Cricket Hong Kong’s host broadcaster for this weekend’s World Sixes "has secured a potential audience of 180 million across all media platforms around the world" -- including India -- but organizers "will be happy" if they can exceed the 12 million online views they received for March’s Hong Kong T20 Blitz, according to Nazvi Careem of the SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST. Global TV sports producer and distributor Sunset+Vine "landed some big-name broadcasters for the revived tournament," to be held this weekend at the Kowloon Cricket Club. These include BT Sport in the U.K., Neo Sports in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Fox Sports in Australia, Fox Sports Asia and Sky New Zealand, among others. CHK broadcast consultant Gary Burchett hailed Sunset+Vine for signing 21 partners "in just over three weeks." Burchett said, "We have a live audience reach of 180 million but we’re not going to get that many eyeballs. The 2017 Blitz received 12 million views and we would like to think that with this established event we can comfortably eclipse what we did in the Blitz. That was five days of content while the Sixes is two days of cricket. The last time the Sixes was on, in 2012, live streaming was not really a concept." Apart from broadcast partners, the 22 matches over the two days will be shown live on Facebook and YouTube, "while fans can also watch the action and obtain updates" on a CHK mobile app. A "major boost for the tournament is landing broadcasters Neo Sports and D Sports in India, with a potential audience of tens of millions" (SCMP, 10/25).
