Who will telecast the I-League 2015-16? Contradicting tweets cause confusion
THE I-LEAGUE 2015-16 is set to kick off in less than two weeks and despite big promises from AIFF, which formed a marketing committee to "aggressively" promote the league, there hasn't been much of any visible attempts to do so in the lead up to the season. The fixture list has been out for a while, but it was still unclear who was going to broadcast the nation's top division football league.
But something concrete happened on that front when the official I-League twitter handle announced Monday evening that the Ten Sports Network will be the official broadcaster of the league for this season.
#HeroILeague @ten_sports IS THE OFFICIAL BROADCASTER OF @ILeagueOfficial 2015-16. GRAB TV REMOTES. SAVE THE DATES. pic.twitter.com/xZ0LwUBUd7
— Hero I-League (@ILeagueOfficial) December 28, 2015
The Ten Sports Network has been associated with the I-League, and the National Football League that it was re-branded from, for multiple years now, and since have been the only pan-India channel to broadcast the league since its early years on DD Sports.
But then confusion arised again when Anant Tyagi, who hosts the show "Let's Football" on the Star Sports Network and served as a Hindi commentator during the ISL 2015, tweeted saying that the information tweeted by the I-League official handle was wrong, and it was Star Sports who would televise the league's upcoming season.
Mr. Tyagi also claimed that the league's matches will also be streamed on Hotstar.
The assertion came as a surprise to everyone because there has been no official announcement from Star Sports regarding this.
But if this is indeed the case, it's undoubtedly a good news for football lovers in India. The Star Sports Network has a reach considerably wider than the Ten Sports Network, and this will help further increase the I-League's viewership; something that has been on an upward swing on its own for the last 2-3 seasons.
UPDATE: Official sources have subsequently confirmed to TFG that it is indeed the Ten Sports Network that will broadcast the upcoming I-League season, and possibly the Federation Cup following that.
The Star Sports Network, however, is expected to broadcast the AFC Champions League qualifiers and AFC Cup matches involving the I-League clubs Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru FC.
Mr. Tyagi has since deleted his tweets on the matter.
