESS MD Manu Sawhney says, “Matching the prestige of the tournament, we are committed to produce and present this global property in the most entertaining and engaging manner to audiences around the world.”
Sports
Diamond Raja gets the Sunrisers dancing in Netflix’s latest IPL campaign film
Sunil Grover’s beloved character pulls the Hyderabad squad into an alternate universe in the newest instalment of Netflix’s Chill Like a Champion series
Mumbai: The final over is done, the bats are racked and the Sunrisers Hyderabad dressing room is ready for its real entertainment to begin. Netflix, the official entertainment partner of the Sunrisers, has dropped the latest film in its Chill Like a Champion campaign, and it is loud, daft and very deliberate fun.
The film opens with the squad unwinding after a long day on the field by tuning into Netflix, where they stumble into Diamond Raja, Sunil Grover’s scene-stealing avatar from The Great Indian Kapil Show. One moment they are slumped on sofas; the next, they have been pulled bodily into Diamond Raja’s world, all high-energy choreography, theatrical excess and a custom, lyrically reworked version of his signature song, Slowly Slowly. The rewrite doubles as a tongue-in-cheek nudge to slow down, switch off and enjoy the moment. Cricketers Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head are all swept along for the ride.
The film is stuffed with winks at fan-favourite Netflix titles, including Pushpa and the K-drama When Life Gives You Tangerines, threading cricket’s biggest downtime into the streamer’s broader content universe.
Grover, for his part, seems to have relished every second of it. “Netflix has certainly surprising ways to inspire and excite you as an artist,” he said. “This collaboration brought together the best of two worlds, cricket and entertainment. Coming together with the stellar cricketers Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head was such a delightful experience. Getting to bring Diamond Raja into this mix was an interesting way to make this even more special. It is playful, happy, it is dramatic, and it shows how entertainment can completely pull you into another world. Just like what Netflix does.”
The Chill Like a Champion campaign spans several films, each catching cricket’s biggest names in their post-match, unheroic best, hooked to a screen and very much off the clock. The Sunrisers film is the latest addition to the series.
Netflix describes itself as one of the world’s leading entertainment services, offering TV series, films, games and live programming across genres and languages, available anytime, anywhere.
Diamond Raja is back, the Sunrisers are dancing and, if Netflix has its way, so is the rest of India.
