ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said on Wednesday that the media rights for the upcoming 2024 and 2025 editions of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) saw a “massive increase” when their bidding took place this week.
The PSL is Pakistan’s premium men’s T20 cricket franchise founded by the PCB in 2015. A mix of local and foreign players take part in every edition of the league, which features six teams, each named after a Pakistani city.
Over the years, the PSL has grown to become arguably Pakistan’s most popular sports brand and is compared with other international cricket leagues such as the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Big Bash League (BBL).
The ninth edition of the PSL is set to kick off in February and will last till March 2024.
“HBL Pakistan Super League had yet another historic day on Tuesday, when its live-streaming and broadcast rights saw an increase of 113 and 45 percent for the 2024 and 2025 editions, respectively,” the PCB said in a statement.
The board said ARY Communications (Pvt) Limited submitted the highest bid, in response to a public tender process, to broadcast the 2024 and 2025 editions of the league in Pakistan.
It saw a “whopping increase” of 45 percent from the value for the last two years, the board added.
Bids were also received from the Independent Media Corporation Pvt. Ltd, the Pakistan Television Corporation Limited (PTVC) and Tower Sports (Ten Sports) to broadcast the PSL.
Pakistani influencer marketing platform Walee Technologies, meanwhile, won the highest bid to live-stream PSL 2024 and 2025 in Pakistan, which saw a huge increase of 113 percent from the value for the last two years, the PCB disclosed.
Other bids for live-streaming the league were received from the Consortium of ARY Communications (ARY, Myco, Daraz and Tamasha), TransGroup FZE, Independent Media Corporation Pvt. Ltd. (IMC) and Tower Sports (Ten Sports).
“HBL PSL is a huge brand and it has a massive fan following,” Zaka Ashraf, chairman of the PCB’s managing committee, said in a statement.
“It is an unprecedented moment as the prices for both of these rights are unmatched. This is a testament to the growth of the HBL PSL brand and we are all waiting for HBL PSL 9 to begin now.”
PCB announces ‘massive increase’ in premium cricket league’s media rights for 2024, 2025
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PCB announces ‘massive increase’ in premium cricket league’s media rights for 2024, 2025
- Pakistan Super League’s live-streaming, broadcast rights see increase of 113 and 45 percent respectively
- ARY Communications, Walee Technologies win rights to broadcast and live-stream league respectively
Imran Khan not a ‘national security threat,’ ex-PM’s party responds to Pakistan military
- Pakistan’s military spokesperson on Friday described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat”
- PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan says words used by military spokesperson for Khan were “not appropriate”
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Saturday responded to allegations by Pakistan military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry from a day earlier, saying that he was not a “national security threat.”
Chaudhry, who heads the military’s media wing as director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), spoke to journalists on Friday, in which he referred to Khan as a “mentally ill” person several times during the press interaction. Chaudhry described Khan’s anti-army narrative as a “national security threat.”
The military spokesperson was responding to Khan’s social media post this week in which he accused Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir of being responsible for “the complete collapse of the constitution and rule of law in Pakistan.”
“The people of Pakistan stand with Imran Khan, they stand with PTI,” the party’s secretary-general, Salman Akram Raja, told reporters during a news conference.
“Imran Khan is not a national security threat. Imran Khan has kept the people of this country united.”
Raja said there were several narratives in the country, including those that created tensions along ethnic and sectarian lines, but Khan had rejected all of them and stood with one that the people of Pakistan supported.
PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan, flanked by Raja, criticized the military spokesperson as well, saying his press talk on Thursday had “severely disappointed” him.
“The words that were used [by the military spokesperson] were not appropriate,” Gohar said. “Those words were wrong.”
‘NATURAL OUTCOME’
Speaking to reporters earlier on Saturday, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif defended the military spokesperson’s remarks against Khan.
“When this kind of language is used for individuals as well as for institutions, then a reaction is a natural outcome,” he said.
“The same thing is happening on the Twitter accounts being run in his [Khan’s] name. If the DG ISPR has given any reaction to it, then I believe it was a very measured reaction.”
Khan, who was ousted after a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022, blames the country’s powerful military for removing him from power by colluding with his political opponents. Both deny the allegations.
The former prime minister, who has been in prison since August 2023 on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated, also alleges his party was denied victory by the army and his political rivals in the 2024 general election through rigging.
The army and the government both deny his allegations.
