The 10th edition of Hero Indian Super League will bring along major changes in the broadcasting of the competition. The new official broadcasters are set to be the Viacom18 network owned by Reliance Industries who also have a stake in FSDL (Football Sports Development Limited) the company owning the Indian premier division. Previously, Star Sports Network was the one broadcasting the league. STAR (Satellite Television Asian Region) was supposed to be the official broadcaster for the 10th season similar to the previous nine seasons as they had a 10-year deal in place, but there seems to be some change of plans.
The ISL fixtures are set to be televised on Sports 18 and the digital streaming option would be through JioCinema. This could mean substantial improvement in the broadcast quality as JioCinema did a fantastic job with the FIFA World Cup and especially the Indian Premier League which was available in 12 different regional languages and varied options of commentary and camera angles. The news was published by The Telegraph on Monday.
Earlier, Viacom18 also secured rights for the Olympic Games 2024, La Liga, Serie A, and Ligue 1. They have been going aggressively in the market to challenge the previous duopoly of Star Sports Network and Sony Pictures Network.
The 10th Edition of ISL would be larger than ever with Roundglass Punjab FC, the champions of the I-League getting promoted to the first division, making it a 12-team league. The promotion campaign of the league has already been taken into hands by Reliance. After a lot of ignorance from the Star Network, it would be interesting to see what they have in store for Indian football fans. And if would they be able to channel the newly boosted enthusiasm of the fans due to the national team’s recent success.
