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Follow UsVANCOUVER: Live Current Media Inc., a media company built around content and commerce destinations, announced that www.IPLT20.com, the official website of the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) developed, managed and monetized by Live Current, was the fourth most accessed sports site worldwide on mobile phones in May 2008, ahead of www.ESPN.com and www.Cricinfo.com, according to a recent report from Web browser development firm Opera Software.
Opera’s “State of the Mobile Web, May 2008” report is based on users of Opera Mini mobile Web browsers in 10 countries including India, United States, China, United Kingdom and South Africa.
Additionally, a new Gartner Research report on the Indian mobile market highlights the massive opportunity for mobile applications and services:
* India is the fastest growing telecom market in the world; 8.6 million new mobile subscribers were added in May alone, driven by sales of 10,000 handsets per hour
* India's mobile subscriber base is set to hit 737 million by 2012, growing around 21 percent annually
* Data services will grow faster than voice, growing 26 percent annually through 2012
“The strength and popularity of the IPL coupled with the rapidly-growing Indian mobile market, validate our recent partnership with netlinkblue to expand our agreement with the IPL and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to include the exclusive worldwide mobile rights and the live streaming rights,” says Mark Melville, acting CEO of Cricket.com and Chief Corporate Development Officer of Live Current.
Live Current plans to launch the official website for the BCCI (www.BCCI.tv) in late summer to coincide with the Indian National Team’s summer tour of Sri Lanka. It plans to launch a beta version of www.Cricket.com as the global gateway of cricket by fall 2008.
The company is also developing a custom IPL application for the Apple iPhone, set for launch in late 2008. This application will leverage Live Current’s exclusive digital assets in a similar manner as Major League Baseball’s “MLB at Bat”, a top five paid application in the first week of the iTunes application store launch.
Live Current recently secured 10-year digital media content, live streaming and mobile rights for the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). IPLT20.com was launched by Live Current on April 18, 2008, the first day of the IPL’s inaugural season. The website garnered tremendous fan excitement and engagement, generating more than 50 million page views and 5.2 million unique visitors during the IPL’s first season.
“This bodes well for next season when the IPL website will be complemented by Cricket.com and BCCI.tv, and by having these sites indexed by the major search engines,” adds Geoffrey Hampson, CEO of Live Current. “We have secured hugely valuable rights for the most popular sport in the rapidly emerging Indian market at a time when the sport of cricket is undergoing transformational events that will shape it as one of the world’s leading spectator sports.”