ESPN lands US rights to Indian Premier League

US sports broadcaster ESPN has acquired media rights for Twenty20 cricket competition the Indian Premier League.

The rights will run for three years, from 2015 to 2017, and were awarded by the marketing committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

The BCCI said that North American pay-television broadcaster Willow TV and Times Internet, the online and mobile arm of Indian publishing company Times Group, had also bid for the rights.

ESPN will pay $12.4m (€10.9m) over the three-year contract. Sanjay Patel, honorary secretary of the BCCI, said that the deal would deliver the widest reach ever for the IPL in the US.