Live cricket in cinema halls sounded exciting but unbelievable before the advent of India’s Twetny-20 extravaganza. But like many things that were considered impossible before, but made possible through Indian Premier League, live cricket in the multiplexes throughout India became a reality too! With IPL going overseas this year, a large section of the audience hoped to catch it on the big screen! But as the things turned out yesterday, this seems to be remote possibility for cricket loving crowd in India-here is why.

It is a fantastic idea to watch the live cricket twenty20 matches on the big screen when you fail to manage a ticket to the stadium or can’t hop to another city to watch your favorite match live. And with IPL traveling to foreign lands this year, theater owners were dreaming of a higher income potential form the screening of the matches, as very few would be lucky enough to travel all the way to South Africa for catching up with their favorite tournament. But that is not going to be the case; thanks to a demanding Sony, who in turn had to cough up extra bucks amounting to millions to retain the broadcasting rights. “It didn’t work out. That’s all I know about the matter,” an Indian Premier League official was quoted responding to cricket news media. This year, the initial response from the theater owners was great with big names such as UTV, PVR and Group M there contending for the theatrical telecast rights. But the excitement soon died out following an expensive and impractical terms of Sony that involved a very expensive contract that will be valid for only one year. INOX vice-president (distribution and programming) Utpal Acharya said, just like the previous year, this year too, INOX had approached Sony for the theatrical rights. But Sony informed that this year the matter would be handled by a separate body and tenders would be invited through it. But as of now, tenders were not opened. It is clearly Sony’s high demands that are going to keep IPL off multiplexes. The media giant asked for a whopping 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore per screening. But the multiplex owners bogged down by the fee as big as this and tax is not the one to oblige. And the result – Indian audience are most likely to miss the chances of catching it up live on the big screens.

However, the multiplex owners are not giving up hopes yet. “Given the embargo by producers on releasing films, it will be the key to have an alternate programming strategy and Indian Premier League clearly takes the lead in filling the slots besides short film festivals, foreign language film screenings. We plan to talk to the broadcaster directly to obtain rights to screen the matches at our multiplex,” Anand Vishal, vice-president, marketing, Fun Cinemas said.

With IPL moving out of India, nothing other than the multiplexes could have provided the Indian audience with better live experience. And the theater owners might have dreamt of big business opportunities with this relocation. The Indian Premier League supreme Lalit Modi too recognized the need of the cricket fans and opportunities of the theater owners. But in their row of profit sharing, Indian cricket lovers are going to be deprived of great viewing experience! Can’t our all-powerful IPL chief do something to break the ice to bring the Indian audience some spectacular IPL moments?
Source – cricket360.com